My YMCA Angles
I whipped into the YMCA parking lot at 4:45 am—15 minutes before they opened—but just in time to bolt to my favorite Stair Master (the 2nd one from the door). It went the fastest.
Getting out of my car, I popped my trunk to gather my gym bag for my morning sweat session. As I was rummaging, a voice came up behind me: “Goodmorning Lauryn…” to which I whipped my head around and saw not one…but 7 other individuals who walked up and circled around me: 7 other gym-goers, about my parents’ age—people that I smiled at most mornings in the gym.
Louise stepped forward. “Lauryn, we’re worried about you…we’ve been watching you over the past year…and it doesn’t seem like you’re well…” To which another said, “We just don’t know what we would do if we saw you collapse on that Stair Master…we care about you!” Andy said, “Lauryn, buddy, we want to help you…can we go to the hospital with you and make sure everything is ok? We want to help…”
Which they did.
They took me to Vanderbilt Hospital where the doctors discovered, I was not OK. 48 hours later, my heart rate plummeted to the 20’s and I spent the next four weeks on heart monitors, feeding tubes and IV fluids, mom, dad and my supporters by my side, as the doctors fought to keep me alive.