Scary moments

As you may - or may not - know, I dropped out of the Atlanta 2 Day Walk around mile 15 on the first day. My feet were killing me and I was getting some blisters. I knew if I wanted to walk the entire 10 miles on Sunday I would have to stop and do something about my issues.

I got on a sweep van and left mom to complete the walk.

When I got on the van, the driver told me he could drop me off at the last "b-rest stop" and I could wait on mom. That sounded like a great idea! It was only 2 miles to the finish line and I could finish Saturday with mom.

We picked up a couple of walkers around mile 17. Let's call them Blondie and The Model (she was GORGEOUS!) Blondie didn't look like she was feeling very well and The Model looked concerned. They wanted to head back to the hotel, but our van was only going to the last stop. The driver said they could catch another van there and it would take the rest of the way.

While at the last stop I got to thinking about mom. What if she decided to stop and take a van back to the hotel? I would be waiting for a couple of hours not knowing she had left the walk. She would be back at the hotel wondering where I was. She didn't have a cell phone and mine was running low on battery power. I decided to hop on the van back to the hotel with Blondie, The Model and about 5 other ladies.

As we were riding, Blondie started getting really agitated. Back at the b-rest stop she started coughing and feeling pretty bad - nauseous bad. She was sipping on PowerAid, but it didn't seem to be helping. Now that we were on the van, she started to really go down hill. Her face turned PURPLE and she started coughing and shaking.

Luckily, the organization put nurses on all the vans, so Blondie was sitting in the first row of seats with ours. The nurse was REALLY concerned and told our driver that we needed to get to the hotel fast. The doctor at the b-rest stop had radioed ahead to tell them we were coming and to be on the look out. He thought she would be OK for the two mile ride back to the hotel.

Our driver decided to turn down a street because it would be a shortcut. She didn't think that it was early afternoon, there was a game at Georgia Tech, and the traffic down this particular road would be STOPPED because of Tech traffic. It was jam packed.

Blondie was shaking and now throwing up in a baggie. The Model was sitting next to me and was stock still, but would not take her eyes off of her friend. Blondie was also looking around like she was trying to find an escape route from the van... she looked like a cornered animal. Our nurse kept putting wet towels on her neck and telling her to keep calm and to sip her PowerAid. The other riders were getting agitated because we were stopped and knew this girl was getting sicker by the second.

Finally, our driver bolted to the right to go down another street, but this one took us AWAY from the hotel. She was panicking and wanted to get us out of traffic. She tought if we could go back up this particular street a street or two, she could go around the block and get around traffic.

We couldn't take the time. Blondie was in dire need of medical attention and an IV. Our nurse didn't have what she needed so we wound up pulling into a hotel's entry way and parking. We had to call an ambulance. This particular hotel is directly across the street from the Fabulous Fox theater and is one of the upscale hotels. The head valet freaked out because we were blocking traffic, our driver is freaking out because someone is EXTREMELY sick in her van, and Blondie is freaking out because she doesn't feel well.

It was a complete cluster f**ck.

I gave my cell phone to The Model to call their friends. She couldn't get anyone but left a message or two.

An ambulance got to the hotel pretty quick, but Blondie refused to go to the hospital. Drama ensues between some of the riders, the driver, the nurse and the hotel staff.

We - the riders - got off the van and decide we were going to try and walk back to the hotel. Keep in mind, we were all a bunch of women that got off the route because we couldn't take any more. We were all limping, moaning, and shuffling because we have been sittting in a van for about 30 minutes so our muscles have all gone cold. It was a sight!

Finally, the nurse told us all to get on the van. Blondie and The Model are going to the hospital and our driver is going to take us to the hotel. Normalcy returns, but there is major tension between the drivers (there was a main driver and a co-pilot - those two really got into it at one point) and the nurse.

I saw The Model Sunday morning at breakfast. Blondie got back from the hotel around 7 p.m. Saturday night and was still sleeping. She didn't walk on Sunday. I saw her as we were leaving on Sunday afternoon and she looked back to normal.

I swear, guys, for a minute or two I thought I was watching someone die. I have never seen someone turn purple. If I heard the nurse right, her temp was around 110 degrees. She was on the verge of heat stroke and we saw it all happen.

It was scary!

And sorry for the long post -- hope it wasn't too difficult/time consuming to get through!