<% appTitle="Ridecamp Archives" %> Ridecamp: [RC] Mt. Carmel ER story
Ridecamp@Endurance.Net

[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]
Current to Wed Jul 23 17:25:20 GMT 2003
  • Next by Date: [RC] King of What???
  • - Ridecamp Guest
  • Prev by Date: [RC] Something for money, Part 12
  • - Howard Bramhall

    [RC] Mt. Carmel ER story - Karen


    So as I'm lying there in the Emergency Room I'm thinking about just how the @#$$ did I get here. It wasn't supposed to go this way. I turned my head to talk to the nurse and told her that if she would please hurry up with the stitches, I could be on my way and possibly get back to ridecamp in time to finish. Apparently they still had to draw blood and do some tests before they could dope me up and THEN they could do the stitches in my elbow and my face. They seemed to think something might be broken too (like DUH, you mean cuz this bone is sticking out right here?) I looked down and noticed she was preparing to draw blood from the top of my right hand and I quickly yanked it out of the way and with an alarmed gasp said "what are you doing?". She grabbed my hand back and said "I'm going to take blood from your hand", and while grabbing my hand back said "oh no you are not". She was not amused. Neither was I.

    I said, okay look, that will hurt. I already hurt here, here, and here (pointing to various spots), why not just take blood from one of my two arms? She said she couldn't on the right side because of the puncture thru the elbow and they wanted that to get stitched first. So I said well what is wrong with the other arm. Well, that side is the break. I don't think I was being very cooperative because I didn't see how that should have anything to do with it, so instructed her to take the blood from the left arm. Okay fine, the nurse decides to just go along with me, since we weren't getting anywhere (but hey, I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon). So then she concludes that she can't take blood from the left arm because it would require cutting my shirt off and she said that she didn't have any scissors. I stared blankly at her and said "wait, let me get this straight -- we are in a hospital emergency room and YOU DON'T HAVE ANY SCISSORS???", and then "and since when do you care about cutting off somebody's clothes?". I told her that it was okay to cut the shirt, since the other sleeve had already been cut off, since it had been soaked in blood. So I think I'll live with the other sleeve being cut off, at least it will match that way. Next thing I hear drawers being opened and slammed and finally they get a pair of scissors and come cut the sleeve and finally get the blood drawn.

    The ER doctor finally shows up and I said "what do I have to do to get the really good drugs around here???". I told him that I felt that I had already been hurting long enough and would they just please hurry up already. They gave me a shot in the butt. This was another fun part. I got a different nurse for this. This one comes in and says "could you please just roll over on your side please". Easy for her to say. We finally managed to get the first shot. It didn't do very much, and a half an hour later I was still not happy, everything still hurt and now my butt was sore. I told them to give me another shot or else I would not stop whining, and boy could I whine because I was watching the clock tick away and starting to realize that I probably wouldn't get back in time to finish the ride. Damn. Going to get xrays was also a great experience, almost as much fun as the stitches were when the pain killer wasn't working. I really liked hearing comments from my dad like "oh yeah look you can see inside her mouth" (from the hole they were stitching closed. It was almost as much fun as hearing them view the xrays and going "oh wow, look at that break boy that's really bad". yeah, great. Hurry up already, I really want to finish this ride today. That's what I get for having my dad there. The Duck says I got pulled by "Father Option". Is there a category for that? He was more stressed than I was, and I realized that going back and getting on the horse to finish was not up for discussion. :+/ (they ended up taking my boots off and hiding them) The argument that it hurts more not getting to finish the ride than anything else didn't seem to get very far. ughhhhh

    I did manage to leave there with my sports bra still intact. I think it may have had something to do with my threatening to kill anybody who tried to take it off. It was a good thing that I was able to whine because it kept Nurse Ratchet at bay long enough for the pain shots to take effect before they got too carried away with trying to scrub the wounds clean. I just love how they are in no hurry to take away your pain but then want to flop you around like a glob of dough as soon as you get your shot.

    k


    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=