Wednesday, October 27, 2010

All Night In The Emergency Room

No.
It had nothing to do with Raptor Red.
It went something like this.

  • Sunday afternoon, Mrs. FC leaves for a 3 day nurse conference in Sarasota.
  • Sunday afternoon, I take Raptor Red for a long ride north, continuing to break her in.
  • Sunday evening, I arrive home after dark and check my phone. There is a message from Mrs. FC that says Junior is having lower right quadrant abdominal pains.
  • During the next hour or so, there is much texting and calling back and forth as we monitored his situation (He is 40 miles away in his apartment).
  • At 11:30, I decide to err on the side of caution and take him to the emergency room in Gainesville.
  • I load Bear up with food and water, pat him on his massive head and take off.
  • Around midnight, Junior and I walk in to the North Florida Hospital emergency room.
  • We wait.
  • Triage happens.
  • Then we wait some more.
  • We chat, and sit ... waiting.
  • At 1:00 am, still waiting, a former student of mine hobbles out of the back and greets me as he exits the ER.
  • Small world.
  • Finally we are taken back to a room, where we wait.
  • A nurse practitioner comes in and checks Junior out.
  • She leaves.
  • A great perky nurse comes in after awhile with wisecracks and a great bedside manner. She plugs an IV into him and administers a dose of morphine.
  • It's 3:00 am by now and my fuzzy mind questions morphine, when he has only rated the pain at a 4 on a scale of 1-10 with ten being terrible pain.
  • Junior says his head is heavy, then recovers and is positively "chatty Cathy" for the next hour.
  • The nurse leaves a quart of Crystal Light with a marker in it for the CAT scan to come.
  • We talk, we text updates.
  • Twice he is rolled out for Scans.
  • I call and leave lesson plans for my Monday classes.
  • I doze in the hard chair, my head against the hard wall.
  • Total doze time that night, about 1 hour.
  • Around 8 am, the nurse practitioner returns with a diagnosis that doesn't rule out early appendicitis, but doesn't confirm it either.
  • Paperwork is signed, copayment is made, and the IV is removed.
  • I take Junior to his apartment at around 9:00 am, Monday.
  • I drive the 40 miles home, walk a desperate Bear, eat breakfast and crash in the bed until 3:00 pm.
  • After I awaken, I call his Pediatrician, Dr. Rosi, aka "THE GREATEST DOCTOR EVER!" to schedule a follow up.
  • She quizzes me and tells me it sounds like a muscular injury, but don't tell Junior as she wants a blank slate when she examines him Tuesday.
  • Tuesday, Junior and I go to see Dr. Rosi.
  • She is a work of art as she puts him through paces, studies him, pokes, prods, and watches.
  • I love this woman. She has doctored my kids since the eldest was an infant.
  • Diagnosis: a deep abdominal (he's got great abs) injury on the right side. College is okay, but no working out and no busing tables at the Texas Roadhouse this week.
  • We hit Publix and I buy him some groceries on the way to his apartment.
  • At 3 pm I am pulling in to the school where my academic team is waiting to board the bus for an out of town match.
  • We tie one and lose one at the match.
  • The kids want to hit Burger King since there is no fast food in their little hometown.
  • It's a treat, don't you know.
  • I capitulate.
  • The two girls behind the Burger King counter are former students of mine.
  • One asks me if I want the "Senior" coffee.
  • She was funny in class too.
  • I sip a cup of coffee (mistake!) while my team stuffs greasy food down their mouths.
  • As I am sitting wishing the kids to chew faster, the store manager comes walking over.
  • He too is a former student of mine, from a long time ago and we chat for awhile.
  • Finally, we are on the bus again heading back to school.
  • It is now 6:00 pm.
  • At the school, everyone has ride ... almost. So I stand around with my last kid until the parent shows up around 7:00 pm.
  • Then it's twenty miles to the house and Bear needs walking.
  • After the walk, I stir fry a solo portion of kung pao and talk to Bear while I eat it.
  • With supper over and that stupid coffee in my veins, I do a little virtual school grading on line until the nods finally come.
  • Mrs. FC calls from Sarasota and I update her.
  • One last walk with Bear before bed.
  • Crawl into bed and read until the sleep finally comes. (stupid, stupid late day coffee!)

That's how it went.

Just wanted y'all to know I wasn't slacking on ya'.

22 comments:

threecollie said...

I am tired from reading...and share you opinion of MickieD's coffee even though our middle one works there. Glad Jr. is okay,

Anonymous said...

Tell Jr. We're thinking of him and BTW sounds like you did a great job while the "real" nurse was gone. Hello to all!
Lightnin

kathy a. said...

oh, wow. what a long trek. glad junior's OK. and what a trip, seeing so many former students!

swamp4me said...

Wow, the extremes that a guy will go to just to avoid blogging...you could have just said that Bear ate your computer ;)
(But seriously, I'm glad everything turned out okay!!)

Anonymous said...

Hi FC's,

So happy to hear that Junior is okay!

p

who wouda thunk it?? said...

glad Jr is ok, but (smiles) why are so many of your former students working at BK??? Joking, of course)

MamaHen said...

Glad Jr. is okay! 'Senior' coffee, heehee, that's funny.... ;)

jojo said...

SO glad Junior is ok. Bear. and YOU!
lol el señor...

What gives with the morphine? is that standard practice? pretty scary if you ask me.

amarkonmywall said...

Really, it's exhausting just reading this post. But I'm so glad that Junior didn't end up in surgery and the coffee thing is your own fault (I'm SO unsympathetic to coffee issues, especially after traveling through Italy with an expresso wired husband). Good dog, Bear, for holding it.

Dani said...

Hope Jr. feels better soon. Hope you get some rest too. :)

Ericka said...

glad jr is okay.

amazing how long it takes, isn't it? i went to the urgent care yesterday for the creeping crud that invaded my chest, and between the doctor and the pharmacy, it took 6 hours. *headdesk*

poor bear! i'll bet he was frantic!

Deb said...

I hate it when I look up your blog and see a title like that! Glad Jr. is okay, although the morphine thing seems a little extreme. I think the full/waning moon affects sleep issues. At least that's what I'm telling myself after Sunday night.

Miz S said...

A truly dedicated blogger would have brought his laptop to the ER and blogged while waiting.

Slacker.

P.S. Glad it all turned out okay.

P.P.S. I like the "senior coffee" girl.

jean said...

Miz S said it best!

We'll consider it a lesson learned, that and no more coffee.

Dani said...

*snort* Mary does bring up a good point.

Anonymous said...

Glad it all worked out, well except for Jr's deep abdominal injury and your late-in-the-day coffee. Hope everything is going well by now, and Junior is following doctor's orders.

Thunder said...

Yeah right, slacker! ;-)

Glad to hear it wasn't anything serious!

The Florida Blogger said...

Wow! What an evening. Glad everything turned out alright!

Caroline said...

They need to put warning labels on those babies they send home from the hospital with us! Man, they can scare the daylights out of you sometimes, even when they are all grown up.

amarkonmywall said...

Here. Get this for Bear for Christmas. http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Treat-Machine-Interactive-Dog/dp/B002VUAX1S

LaDivaCucina said...

EEK! What a week! I'm glad to hear your young man is going to be ok! I love to hear that going to Burger King is a treat to those kids, how quaint! PS: Does running into your past students make you feel old?

R.Powers said...

Late getting here!
Thanks for all the Junior well wishes!

Miz S - I slack therefore I am.

Vicki - OMG! ordered it today.

Diva - yes, hell yes!