# Tell us about your closest brush with death **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 24, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-closest-brush-with-death/750040 "2016-03-24T18:21:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-closest-brush-with-death/750040/41 "2016-03-29T01:34:27Z")
Many years ago, I woke up and felt a sharp pain intermittent in my belly and tried to ignore it for a few hours. It would come and go and wasn’t very long in duration. I got up, showered and went into work, where my co-worker said, “You don’t look so great.” Thinking I’d burn a sick day, I called the dr and made an appointment for later that morning. Went to the drs. where he did some poking and prodding, “You don’t have appendicitis, but I don’t know what’s wrong. Get some bloodwork done next door at the lab, then go have a CT scan.” I went to the lab, had blood drawn, had the CT Scan and went home. Pain still happening on and off. I’d just walked through the front door, when the phone rang–it was the dr. telling me that my white blood count was high, and he wanted me to go to the ER. Went to the ER (“My dr. said he sent paper work over–my WBC was high.”) and they decided to do an ultrasound. It’s early evening at this point, and my belly is getting bigger and bigger. I’m still wearing my shorts under my hospital gown and I can’t get them snapped or zipped like I could that morning. The ER doc comes into my hospital room and tells me that they THINK there’s a tumor in my abdomen (uterus) that “might” be bleeding and they want to operate. I agree and they take me in within the hour. Come to find out, the tumor had burst and my belly was filling with blood. They ended up doing a complete hysterectomy. Through this all, I was completely and utterly calm. I remember _knowing_ I was dying, and being totally cool about it. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-closest-brush-with-death/750040/42 "2016-03-29T02:23:29Z")
Phall, it was probably from the blood loss. Interesting problem, and scary too. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-closest-brush-with-death/750040/43 "2016-03-29T02:24:09Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Trying to take a short cut on at 16,000 foot peak in Tibet by myself. Ended up on a cliff face where the rocks kept falling off as I grabbed them. Finally managed to get up and over, and bawled like a baby for a long time. No one within a day’s hike to hear. > > Some stupid shit like riding a motorcycle drunk in Taiwan in the 1980s. I don’t think I was close to death, but last year I scrambled halfway up a 1000 foot scree slope/cliff thinking it was a creek draw on a map that would lead to the peak. The rocks falling didn’t faze me, what made me turn back was the thickets that probably would have drawn blood. Of course it wasn’t the actual path which was a few hundred feet to the left of me, it turns out I had just made that trek for nothing :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-about-your-closest-brush-with-death/750040.md?page=2)