It was Tuesday night. After dinner. Chuck and I went to play tennis while Chloe was doing homework. We get back in the car to find the following text:
In effect, a very concerned, nervous sounding correspondence between Bennett and us. So the gist of the story goes...Gavin called Bennett earlier that day to see how he's doing since he just moved into his dorm the day before. Then just a few hours later he gets another random call from Gavin. But the second time, Gavin doesn't sound like Gavin. He couldn't answer any questions and was just mumbling. Bennett was afraid Gavin got a head injury or something and accidentally called him cuz his was the last number dialed. So he texted us to check on Gavin.
We tried doing that for the next 3 hours. It was maddening. We each called him like 10 times and texted him over and over. Our worry meter was on "high alert." This is just not consistent with who Gavin is. He usually always responds to texts or calls. He never mumbles. He always speaks with precision and clarity and often times uses vocabulary words above my pay grade. He is never confused.
We tried to think of a best case scenario where maybe Gavin was at his friend, Collin's place and they were playing video games and maybe his phone died. Ya, that's it. That must be what happened. So we tried to find Collin's number. Major oversight on our part for not already having that in case of emergencies, such as now. I did however find his website. So I contacted him via the email link on that site. But I heard no response. My last ditch effort was to direct message him on Instagram. I did and within 1 minute he called me back. I'm so glad he did because our next option was to call the police to do a courtesy check on Gavin.
I explained the situation and asked him if Gavin was with him or if he knew where he was. He said he didn't know. That's when we started to really panic. In my mind there were only 4 things that would cause disorientation, confusion, and mumbling. One, a head injury from falling or an accident. Two, carbon monoxide poisoning. Three, he's high. Four, he's drunk. If you know Gavin, the last two things just aren't possible. They are inconsistent with who he is and how he lives his life. So either someone drugged him or he's injured. So we asked Collin to run over to Gavin's apartment and check on him.
I had forgotten that Gavin's apartment has extremely good security. He was only issued one key, so he wasn't able to give his friend an extra. And he has to physically go downstairs to let someone in his building. That's just not going to happen when he won't or can't answer his phone. So Collin said he had to throw rocks at Gavin's window to try to get his attention. Gavin's bed is right under the window. Apparently, that noise was loud enough to rouse Gavin from sleep.
Collin called us once he got up to Gavin's apartment. We asked him to put him on the phone. Gavin still sounded extremely groggy, slow to respond, incoherent, just basically, not there. He couldn't really answer our questions. We asked Collin if he seemed alright and Collin said he just looked tired from being woken up. He said he'd take him over to his place and give him some water and keep an eye on him. We called back about 15 minutes later. We talked to Gavin again and he was still the same as last time. That's when we had to make a decision.
We decided to go up there and check on him ourselves. Our spidey-sense told us something was wrong. We didn't know what, but Gavin definitely had drugs in his system or something wrong with his brain function. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a flight arriving in Fargo the next morning. So we decided to drive. We packed in a flurry and were out the door by 11pm. We drove through the night. It was a 13 hour drive.
We didn't hear from Gavin again until 6:30 in the morning. Those were the longest 6 hours ever. Privately, our minds were coming up with all sorts of worse-case scenarios. I was frustrated with myself for not asking Collin to take Gavin's temperature, what if he was burning up? Chuck was thinking it might be some type of aneurysm. We tried not speak them aloud for fear they might be true. Then came the call we'd been waiting for. We were still 6 hours from Fargo.
Here's what happened. After Gavin talked to Bennett he took some medicine since he wasn't feeling well. He took 2 Benadryl and 2 NyQuil at the same time! He said he fell asleep early. That's all he remembered. We asked about his second call to Bennett. He said he had no idea why he called. He said he felt really bad about scaring us, but that he was feeling better now. We told him that is the best case scenario we could have hoped for and that will be there soon to check on him with our own eyes and hug him tight.
Relief flooded us. We had no way of knowing at 11pm what was wrong. How could we live with ourselves if it was serious and we didn't bother to show up? We had to look in his eyes and see for ourselves that our boy was okay. He forgot that he's allergic to acetaminophen. As a child he would hallucinate. NyQuil has acetaminophen. And they both have full doses of sedatives in them. In effect, he took a super sedative. His heart could have stopped, his throat could have closed up. Collin waking him up and giving him water helped tremendously to stop the deep dive that the sedatives had him in.
It was wonderful to hug our sweet boy and hear him talk like himself and see the light in his eyes. The push to get there was worth it. He did have extremely swollen glands in his throat, so his body was apparently fighting some type of infection. He went to take a free covid test, that thankfully came back negative. He decided not to go to the Doctor until he got those results back (on Saturday). But by Saturday he was back to feeling normal, thankfully.
So instead of spending the day in the hospital as we had feared, we got to spend the day hanging out with Collin and Gavin. Collin gave us a tour of his apartment (which Gavin will soon be moving into) and his work.
He was especially proud of this clock wall. He engraved all the pieces of wood.
!
He works in an old building in downtown Fargo that was converted into a Design Studio for NDSU students. He runs the 3-D printing area. He was sweet to give us lots of little things he'd printed up.
Gavin also had a room to show us in this building...the electrical room. He works for Network Engineering at NDSU and this was just one of the many rooms he had to replace switches in. The boys were so excited to show us everything. It made our hearts so happy.
We also got to spend some time at Gavin's apartment. Notice Chuck laying on Gavin's bed. He was dangerously close to falling fast asleep. Gavin was especially proud of his bookshelf and his desk with 3 monitors.
Then the boys said they were hoping to play a game with us. So we walked back to Collin's place and played a game. We were going on 36 hours of no sleep, so it wasn't going to be a fair game. But it kept us awake and allowed us to enjoy a little more time together.
As far as games go, it was pretty easy and enjoyable and one people in our state of mind could grasp. Of course, Gavin won. Then we bowed out to go to the hotel and get to bed early so we could head home the next morning. We got home in 12 hours (going 80 miles an hour really helps). Two kids safely at college and one at home. Speaking of one at home. This was the first time we ever left Chloe at home alone. She did amazing. She handled it like a pro. We had no worries about leaving everything in her hands. What a crazy, unimaginable week we've had. I had been saying how I
missed going on adventures. Well...no more. I had my adventure for the
year. I'm good now.
