The day my view of the world changed

The moment that changed my life was a day that I never expected my view on the world to change. For me it was a pivotal moment in my life that forced me to take on a different view of the world. The day started out, for the most part, a normal day for me and my husband, Justin. It was a typical Friday that neither of us thought would become the rollercoaster ride that changed my life. For the most part, I have always felt like I had an invisible bubble around me that protected me from the evil of the world. However, on this “typical Friday” I realized that I was not, in fact, immune to the bad things that happen to people every day.
The day started out as a fun day out for me and Justin we went to a shooting range to improve my shooting skills, in which I did really well. Due to how well I did, Justin decided to treat me to an amazing meal at Red Lobster. We laughed and tried new things and it was seemingly going very well up until I realized that a food I’d had a few times before, clam chowder, I was suddenly allergic to, and so was he!
Neither of us have health coverage that covers an ambulance ride, so I decided that because I was the one who had had anaphylaxis before, I would take charge and drive us to the hospital. My husband, not experiencing the incredibly frightening experience of anaphylaxis before was going into a panic attack. This caused me to freak out as well. I was so terrified of losing my husband, and I was unsure of just how bad his symptoms were. I tried to talk to him and repeatedly told him to “hang on, for me” and “I love you, be strong”.
When we finally got to the hospital, we checked in and instead of the hospital staff tending to us immediately, we had to wait over 30 minutes in mid anaphylaxis to see a doctor! When we got back to the Emergency Room, we still had to wait another 20 minutes or so to see a doctor. Once we were seen, the nurse came in and gave us medicine. It seemed to work almost instantly and we tried, together, to make light of the situation. We accomplished it better than you would expect, but then again, we had been through quite a bit lately. That was the whole reason we went out to try to have a good time for once. What we didn’t know, is that the day would only get worse from there.
Later, we were finally discharged from the hospital after about an hour, which felt more like a lifetime. When we left, we were laughing and talking about how my husband, who is afraid of hospitals, actually did quite well with the experience. We went to my car, and I decided to call my mom and tell her what had happened. I looked for my phone in my purse, asked Justin if he had grabbed it and then thought maybe I had left it in the room. Unfortunately, it was much worse than that.
I went back in the hospital by myself and frantically searched the room, the laundry bin, the bed, and anywhere else I thought it could be. I asked the nurses for help and finally, not finding it, went back to ask Justin what I should do. He then reminded me that because I’m constantly misplacing my phone, that I had installed something called “Lookout Mobile” on my phone. This app allows other devices to force my phone to make noise and grab the location of my device. I tried repeatedly to make it go off, but unfortunately there was barely any service in the hospital so we just weren’t having any luck. Or so we thought.
I spoke to the security officers at the hospital. I gave them a description of my phone and how to contact my husband if they found it. We tried forcing it to make noise one more time and it got “silenced”. This is when we got very confused, and I started to cry. My entire life was on that phone!
We finally arrived at home and I decided to check my email. Turns out, that the app on my cell phone had taken a picture when it got turned off. It was at that moment my heart sank. I realized that it had been stolen along with the photographs and the accessories I was still paying for. Once again I broke into tears. Justin told me to call the police.
I called and they came 6-7 hours later, during which time we both decided to take a nap as it had been such a long day. I had a repetitive nightmare of losing Justin, and then losing all the things that meant a lot to me. I woke up sweating and I cried yet again. It was that moment that I realized that nothing was going to be the same.
Justin tried everything to reassure me that they would find my phone and that the irreplaceable photos on my phone would come back to me in due time. That the photos of the precious cat that passed away, and the wedding photos, would not be seen by random strangers. He tried to tell me that somehow, I’d get back the photos of my childhood home that was recently sold, and the baby pictures of my brother. That the one thing that held my whole world, would somehow be back in my hands and that everything would be OK. Unfortunately, not for lack of trying, he was unable to bring my spirits up, no matter how hard he tried. I just needed him by my side and was glad to have him with me the day my life changed.
When the police officer showed up, we showed him the photos we had of the women that stole my phone and the locations my phone had sent to my email along with them. We hoped that this would be an easy case and that we would hear back soon and things could go back to normal. However, it is now 3 weeks later and we still haven’t heard anything and I’m starting to lose hope. I feel as if my life has changed, and not for the better.
Because of this incident, I have stopped trusting people, I am unable to go places on my own, and I am extremely depressed. Justin is trying his best to help me with it all, but, with it being the first time I have ever been forced out of my bubble, this is going to take a while. I hope, with the little hope I have left, that in some way, the people that stole my phone, can feel the way I do now, because that is all I have left.