I am going to try to do better this week at blogging. It’s been a week since I blogged last and, even though there has not been much going on this last week, I still need to post my thoughts.
Last Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the concert of the Singing Churchmen of Oklahoma. This choir is made up of music ministers from Baptist churches all across Oklahoma . Their music is pretty much old-southern gospel…..with a beat. The concert was held at the Village Baptist Church in north OKC. I had a great time and enjoyed some exceptional music…these guys are great!
After a long day at the office on Friday, I took my wife and daughter out for dinner and then we all crashed at the house and watched TV…..exciting huh?
I was up early Saturday morning to get prepared for a meeting in Hinton, Okla. The State Executive Director of Fire Corps was going to meet with us and his team and go over some areas our team could assist in with their team. We met for around 4 hours on Saturday and went over some information with them. All in all, it was a great meeting and it looks like we have a great opportunity to work with them in the coming weeks.
Yesterday was the exciting day….yes, my day of rest turned into a day full of excited and some anxiety. I was up early Sunday morning, working on the power point for the morning worship service. I woke Karla up at around 7 am, so she could get around and get ready for church. I heard her get into the shower as I still worked, but when I was finished my power point, I decided to check on her to make sure she was getting ready. I went into the bedroom to check on her and she had gone back to bed.
I tried to wake her, but she was not responding. I immediately woke up Gayla and had her come and help wake Karla up. When she did barely wake up, she was barely coherent. Her breathing was normal, but she complained of a severe headache and pain in her side. When I asked her what was wrong, she just replied she was tired and needed rest. Then, she started calling for her mom (who passed away three years ago). I knew then that she was exhausted and needed rest. Since she was breathing ok, I had Gayla stay with her, while I went on to church.
Once I got to church, I still had her on my mind. Our former pastor from many years ago, George Brock III, was going to be preaching during the morning and evening service, so I needed to be there. When I arrived and started to get the sound set up for the service, I ran into a major problem. It seems as if our fan, that keeps the sound system cooled, was not working properly, so the sound system would not stay on. We had to go to plan B.
I only had about 20 minutes to get things working, so I got several men together and we started piecing together a portable sound system to use for the service. We used the mixer from the choir room, the speakers and stands from the fellowship hall…and various cords, etc, from other parts of the church. By the time service started, I had everything all set up and plugged in. As I operated the portable system during the service, I sent Gayla a text, telling her to text me when Karla woke up. About 15 minutes into the service, she called me, in tears, informing me that Karla would not respond. I immediately grabbed my stuff and another church member took me home.
Upon arrival, I checked on Karla. Gayla was able to get her dressed, but she still wasn’t very coherent and still did not know where she was. I called 911 and they sent OCFD and EMSA out. I was not sure what was wrong, but I did notice symptoms of a stroke, so I was very concerned. As the paramedics worked on her, they were able to talk to her and get more information from her. Her blood pressure was elevated and she still had a very severe headache. They transported her to St. Anthony Hospital to get checked out. When she arrived by EMSA, she was more coherent and able to talk. They took her back to a room, gave her morphine for her headache and blood pressure medicine to bring her pressure back down and then took her to have a CT scan done. The CT scan was normal. Her blood pressure finally dropped down and her headache started going away, so they decided it was safe to release her.
The church member that brought me home, brought my truck to the hospital so I would have a way home. Karla and Gayla rode with mom and dad (I had called them and they came to the house) and they took her home. I went by Arby’s and got us something to eat. When I got home, Karla had realized that she forgot to take her blood pressure medicine on Saturday, so that’s why she woke up so sick Sunday morning. We both ate, she took her medicine and went to bed. I took about an hour nap before I headed back to the church. Gayla stayed with Karla while I was gone and our neighbor across the street fixed us dinner. Because of the church service and a meeting I had after church, I did not get home until after 9 pm.
Today, I am working until 10 am. The new fire recruits with the Oklahoma City Fire Dept. will be participating in a live-burn training today. I participated in this several years ago and it was a blast. They actually allowed me to put on bunker gear and go into a burning building. It was so much fun and a great learning experience. Myself and our CFAAA President will be attending this exercise. I am really looking forward to it.
www.centralokreact.org
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