My views on afterlife are definitely interesting, because I have been there. Actually, a couple of times. There I have said it, it is the truth.

My experiences were at the same time, unfortunately. I was involved in a surgery that took over two hundred sutures or stitches. I was literally bleeding out. It really was a horrible situation.

I remember my uncle bellowing out, "Save her damn it, just save her!"

I muttered, "No! Don't!"

I was prepared to die. Then my uncle cold cocked me as he calmly said, "Save." That was all I heard. I was unconscious.

My uncle signed the consent form for the surgery, "I am her legal kin, I only knocked her out by cold cocking her, to be able to claim that legality."

Seven hours later and not one but two deaths on the table, I managed to survive. Three hours after the fact that I survived I was allowed to see my uncle.

The afterlife is definitely interesting. The first time I actually found myself floating above my body which was on the surgical table. The doctors and the nurses were scrambling, shouting orders, getting crash carts simply because the adrenalin is flowing through their veins.

The first time lasted about eleven minutes. As some of you have noticed, I spent several years working in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and when the nurses or doctors responding to a code blue, said 'clear', they meant exactly that. Clear can easily be translated into 'standing clear or being away from the bed'. This was so the electricity they use to shock one couldn't travel around the bed. So 'clear' was an important message.

I have seen a silly doctor, a cardiologist in fact, touch the sheets and blanket on a patient's bed, become flat on the floor due to this electricity. The AED or Automated External Defibrillator was discharged on the first round when he didn't have his hand on the bed. The second discharge was when he did have his hand on the bed. This wasn't my surgery but rather a reminder. It took a second crash cart to revive him.

Back to my case. It took four charges to revive me. Meanwhile, I was left to bleed out for a few minutes. Before you ask, I have an allergy to blood transfusion, so I was given a combination of normal saline as well as dextrose 5% water. I had four IVs running, two of each solution. Oh, that was intravenous lines, two of each.

Anyhow, first I was just hovering above my body, I could see all the action around me. Then I started drifting higher. I saw the white light glowing around a figure. Each charge until the fourth brought me back a little closer to the table. It wasn't until the fourth that I literally slammed into my body. How I missed the beautiful light and the figure?

Eleven minutes, I was dead but brought back. They quickly went back to exploring my body, suturing, stitching and stapling my body back together. Each step brought them closer to finding the cause of my major bleed. Apparently this one was a 'hider'.

The nurses hung another four bags of solution, and another and another. I think they lost count of the number. As an RN, I was one of them and damn it, I would be saved.

They finally found my major bleeding source. I think at that time there was more IV fluids in my body than actual blood. Into three quarters of this procedure, I once again coded. This time it was twenty-two minutes, thirteen seconds. The decision was made that they finish super quick before they used the AED again. They quickly finished.

Then they attacked me with the machine once more.

This time I not only left my body, but I returned to the white light. There was no figure to welcome me. There was nothing but the white light. Closer and closer I got. Then I could see smiling faces of those who had gone before me.

My nursing instructors were there. The faces of my elders were present. I am pretty sure I saw my sister and my parents, my aunts and uncles. Heck, I even saw my grandparents and greats, all of whom had died before I was born. And I saw my beautiful step-daughter. It was remarkable that they were all there. My husband was there as a hawk.

The first jolt tore me from their smiling faces. The second, third, fourth and the fifth brought me closer to my body. I hovered just above my body, it took a sixth jolt that caused me to slip back into it. Part of me was glad that they had made the choice and found the bleeder.

They, meaning the doctors and nurses cleaned me up and dressed the multiple lesions. The nurses hung new bags. I was starting to arouse so they extubated me as well, and I was rolled to the recovery area.

Three hours later, I got to see my uncle who had touched base with my two children. They were wisely back in Canada. It was touch and go for a couple of days.

I will never forget the white light, the figure nor the smiling faces. I have been there, done that and survived.

894 words.