The Olive Picker: A memoir - Kathryn Brettell - [EPUB][N27]seeders: 4
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Description The Olive Picker: A memoir by Kathryn Brettell Language: English | Format: EPUB | ISBN-10: 0986192902 | ISBN-13: 978-0986192906 Page count: 270 | Date Published: May 2, 2015 | Publisher: Jazz Dog Press  Parenting & Relationships, Family Relationships, Abuse, Partner Abuse CONTENTS 33 Chapters Excerpt: CHAPTER ONE October 8, 2008 Perfect billowy white clouds look pasted against the clear azure sky. A cool breeze tickles my cheek. Six strong arms hold me steady as they push the gurney across the street in front of my home. My beautiful view is then rudely interrupted as I am loaded like cargo into the waiting ambulance. Now, with only a metal ceiling to look at, I strain to hear the paramedic call out my blood pressure. I watch him adjust the IV’s roller clamp, previously just a drip, to increase the flow into my arm and I feel the warmed fluid spread throughout my thirsty veins. Closing my eyes, I try to concentrate on his words, hopeful they’ll distract me from the pictures that hold a pitbull-like grip on my mind. “Multiple head wounds, BP…O2 sat…” I can’t stay focused. How could such a horrible thing happen on this beautiful day? I hear the driver ask from the front seat, “do you think she’ll make it?” “Doesn’t look good,” answers the man leaning over me. I’m right here, I can hear you. “Try to get some contact info,” the driver responds nonchalantly, and the ambulance begins to move, the wailing siren signaling someone aboard. Funny how the sirens aren’t as loud from inside the bus. In my mind, I see smeared blood on the walls, and some pooled on the floor in the bathroom. I try to shut that out, try to think of something else. My legs start to shake uncontrollably again, soon my whole body joins in. Neurogenic tremors. I’d witnessed the phenomenon many times when I worked the Emergency Room. Innate to all mammals after a trauma, it’s the natural response of a shocked or disrupted nervous system attempting to thaw out or release itself from the freeze response and become fully functional again. Will I ever be fully functional again? Sharing Widget |