I also wanted to go home so bad. I just wanted 2 hours at home. I wanted to take a nap at home and I wanted
to clean up and pack my own stuff and pack things for Eli and Evan. Thankfully, I was partially packed and had a
packing list laid out just in case Kendall needed to run home for our
things. Of course they told me No, I
couldn’t go home. Kendall ran home and
gathered the things on the list. He
called the boys on the way back to the hospital and reported to me that they
sounded “indifferent” about the whole thing.
That was a relief and I realized that there was nothing I could do but
trust God and our friends to take care of them.
The nurses came in and told me that the plane would be at
the airport for me in a half an hour.
That is super fast. I had been
categorized as an “obstetrical emergency” and moved high on the list. Before I knew it, I was dressed in billowing
hospital garb and walking out to the ambulance in the garage. They said I didn’t have to lie down in the
back and said that I could sit wherever I wanted to. So I asked if I could drive. They said, “Sure!” but somehow I still ended
up in the back. Kendall got to ride
shotgun.
When we turned out of the hospital parking lot, the driver turned
on the siren. Right away, the EMT in the
back told him to turn it off. I heard
the EMT explaining to the nurse in the back that for the extra seconds the siren
buys, the sense of emergency and stress it raises for the patient isn’t worth
it. I sat in the jump seat facing the
front. As we sped down the highway, I
could see cars pulling over as we passed.
I realized that the lights were on for me. It was a weird feeling. I don’t know that I’ve ever even been inside
an ambulance on a field trip! It was a
beautiful, warm day and I remember feeling annoyed that I had missed it being inside.
At the airport, the ambulance drove out onto the tarmac
where the medical evacuation plane was waiting for us. It was such a surreal feeling as I crawled
out of the ambulance and stood waiting in the warm wind and sunshine to board
the plane. On the plane, the nurse that
was accompanying us wanted me to lie down.
So they strapped me to a stretcher.
I was on my side and could look out the window. Every few minutes the nurse listened to Baby
with the Doppler. Baby did fine on the
ride. After 45 minutes or so we landed
at the airport in Winnipeg. I walked off
the plane and was loaded onto another stretcher and into another
ambulance. This time we flew through the
city with the sirens blaring. By 6:30 or
so we were pulling into the hospital parking lot. I was taken right to a room in the high risk
labor and delivery unit and wished luck by the EMTs and the nurse who came with
us from Red Lake.
