An unusual day at the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday (Sunday) we braved the Pumpkin Patch and got a little more than we bargained for. 

To fully paint the picture - we had just come off Saturday that was torrential rain, extremely high winds and portions of the area getting 2-3 inches of rain. Particularly the farm-lands we were heading out to for the annual pumpkin picking + corn-mazing. 

Geared up in our galoshes and prepared for the swampy conditions we set off to have a couple hours of muddy fun. 

Kenny and I cracked jokes about the hardest part getting through the corn maze was going to be getting out without landing on our rear-ends in the process. 

Heading through the maze there was a platform you climb up get to see an overview of the maze - then walk down the stairs to the other side. Behind us came a group of 3 girls. Teens/Preteens. They spent less time on the platform than us and as they proceeded down the other side the younger girls (10-12 years old) began frantically screaming for help. Something was wrong with their sister and they didn't know what. 

We looked just in time to see her begin having a Seizure. She was in the middle of the staircase and began rolling down the bottom and landed in the mud. I got to her first so Kenny handled getting the sisters calm + 911 being called. The girls ran to get the mother, I held the poor girl to keep her face out of the mud in the process. Kenny answered questions and dealt with the bystanders that came after the incident. It's an alarming sight to see a girl laying in the mud, unresponsive, in the middle of a corn maze! 

I'm sure there are worse places - but currently having a seizure in the middle of a swampy corn-maze is up there with the worst possible location of emergencies in my mind. 

• It started dumping rain as she was still unresponsive and it took Emergency Medical probably 20 minutes to get there.
• There was no way to get a gurney back where we were.
• Those working the Maze that day got the EMTS lost getting back to us (which objectively wasn't that far into the maze).
• For some reason I cannot explain positively, the farm wouldn't send a 4-wheeler into the maze to help get her out.

The girls mother and I held on to her as she slowly started becoming lucid again - and then fell into a complete emotional breakdown. Didn't know where she was, how she got there, why the heck she was surrounded by strangers, why her body was cold and sore - why she was on the ground in the mud. 

Weather + ground conditions being what they were the EMTS felt it was best to try and support her and help her to walk out - soon they had her heading out of the maze and on their way to a hospital to get checked out. As she was able to get to her feet with the help of everyone I'm sure she was well taken care of and on her way to getting things resolved and will be okay in time. 

Rylee. 

Oh, my Rylee. She was so good, so brave. I had dropped my camera in the process - she picked it up and held it. I heard her at one point tell Kenny she was protecting it from the rain under her coat. 

After the incident was over on our end we did end up finishing the maze for Rylee's sake. Kenny and I were quite ready to go home, but after all we had been there for Rylee's sake in the first place. I think that was the quickest pumpkin-picking we've ever done in the history of pumpkin-patch days! ;) 

I need to take an additional moment to thank each and every one of my friends that regularly posts about their or their childs health-issues. I've got a couple, but on in particular, that has posted a number of times about the seizures her child endures. They are commonplace in their life. Awhile back I read up on seizures because of her child and that tiny bit of head-knowledge I believe helped in quickly assessing the situation.

If you think your posts are falling on deaf eyes/ears, if you think that maybe it's pointless to share those details of your day-to-day lives --> I just want to really THANK YOU for doing so, and hope you continue to do as much. As much as we would all hope that medical care is quick or that there might be a nurse or doctor around - there often is not - and informing the general public about things that might seem normal to you - because you live it every day - is so so helpful and may well lessen the severity of a situation. 

And that, my dear friends, is how I came to be covered in mud. my insulin pump fell off my pocket at some point and I must have sat directly on it in the mud. In my haste to keep it from ripping out and causing a medical emergency on my end I shoved it in my beautiful camera bag.