what has been the most stressful day of your life

[penn19]

Right now I'm like Dory. I have short term memory loss so I will say today. It involves a kid/teen and getting their license.

 

[amberpi]

Confession time!

Sometimes the Dis really helps people, I share more here, online, than I ever can in person, because I don't know ya'll. This thread led to me talking about my most stressful day in therapy for the first time ever today. It was really, really helpful. You guys are the best.

For all the posters talking about really hard times, I hope "getting it out" helped you each as much as it did me.

#endsappyconfession

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I've had a lot(mostly self induced) but the most stressful was probably the day I had my c-section. It was planned and scheduled for 4pm so I had PLENTY of time of worry about it(on top of my generalized anxiety). I was freaking out so bad I put myself into labor. DH's grandmother has been a nurse for years, she's a higher up at another hospital and worked maternity for years. She shooed everyone out and we had a little "Come to Jesus" moment. She was like, "I love you. But you are being ridiculous right now. Knock it off."
So I did.......... Because she's scary when she's mad. Scarier than giving birth apparently.

Tied with that would be the day I brought those little babies home. On top of the fairly serious baby blues I experienced I didn't know what the hell I was doing. DH and I put them down in their bassinets and just stared at each other like...Now what???

ETA- I guess I misunderstood the thread. I shared my moth stressful. But they are far from my worst.

 

[design_mom]

My parents went on vacation to Florida. My mother called me one evening and said "We are at the hospital. I think your dad had a stroke! I'll call you when I know more. I have to go!" This was before cell phones. I forgot to even ask the name of the hospital.

THEN SHE DIDN'T CALL FOR THREE DAYS!

We had no way to contact her (before cell phones). My sister and I ended up calling every hospital we could find in the area looking for him. We never did find him. He was in something called a Medical Center, that was not listed under hospitals in the yellow pages.

When we finally talked to my mom she said "Well, I didn't really have any information to share... and it was long distance." Are you kidding me?!?

ETA: Dad didn't have a stroke (that time). He apparently collapsed from heat exhaustion. Or so they surmised because after all their testing they couldn't find anything serious. He has had a stroke since then and that was stressful too, but I think it was less stressful because I knew where he was and how to get updates.

 

[diznymom]

The day I had a panic attack at work. (I don't remember what about. Also, it was a very stressful job.) I thought I was having a heart attack and that was the day I realized life was short and I started looking for a different job.

 

[firegurl]

Just to lighten the mood a little, probably my second most stressful couple of hours... my dad is a firefighter. He was on a call and we were listening to the call at home on his pager. We heard firefighter down and of course your heart drops as you wait. I knew it wasn't my dad because he was a driver/pump operator at the time. Then the engine went back to the station but he didn't come home. We got a call not long after from my dad. He slipped on some ice and hit his butt so they made him get checked out. I was about 17, with 2 younger siblings. I can't imagine the stress my mom was feeling, I just remember being so scared. Luckily in the end we got a great laugh out of it. My dad ran out to the call in the middle of dinner so he ended up eating a ton of hospital cookies for dinner and was on a major sugar rush when he got home.

 

[charming23]

The day my dad died. We knew it was coming but had no idea it was going to be that soon. We got to his long term care facility just as the ambulance was taking him to the hospital. THey had tried calling us but the nurses had written down my cellphone wrong and his facility was 45 minutes from home. Once we got to the hospital he passed away in 3 hours. It was the worst day

 

[IAHFTPT]

The day spent waiting for the biopsy results.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

Hard to say. The day my mother died? Maybe. Less than six months later on my birthday when they called to say my MIL had died unexpectedly? The day my father died because the hospital couldn't properly diagnose sepsis? When my FIL, my last hold on having a parent figure in my life, died?

I don't know. I just know that no matter what has happened, I am still here to tell the story. It's a lesson of sorts. You have survived what felt like your worst day. You will survive whatever challenges come after that.

 

[annie170]

I have a couple. After watching my mother linger for five days, I had to be the one to talk my dad into taking her off life support. It's gut wrenching watching someone die.

April, 2013. My middle daughter and her husband were in Boston for the marathon. She worked for four years to qualify and finally made it. I was at work when I heard of the bombing. It took about an hour to get ahold of her, but felt like forever.

 

[tazdev3225]

I have had a few really stressful times so it's hard to narrow it to one.

My daughter being hit by a car as I stood helpless on my front step unable to do anything as I watched it unfold. We can laugh about some of my actions now. In my panic and because it was raining I took her in the house. I didn't want her to get wet and catch a cold. Then I called my husband at work and just told his sergeant what had happened and hung up. Never stated what daughter or the hospital. He figured it out. Thankfully other than a badly broken leg she was OK.

My dad having cancer surgery and the LONG 9 hour wait to hear how he was doing. Thankfully he is 2 years post surgery and cancer free.

I think the last 2 months have been the most stress I have ever faced though. First my 32 y/o son in law had a stroke. Thankfully he fully recovered and is fine.
2 days later my husband was supposed to have reconstructive surgery on his foot that had to be postponed because of really high blood pressure. Someone screwed up and told him not to take his meds. Three days in the hospital getting that under control. Finally got the surgery rescheduled and it was a success but 2 am in the morning I got a call from the hospital that he fell out of his bed. I found out later that he had a stroke but they never even mentioned that part. Got him in rehab after a week and just brought him home last week. 2 days later he had another stroke. Had fire rescue at my house at 4 AM. Thankfully he will recover from both of them but it has been a really stressful 5 weeks and he is going into rehab again. I am trying to look at it as positively as I can and think that at least his foot will have a good 2 months of no weight on it to heal.

 

[PigletsPal2]

Not sure of the exact date but it was in early April 1975. DH was in Viet Nam with the State Department and things were getting really hot. I hadn't heard from him since my birthday in early March. My sister called me one evening and asked if DH was in the Philippines, because she just saw on the news a photo of someone who looked just like DH getting on a plane in Manila.

I called his office in Washington to ask, and they said "We can't tell you where he is, but we can tell you he'll be home day after tomorrow." Those were the longest TWO days of my life!

Queen Colleen

 

[22Tink]

When I got the call that my dad had been in a serious workplace accident. A sawmill stacker full of lumber fell on him and if he had been just a few inches over it would have completely crushed him. As it was he spent months in Vancouver General Hospital ICU and in rehab at GF Strong in Vancouver. The flight to Vancouver the day it happened felt like the longest flight of my life.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

A few days stand out -

The 3rd worst was the day my mother blatantly kissed my father's best friend at a 4th of july party and then after the two of them were fighting the whole way home, she snapped and went crazy and tore apart our house while we huddled in our bedoom trying to protect our little sisters rom hearing her screaming and glass breaking as she threw things around and tore stuff from the walls. I was 11, my sisters were 12, 9, 5, and 3. She left us a few weeks later and ran off with the guy.

The 2nd worst single day was the day I was told there was something suspicious on my 2nd mammogram and ultrasound and I would need a biopsy because it looked cancerous. Followed closely by the day the results were due. I was told if i didnt get a call by noon to call them, and I couldn't sleep, eat, think or barely breathe that whole morning waiting for the call that I was terrified to take.

#1 worst day was the day my aunt died at 42. I was 25 at the time. She died during surgery to repair a brain aneurism, leaving behind my uncle and my 8 and 6 year old cousins. She was my Godmother, my rock and protector who I could always go to as a kid and through my parents divorce and we worked together at the same company in the same department at the time (I was on maternity leave with DS17 when she died). The waiting before/during the surgery, and getting the bad news that it didn't go well, and being told she was brain dead and wouldn't recover, was horrible. I still miss her every single day.

 

[low-key]

Its odd but the biggie bad days I had a calmness over me

 

[knkmom]

After spending 9 days at the hospital with my father who was in the ICU on life support following a massive heart attack I needed to go home (350 miles away) to my 2 small children. I can't even express the pain and stress of having to say goodbye to him, knowing I was saying goodbye forever.

 

[disykat]

I was on my way to my first day on a new job and heard the words "two Americans perished" about a plane crash in a remote area where my parents were traveling at the time on the radio. I knew they were taking that flight around then. It was a long day trying to find ways to make collect calls trying to figure out where they were and not give any inkling of drama at a new job, but thankfully it turned out they had taken that flight the day before and were blissfully unaware.

Sometimes we forget what a blessing cell phones and the internet are! Now we have ways of easily getting so much info almost immediately.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

My most stressful day started out nicely enough. It was a Friday, my day off. DH went off to work. I got our 11-month old son up and fed. He was sitting on the floor playing with his toys while I put some bread in the toaster oven and started making my coffee. The phone rang around 9:00 a.m. It was my MIL's neighbor. He said my MIL had been hit by a car and that I should get DH to the hospital ASAP. He reiterated that the police officer on the scene said it was "very bad." DH needed to drive 45 minutes from work to get to that hospital. I didn't want him to drive while he was upset. I called my dad, a retired police officer who is always the voice of reason. He said to call DH, give him as little information as possible (I didn't know much myself), and tell him to drive to the hospital. Then my dad told me to bring the baby to him (my mom was out of town with my elderly grandma), and go to the hospital to meet DH.

By the time I got there, DH was there and had learned that his mom had died in the accident. Her two neighbors, whom DH had known all his life, were there and offering him comfort. As soon as arrived, a doctor, nurse, and social worker came in to talk to us. The doctor gave few details of her injuries and asked DH if he wanted to see her. The nurse quickly interjected and said she wouldn't recommend it but it was up to him (he decided not to see her). The social worker gave us a huge packet, including the names of funeral homes and a whole section entitled, "What do I do now?"

The rest of the day was a blur. We had to find DH's brother at his job in another state (this was before cell phones). We had to go through his mom's house and take anything of value (the social worker said when people hear of the death of an elderly person who lived alone, they sometimes take advantage by burglarizing their home). By that afternoon we were meeting with the funeral director. Thank goodness for my dad who kept our son happy and oblivious all day.

Anyway, it was quite a stressful day but it's just a memory now. The "baby" is now 21-years old and has since acquired a brother who is 18. It certainly wasn't the day I was planning when I woke up that morning.

 

[leebee]

Three times stand out, each stressful in its own way:
DD's birth: She was 3 weeks late, so at 39 weeks they decided to induce. After 28 hours of pitocin-induced labor and 4 hours of pushing, DD was born. 24 hours later we were on our way home when my legs started to feel funny, weak, and almost numb. We got home and I took a long nap; 4 hours later I got up with a fever of 104.6, and in incredible pain. I couldn't walk or move my feet at all without being in excruciating pain. At the ER they said it was probably a UTI, gave me antibiotics and tylenol 3, and sent me home. That was on Friday... on Monday my fever was still 102 and I called my OB. I was readmitted to the hospital where I was diagnosed with a systemic infection and a separated pelvis. I was in the hospital for a week, bedridden, sick, in pain, with a baby who couldn't go to the nursery because she'd been discharged and wasn't actually a patient. DH did what he could but also had to work, and we were on the opposite side of the country from any family members. Very, VERY stressful 10 days!

Dec 2016, DH had bone surgery on his tibia. It all went really, really well for 3 weeks, and then it started to fester and rot. He was seen for infection on 12/31 and put on antibiotics, but they didn't help. On 1/13 he was admitted to the hospital for what ended up being a week, during which time he had 2 full debridements of the area just below the top of his tibia and a gastrocnemius flap reconstructive surgery, with skin grafting. He was then admitted to a nursing facility where he was off his feet for 6 weeks (to make sure the reconstruction/grafting took) and received IV antibiotics 14 hours a day. The surgeons were all pretty clear about how lucky he was; if there'd been about 2 cm more gangrene, he'd have lost his leg. If the flap and grafts hadn't taken, they would have had to amputate. Now he is home, still taking 4 antibiotics a day for the next 10 months, having regular PT, getting better every day, and making progress. It's been a long year, and it's going to be at least another year before he is back 100%, but his leg is attached, works, and he's alive. For awhile in January, none of this was guaranteed.

The WORST day was the day they thought DD had meningitis. She had all the symptoms: Fever of 104, stiff neck, couldn't tolerate light, splitting headache, her blood pressure would bottom out every time she tried to sit up or stand. I clearly remember holding her while they did the spinal tap, watching the fluid drip and knowing that my life could take a turn for the absolute worst at any second. She was in the hospital for 2 nights, on IV and bedridden. They never did figure out what it was that made her so sick, but that was the scariest time of my entire life.

 

[MamaLema]

DS16 spent all summer in hospital and one day went on life support in the ICU and spend a few days there.
He's a healthy 18 year old now but I've completely changed now and I realize life can change in a second and let's make the best of it.