denise

OK so I’m not live blogging because Blogger does not like my cell phone service. Let’s pretend this is live, ok? I promise I’ll post as soon as I get into a room with a connection…apparently it will be dial up yet again. I’d heard they had added a hotspot when they remodeled last here but it appears I heard incorrectly. Yet another reason for me to be disgruntled at having to spend a few days (or a week) in the hospital.

Now I am jumping the gun a bit. I don’t know for sure we will actually be dropped into a room but I have strong suspicions. TW has Crohn’s Disease. That’s a new diagnosis, until last month we thought TW had Ulcerative Colitis. UC has put us in the hospital twice, for 9 day stays both times. So I have experience with this, none of it good.

She’s been fighting it for awhile, but here we are, back in the ER. She tried to hit up the primary care doc for a diagnosis of “flu” or even “strep throat” but no luck. The symptoms didn’t match so I guess it’s a good thing the doc said “No way, hit the ER and see what the GI doc says.”

Now about the ER… it’s crowded. Really crowded. Lots of little kids, one of whom is very busy. She is visiting with everyone and her really young mama is a little annoying. The child is cute, the mom is ummm not. Let the child be cute or keep her corraled but you just can’t have it both ways in this type of situation. (My parenting advice from the ER, I know you appreciate this.) Another small child in a stroller, drinking soy milk from a carton, with a yukky looking gash on her forehead. The difference between the two children and the two parents is amazing. But that’s they way, isn’t it?

Have I mentioned we’ve been here for 45 minutes and have not yet been checked in by the financial folks over in the corner? It’s going to be an incredibly long night – and it’s Gilmore Girls night! We only watch two TV shows and GG is one of them. The one we most love to watch with Michelle (our 15 year old). Michelle is taping it for us but it won’t be the same, ya know? Instead of GG, we are stuck with ABC news at the moment. Arnold and the California elections and some Nascar thing. I know I live in the south and consider myself a southern woman but Nascar just doesn’t do it for me.

woohooo, TW just got called in for vitals check. Next stop, financial district! Progess, ain’t it grand?

I’ve spent a lot of time in ERs all over the world and it’s interesting how sometimes people look incredibly ill and other times there’s no obvious reason for them to be there. Tonight is an overwhelming look and feel of illness. Not good, for all of these people or for my s/o with the auto-immune disease. The worst place in the world for someone with an A/I Disease is the hospital, ya know?

This ER has absolutely no reading material. None. Not a pamphlet or a magazine or a children’s book or a Bible in site. There are magazine/pamphlet racks but nothing there. The little closed off room that use to be nice to go to for peace and quiet or to corral children in is gone. They’ve changed the traffic flow outside and that area was turned into the entrance. So no quiet spot. No benches where people use to sleep while they waited. No area where small children can sit on the floor and play without being in someone’s way. I hope they remedy both the magazine and quiet room issue.

Speaking of reading material, of the zillion people here, only my s/o has a book. No magazines in sight either. Too sick to read? Even the friends and family are too sick to read?

Something else new about this ER. After you have your vitals taken, you’re given one of those flashing beeper pager thingies like they give you at really busy restaurants. I’ve only heard one buzz since we’ve been here. Have I mentioned we’re going to be here for ages?

I wonder if TW would be troubled if I drove across the street, borrowed the Starbucks Wi-Fi and posted this real quick…and grabbed a quad venti caramel macchiato in the process… I’m sure it would be fine if I brought an extra one back, right? Oh wait, TW is sick and it won’t stay down (to put it nicely). Starbucks should not be so close and yet so far away.

I think I’ll mention those nice security folks who work in the ER. The woman I’ve spoken to the most seems to be off duty. She does “coroner duty” when necessary on all of the floors. Now that’s a tough job. She also handles suicide watches, I know about this from experience and I’ll share that with you another time. And of course there are the other types of disturbances that come into the ER and the folks who get injured while trying to avoid arrest. Anyway, the security staff here is good. One dude gives me the creeps and I don’t really know why. TW says he’s a nice guy so maybe it is/was just me and my frame of mind that evil night when I first saw him. The security folks just escorted an elderly woman in a wheelchair out with a 30 something biker babe-ish woman. Now that was interesting. Wonder what was up with that? The stories we could make up. I think people with writers block should come and sit in an ER for an hour or so. Storylines and character development would begin to flow… and might never stop.

A frantic man who needs a wheel chair for his wife. She looks ummm not so good. A very loud man with “a serious hand smash” (he’s putting a note on his car right now because he’s in the ten minute loading/unloading zone. I wonder what the note will say?). Character development, I’m telling you.

Remember when using a cell phone in a hospital was bad? When did that change? Did it at one time interfer with pace makers or something? Is that why you couldn’t use them? I’m not a big cell phone person. I should look that up.

Six hours? The receptionist woman just told someone it could be six hours til they are seen. Now there is yelling. Scarey – both the yelling and the potential six hours. Where is Dr K to talk about what’s wrong with healthcare in this country? Or in any country for that matter?

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