I’ve spent many hours in hospital emergency rooms- as an employee, a friend, a family member, and as a patient. I have lived a rather accident-prone life beginning with a car accident when I was just an infant. In early childhood a window fell on me during a storm. When I was nine I stepped on a broken bottle while swimming in the river and severely cut my foot. I got hit in the face with a wooden box when I was about ten. Broke my arm when I was twelve. I’ve left out six or eight things, but you see the pattern. As an adult I’ve been in three more car accidents, broken five more bones, had nine surgeries, and a couple of diseases that warranted a little emergency room care. I’ve had a collapsed lung and a detached retina. However, I never imagined that Gary would be tying my shoes for me and packing me into the car for a trip to ER because of a nose bleed. What a whimpy thing to add to the list! In my own defense I was simply following orders. I’ll save you the details, but my doctor said, “if…., then go to ER” and the conditions met his criteria, so off we went.
The emergency room feels safe and comforting to me. As I said earlier, I’ve worked in ER as an EKG tech, and for a week I even worked in our local emergency room as a switchboard operator. (The week part of that is another blog.) I know that once I get there I don’t have to control whatever condition or disease I’ve been battling. I can let the experts handle it.
However, some people are frightened and intimidated by the emergency room or by hospitals in general. The environment is alien to them- filled with machines and procedures that are also frightening. And they are in an emotional state anyway because of whatever circumstances sent them to seek help. The situation is often more upsetting to the family members in the waiting room than it is to the patient receiving care. Our arrival in ER yesterday coincided with the arrival of an ambulance with a critical patient. We spent the first hour just sitting in the waiting room while the staff worked on her. I felt so sorry for her family, but they finally got “out of hand” to the point that a police officer had to calm them down.
So…yesterday wasn’t a perfectly perfect day. After three hours in the emergency room I had to go see my regular doctor and get a referral to an ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor). I told Gary that this is the sure sign of old age- your conditions get to be too complicated for one doctor to handle! Lol I now have three doctors. I think if the list gets to six you have to start worrying.
I’ll see the new doctor today and let you know what he says. Even if you aren’t sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what happens next in my life, you may have to deal with nose bleeds at some point and you may learn a few things from my experience. I always recall the summer that Gary nearly died from diverticulitis. Just the week before I had read an article in a magazine about a woman who went through a similar experience. Having that knowledge helped me more than I can ever explain.
I hope today is better for all of us.
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