Gall Stones and Protective Services

As some of you read on my facebook page recently, I spent the last few days - Saturday July 28 through Wednesday August 1 - in Dallas, Texas for the annual Mary Kay Seminar. What an experience!!! I'd like to share one experience in particular that really made me step back and realize what an amazing company Mary Kay is.

Sunday morning was our product pick-up day (we get a bunch of free product for attending), and after being in the gigantic Dallas convention center for maybe 45 minutes, I started having a pain in my stomach. Now I had had this pain before...This was the third time I'd felt it, and I wasn't really worried because the pain usually went away after about half hour or 45 minutes. So I kept walking around, checking out the expo and all of the new products coming out. They had a tour bus taking consultants to the Mary Kay HQ. I was so excited to see the corporate offices.

This is where it got bad.

There I was, with my 3 other unit members (one being my fabulous director, Adrienne Babbitt) sitting on a nice air conditioned bus. Ten minutes or so passed on the bus, and the pain in my stomach got worse. And it got worse. And worse. It got to the point where my face was flushed, and I was starting to have a hard time breathing. And all of a sudden words were getting trapped in my throat. I started to get scared. My friends and I contemplated asking the bus driver to pull over and drop us off, or take us to a hospital, but we were nearing the MK headquarters, so I just tried to keep breathing. We hustled as fast as a sickly hard-to-breathe gal could, and asked the very helpful people right inside the headquarters where the nearest hospital was. Lucky for us, they had a medical staff on site.

I never got to take my tour.

I was taken back to the medical room, and a nice fellow named Roger was helping me. At this point, the pain was so bad, I was bawling. Which made it even HARDER to breathe. This was the first time I'd ever really been scared for my life. Roger helped me focus on getting my breathing in check, or at least better than it was, and informed me that he was going to call an ambulance because I needed to get to a hospital. I did not want to pay for an ambulance, and I told him I couldn't afford to have an ambulance pick me up. He then notified me that it would be taken care of.

The medics came, hooked me up to oxygen, did an EKG (I think that's what it was called), stuck an IV in me, and wheeled me out to the ambulance. I made sure to try to keep my sense of humor throughout the whole thing. Commenting on how my face and hair looked great an hour prior. Or when I had to take off my bra with an underwire with only hand because they were doing tests with my other arm and saying "How does my husband do this one handed?". I hope I helped brighten their day.

I spent the next few hours in the Emergency Room, having x-rays, blood tests, and and ultrasound. All the while having my director Adrienne with me. And the culprit? Gall stones. I am grateful that I went to the hospital because the pain during this particular episode lasted well over 4 hours. Luckily the pain was only at a 10 on the pain scale for the time on the bus and shortly after.

This next part of my story made me feel like a million bucks. Have any of you ever been accompanied by a body guard or secret service? Well Mary Kay sent the Mary Kay Protective Service over to the hospital to take me back to my hotel. They came complete with a black Chevy Tahoe - fully tinted windows - and cute uniforms. They opened doors for me, helped me in and out of the car, and were so wonderful.

Oh, did I mention that I'm just a consultant with only one team member?

Luckily, the rest of Seminar was gall stone episode free. I watched what I ate (for the most part), stayed well hydrated, and felt fabulous the rest of the time. Now, not only did I already feel like Mary Kay bent over backwards for me, but I received a couple of phone calls throughout the last couple of days of Seminar from Mary Kay Corporate....making sure that I was ok, and that I felt good. Ok, seriously? How awesome is that?

I really wanted to share with you what a caring company Mary Kay is. How they take care of their consultants, even if they haven't done a whole lot with their business. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you something else. The last time they called me, they wanted to know if I still wanted to take a tour. Unfortunately, my flight left soon after the closing ceremony, so I didn't have time. But I bet if I had had time, Mary Kay Protective Services would have picked me up and given me the tour.

I seriously love what I do.