Near-death experiences

[Merriweather]

Long story short my gallbladder is a brick. Sweet right? I should be angry but I am just relieved that I know what the problem is after SIX FREAKING YEARS.

What is it about gall bladder problems that doctors can't seem to figure out? I've had several friends & family go through similar things (none for as long as you, though) where they run test after test after test only fo eventually find it''s the gall bladder, often by accident. The worst was a close friend, she had dreadful stomach pains, always looked a bit green, was miserable. She had a standing once a week appointment with her doctor about it for a year, and they still hadn't figured out what it was. At one appointment he asked her to bring her husband with her the next week (found out later he'd been intending to tell her it was stomach cancer and probably too far gone to do anything about). Before that visit, her pain became so bad she was rushed to the ER, where they realized her gall bladder had burst and they did emergency surgery.

Glad you recovered ok. Such a horrible thing to go through.

[PhiSigGirl1988]

I had three back surgeries when I was 10 years old. For the first one, they attached a rod to my spine. Two weeks later, I was admitted for emergency surgery because the rod was infected due to poor sterilization techniques by the hospital. Had the infection moved to my spine from the rod, I could've died.

This one is my grandma's. Her blood sugar dropped incredibly low one day, but my parents and I happened to be going to her house for some reason. She's diabetic and her blood sugar reading was 34 when the paramedics got there. There's a probability that she could've died had we not gone to her house. My grandpa passed away years ago and my grandma was trying to change the television channel with the telephone, so it's unlikely that she would've been able to call someone for help.

[Seshat]

My husband has had quite a few quasi- heart attacks. He has a problem called neurocardiogenic syncope.

Basically, his heart stops for no reason.

Yes, that's as bad as it sounds. Fortunately, the body has two backup systems - so he fallsdowngoesboom, but doesn't die. His body keeps the heart pumping, enough to keep him alive.

Occasionally he's even conscious.

But he goes blue, and sweaty, and .. well, even cardiac doctors think it's a heart attack until they put an ecg on him.

[Merriweather]

If you're interested in odd stories involving someone near death, I can give you one.

My mother & her best friend left their children (my older sister, and my mom's friend's daughter, both babies) with a sitter. They were driving to the next town over. Out of the blue, a huge white bird almost hit the windshield. They pulled over, very shaken up, and just felt they needed to turn around and go back home.

When they got there, the sitter had put both girls down for a nap a while before. They went in to check on them, and my mom's friend's daughter had gotten a necklace twisted around her neck in such a way that she was starting to turn blue. They were in time to quickly get it off, and she was ok - but the sitter would probably not have checked on the sleeping babies for quite a while.

My mom & her friend spent hours at the local library looking thru books trying to find a white bird that looked like the one that almost hit their windshield, and never did manage to find one.

[Amusement Gal]

I haven't had any myself, but I can say that I've almost been there. I slipped in the shower, and it felt like time had slowed down, almost froze. All I know is that when I snapped out of the 'time freeze', I was on my butt and didn't even feel any pain. I'm pretty sure that was the adrenaline kicking in, though. I didn't remember too much of it, just the initial fall.