The Four Blevins

Our flight was at 6:00 am Tuesday morning, so we left the house around 3:15.  We went by and picked up Walter and Sharon, friends of ours and another builder and his wife that were also going on the trip.  When we got to the airport, we saw some sweet friends Nat & Stacey that were randomly on our first flight with us!  What are the odds?

I didn't take my Dramamine early enough and didn't eat a good breakfast, so I was nauseated most of the flight to Miami.  We had a short layover and I was able to eat a real meal and felt much better.  Another 2 hour flight, baggage, customs and then we hopped on a bus to make the 2 hour drive to the resort.  We stayed at Dreams Las Mareas.  It was gorgeous, but a LONG way from anything else.  We traveled 13 hours that day. Yikes.

That evening we had a welcome dinner for all the couples - there were about 15 or 16 couples total. We met Logan and Mandy Cross and really hit it off.  They are a super sweet Christian couple and we had lot in common. 

On Wednesday morning, Brian slept in and I went and ate some breakfast.  I claimed a lounger and settled in by the pool.  I read 2 books by Melanie Shankle on this trip - The Antelope in the Living Room and Sparkly Green Earrings.  Great vacation books - I highly recommend them.  

Here we are checking out the beach after lunch.  I think this is where something bit/stung my toe.  It swelled a little and made huge blister on the underside.  I layered on my purification and lavender and it really helped to keep it from getting worse.  

Sunset view from our room.

When we booked the tour, the guy told us to do the hike up to the top of the zip line.  It was a hot and sweaty trek, but beautiful scenery.  Towards the end it started to sprinkle on us which was pretty nice.

He ate it and said it was good and wanted me to try it.  I did and the flavor was good, but I just couldn't get over the texture. One bite was plenty. Blech.

We had our farewell dinner that evening and headed back to the room to pack.

The next morning we had to have our luggage out in the hallway early, so Brian got up to eat breakfast with me.  We headed to the airport - a tiny, tiny airpot. Luckily there was a store, so I found shirts for the boys and an ornament for the Christmas tree.  We boarded our flight and went to our seats.  We were only about 4 rows from the very back of the plane.  Our seats weren't together, but there was an aisle seat on Brian's row that no one was sitting in.  When we saw that it didn't have an assigned passenger, I moved over beside him and sat in the middle with him on the aisle.  The flight attendant said that the seat was broken and the screen didn't work and the man on the flight before us had complained.  We said we didn't care, that we just wanted to sit together and said that was fine.  Sitting right in front of us were Logan and Mandy.  We chatted with them a little and photobombed their airplane selfie. :)  

The plane took off and about 15 minutes into the flight, I was watching Downton Abbey and Brian was reading a book on his iPad.  I saw out of the corner of my eye Brian put his iPad away and when I looked at him, he seemed a little uncomfortable.  He started fiddling with the vent above him.  He had a strange look on his face and I took one of my earbuds out and asked him if he was okay.  He said "I don't feel good.  I'm hot." Then in about 3 seconds his body went rigid.  His arms pulled into his sides and his eyes were wide open, staring blankly in front of him.  I grabbed his arm and said "Brian?" about 3 or 4 times, getting louder each time and he wasn't responding at all.  My first thought was that he was having a stroke or a seizure.  I screamed at the back of the plane that I needed someone to help.  The flight attendants were all in the back getting ready to serve the drinks and they came running.  The next few minutes were a blur. There was a rush of people that came over and tried to get him to respond.  He wouldn't, so they pulled him out of his seat and laid him down in the aisle.  I have never been that scared in my life. I heard the pilot come over the intercom say there was a medical emergency and ask if there was a doctor on board.  There were about 7 or 8 people crowded around him in a tiny space trying to assess the situation.  I heard someone say "Does he have a pulse?" and at that very moment I truly believed that I was watching my husband slip away right in front of my eyes.   They peppered me with questions - "Has he eaten? What did he eat? Does he have allergies? Has he been drinking? Is he on any medication? Does he have a family history of heart problems?"  I answered to the best of my knowledge and waited to hear his voice or that he was responding.  Mandy reached back between the seats, grabbed my hand and started praying fervently for Brian. I hung on to her hand for dear life and prayed right along with her.  After about 2-3 minutes (seemed like an hour), I heard Brian's voice.  I leaned over and saw him alert and talking. As it went on, I learned that the guy sitting directly behind Brian (his name was Milton) is a medic in the Navy Corp. Also on the flight - a doctor, a surgeon and 2 nurses (one of which is married to one of the home builders with us on the trip and a nurse in the ER at Harris SW).  I am absolutely positive that it was NOT a coincidence.  Someone finally turned to me and said " He wants you to know that he is okay."  That just tells you how much better he was - I'm sure he knew I was going absolutely crazy.  He was in the aisle for about 30 minutes while they got him started on oxygen, took his blood pressure and got him stabilized enough to get him up and then laid down in a row of seats.  At this point they had all pretty much decided that he had passed out from dehydration.  The flight crew and the people sitting all around me were reassuring me that he would be okay.  The flight attendants were awesome.  They worked right alongside the nurse and medic - with efficiency and calmness.  They were asking me if I needed anything and reassuring me that Brian was doing much better. Once they got Brian in the row of seats, Debbie (the ER nurse) started a saline IV on his arm.   I sat down by Mandy in Logans seat (Logan had gotten up when it all happened and a flight attendant asked him to go up to the front of the plane to guard the cockpit since all the flight attendant were stuck in the back).  Not only was it an absolute blessing that we had so many medical personnel on board, but it was also a blessing that Mandy was there right in front of me.  She spent the next couple of hours talking to me about all kinds of things and kept me calm.  Milton (the medic) told me that Brian needed to be drinking water every 10 minutes, so I watched my clock and was diligent about it.  Every time I turned around to give him water, he was squeezing my hand, smiling at me and reassuring me that he was fine.  The flight attendants had put together a plan that when we landed, they were going to let everybody else off and paramedics would come on the plane and check Brian out.  Brian needed to go to the bathroom, so they sat him up for about 5 minutes and when he seems to be okay, they let him go to the bathroom and come back and sit down.  I sat down by him and we were about 45 minutes from landing.  He reassured me he was fine, I cried and repeatedly told him how much I loved him. :) After a bit, he said he was feeling like he was going to pass out again.  His eyelids started drooping and his was swaying to the side and he passed out again.  I vaulted out of the middle seat so we could get him layed down and yelled at Milton who jumped up help.  After that happened, the pilot came back on the intercom and said that when we landed (in about 30 minutes) everyone needed to stay seated and the paramedics were going to come on board and take Brian off first.  We landed and every person on that plane stayed seated and calm. It was very humbling to see the concern these people had for someone that most of them didn't know from Adam.  Brian was coherent again and saying that he felt much better.  The paramedics came on and Milton handed them a sheet of paper with all his vitals recorded on it and gave them a run down of what had taken place.  They talked with Brian for a bit, decided to wheel him out on an aisle chair (just a wheelchair but small enough to fit down the aisle of the plane).  They got him on it and strapped him in (like a mental patient kind of strapped in) and started down the aisle.  Of course the chair was facing backwards and just to make it more awkward he was staring at all the passengers right in the face as he went down the aisle.  Plus, everybody started applauding and if you know Brian, you know he LOVED that. :)  I grabbed up all of our stuff and followed them off.  The paramedics took him over to a corner and hooked him up to machines and did some tests for blood sugar, heart, blood pressure, etc.  The rest of the passengers were leaving the plane and walking by us.  As I had mentioned before, we knew about 30 people on the flight.  We had multiple people stop to check on him and give me hugs and words of encouragement.  All three of the flight attendants even gave me a hug.  The pilot stopped to ask if I needed anything.  I was amazed at the amount of concern and consideration - American Airlines is awesome.  It didn't feel like they were trying to just cover their bases for liability reasons - it was true concern.  After the paramedics checked him out, they said that it was his choice to go to the hospital.  He declined ( I wanted him to go), so the paramedic said that he needed to go to the doctor sometime this week to have some tests run.  They gave him a choice to be wheeled through the airport out to the car and I told him that  if he wasn't going to the hospital, the compromise would be to stay in the wheelchair for the walk to the car.  He knew I was frazzled and probable would've agreed to almost anything to keep me from flipping out. :)
After the paramedics let us go, things went pretty smoothly after that because I had some much help from people.  Walter and Sharon stayed with us and helped carry all our stuff.  We were met by a customs officer that helped expedite the customs process.  Dan (another one of the builders) got our suitcases off of the baggage claim belt for us so we didn't have to chase them down.  We made it to the car and Walter drove us home.  

We have had a lot of texts from people checking on Brian today and making sure that he was okay.  After replaying it in our minds (which is what we've been doing since it happened) we're pretty much convinced that he was dehydrated.  As the trip went on, he started drinking less and less water and more Cokes.  The dehydration coupled with the change in altitude just got the better of him - the first time he passed out was when we were ascending and the second time we were descending.  He's still going to go to the doctor this week and have some tests run just to be safe.  

I am so thankful for how everything turned out.  There were so many things that make me absolutely positive that God was with us on that flight.  In the beginning we weren't sitting together, but it was a full flight and he was on an aisle with a broken chair that no one was sitting in.   If I hadn't been sitting beside him, I wouldn't have known what was happening and been able to get help so quickly.  The fact that we had new Christian friends sitting in front us that prayed for us and helped me to stay calm through the whole ordeal.  The fact that he had a medic sitting right behind him. The fact that there were FIVE people in the medical field on board.  God was definitely there  - no denying it.

So, Costa Rica.  Beautiful place and all in all a good trip.
It ended with a bang to say the least. :)

UPDATE - 1/21:

Brian was in bed all day yesterday which added to my worry of something being really wrong.  We saw his doctor today the doctor seems to think passing out was essentially a 'perfect storm' of dehydration, vacation food, being tired, being in a cramped, warm airplane., etc. and he says there's nothing to support any indication of other underlying problems. He also thinks the sickness from yesterday was unrelated to the passing out, that he just picked something up somewhere.