A visit to the ER

Well, I had a nice trip to the ER last night. Must say that it was a more enjoyable experience than I originally thought; it has been over 15 years since the last time I was in the ER. Well, for some reason I find these stories quite funny. I was helping one of our church member’s move, and I slid my hand along a box that had reinforced metal corners. The one corner served as quite a nice knife. When I realized what had happened, I looked down at my hand trying to evaluate the situation. Helping people move, you end up getting cuts all the time, so I figured I would just need a band aid. Not so, not so. As I stood at the edge of this moving truck, I begin to watch as my blood was pouring out onto the street. Against all my natural instincts, I figured it was time to ask for some help.

“Yeah….I could probably use some help here,” I said in my usual calm, quiet voice. Tom and Jim got me some of the napkins we had from the pizza dinner, and I attempted to stop the bleeding. That didn’t work so well, and I bled through those first napkins pretty well. After this though, I climbed down out of the truck and went into the house. I figured I would wash it out and then probably call it quits on the moving for that day, but Ben, in his great wisdom, was like, “You should probably go to the ER, Josh.” I’m not a big fan of going to the doctor in general, so I protested. Of course, this lead to more investigation being needed; after pulling back the cut and seeing the fatty tissue, I reluctantly agreed. I could see more than just my skin, so I agreed I should probably go; also, I’m not a big fan of infections.

Now, the decision had to be made how I was going to get there. I probably could have driven myself, but I would have bled all over my car. This led to another interesting conversation, as Brian and Ben debated who got to drive my car home! I quickly told them, that I had driven my OLD car, so this debate was unnecessary. If it had been my new car, I would have driven myself! ;-) I’ve got red seats you know, so blood wouldn’t stain too bad! Ben decided that his wife would drive me to the Emergicare because that would be a much faster in-and-out than the hospital. Brian quickly added that if I went to the actual ER, I would probably be there until 11 tonight.

The ride to the Emergicare was rather uneventful as I tried to keep from bleeding all over Ben’s car. I’m sure he’ll appreciate that in the long run! Emergicare was an interesting place. I was immediately informed that they didn’t take my insurance, and that I would be paying the full 345 dollars for the visit. I choked on this and asked Alicia if she would just drive me to the hospital instead. I would rather wait many hours than fork over 345 bucks when I have insurance! I guess I am cheap sometimes.

Penrose was actually much quicker than I thought. I had to sit and give the receptionist my information, and attempt to sign the co-pay receipt without bleeding on the paperwork, but it was all good. I was quite surprised when the receptionist asked me “my religious preference” after asking for my address. Don’t we live in a society that separates church and state with a 10 foot brick wall? I asked about this, and the receptionist told me that Penrose was a Catholic organization, so if I was dying, they needed to know what kind of priest to call for me. I laughed and told her I was a Protestant. She then directed me to the After Hours Clinic because that would be much quicker than the ER; this was good.

After I walked down to the After Hours Clinic, Ben calls me up. He found it amusing that my radio was tuned to 106.3 and it was playing Delilah. Mind you, I don’t listen to Delilah, as that show comes on later in the evening, but I do enjoy the soft-rock of 106.3 during the day sometimes. I guess he even called Brian over to hear what was playing on my radio, so now I’m sure I’ll get some grief about that. Oh well, I don’t mind, people usually get a kick out of my random weirdness.

I was called into the actual doctor’s office about 15 minutes later; he gave me some Novocain before stitching me up. While I was waiting for the Novocain to take full effect, I watched a young mother bring her daughter into the clinic. Her daughter had fallen and didn’t get up quickly enough for mother’s satisfaction. I thought for a while that perhaps she was just a bit obsessed as a parent for bring her daughter in to the ER when she just was favoring her arm a bit, but then maybe mothers should be very concerned about their children; it is much better than not caring at all.

After a few minutes of Novocain, the doctor came back and stitched me up. It was relatively painless process as I couldn’t feel that part of my hand. Even though it was my own hand, I found it interesting to watch how skilled he was at tying a knot in that incredibly fine thread. Putting that special stitching needle into my flesh and sewing on my hand should have hurt, I thought, but there was just numbness.

Tom and Ben were anxiously awaiting my presence in waiting room--it was flattering. I must indeed be blessed to have friends that would wait for me there when all I’ve done is just cut my hand.