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Excerpt from María’s Personal Journal (written to her children) June 21, 2003
Today your mommy had her last day of Research Data & Analysis Ill (PSY 786) class. (I am a doctorate student in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the Professional School of Psychology.) It was long intensive day at school so I was relieved to finally go home. Your sweet daddy had dinner waiting for me.
I had been feeling a little bloated with a mild pain in my stomach for about two weeks but I thought it was just stress due to working 9 hours per day, taking classes on weekends, etc.
June 22, 2003
Today your daddy invited me to eat breakfast at IHOP. We like to go there for breakfast. I love their corncakes! I have promised my former undergraduate professor and longtime friend, Dr. Julia Cruz, to take her to San Francisco for her eye specialist appointment. I am going to stay the night at her place tonight to leave from her place to San Francisco tomorrow. She lives in Turlock, CA, which is 1 1/2 hour away from Elk Grove. Your daddy and I had a nice breakfast. I left to Dr. Cruz’ place at 2pm. I spend quality time with Dr. Cruz talking and enjoying a glass of Merlot with fruit, crackers, nuts, and cheese. At 7pm, we were having dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant close to the local university. I decided to order a Greek Feta Salad, soup and warm bread since I was not that hungry. After taking my second bite of my salad, I started feeling really awful.
Suddenly, I had to quickly excuse myself to go to the restroom. I knew I needed to leave as soon as possible because I did not understand my terrible symptoms. Why was I feeling so awful? I had never experience this appalling feeling of coldness, nauseous, weakness, etc. I remember getting up from my dinner chair, taking three steps forward, and thinking, as I saw the waiter and waitress talking to each other across the restaurant, I will need to say out loud “where is the restroom located?” because I am not going to make it….
Suddenly, my sight began to see darkness as if my body was shutting down. Sometime later, the paramedics told me that I had “blacked out.” I was unconscious for a while because when I woke up, the paramedics, firefighters, chef, waiters and customers were around me! I had blacked out and was having trouble keeping my eyes open. It turned out that my blood pressure was dangerously low and when they attempted to get me up, I threw up everything I had drank and eaten that day. My blood pressure was getting lower than 80/40 so the paramedics ended up taking me to the emergency room at Emmanuel Hospital in Turlock, CA.
I was released 3-4 hours later because the hospital doctors could not identify what had gone wrong with me. I thought I would feel better soon but it was the start of a challenging ordeal. The following days to come were spent going back and forth to the emergency room at our nearby hospitals due to other unexplained “black-outs.” Little did I know that was the beginning of a highly complex pregnancy that few people survive. It was during my pregnancy that my “hope” was challenged beyond anything I had experienced up to that point in my life.
[End of Excerpt from María’s Personal Journal]
