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Jan 24, 2006
i love th e.r. My visit in October was so much fun, I decided to go back today. The reason: It's something that I call the 5'8" theory. Here's the thing . . . according to the last statistics I read, 5'8" is considered the average height for a male. I'm 5'10", which is not what one would consider "above average" height. But think about it . . . most things are designed for people who fall within the average. So if you look at the design of doors and cabinets and such, they are designed for average people. So two inches shouldn't make that much of a difference, right??? Most of the time, that's correct. I don't live life as a tall man. And that's really the point. Someone who is 6'2" is always watching their head, since it's so often in danger of bumping into something. For a 5'10" person like me, we live life a bit too carefree. Most of the time, things are fine, because again, we aren't "tall." But on occasion, there are certain doorways and other hazzards that are just right there at the point, that if we step with just a little too much bounce in our step, BAM!! All of this is to say, I hit my head on stuff a lot. And it's all because I'm 2 inches too tall or too short. So, today, I'm going down to the copy room to get some legal paper to stock on another floor. It's not a terribly busy day, but it's pretty steady, so I have my mind on several things that need to be taken care of within the next couple of hours. I bend down to pick up the paper, and "BAM", I hit my head on a cabinet really hard. So, it hurts really bad, as all such bumps would. But, I think I'm just going to shake it off after about a minute. And, the pain starts going down really quickly. At this point, I'm wondering if anyone in the copy room saw what happened. Because that would be really embarrasing. It turns out, someone did. And she asks if I'm okay. I said yeah, thinking that that was the case. But, then a secretary who happened to be in there tells me to move my hand so she could take a look at it. So, I do and she starts flipping out. So, I look at my hand, and there's a good bit of blood on it. So, I head for the mens room, and she says something about calling 911 and tells one of the guys in the copy room to follow me. If you are the squimish type, you may want to skip the next couple of lines. Pick it up following the next ** So, I head for the bathroom, but at this point, I can feel the blood trickling down my face. Some of it starts flowing onto the lense of my glasses, and I can see it dripping all over my shirt. It's the most I've ever bled, that I can remember. So, I get into the men's room and look in the mirror, and my face is literally covered with blood. Anyway, as I'm trying to clean some of it off, the guy from the copy room gets my boss who comes and checks it out. His opinion was that calling 911 was a bit of an overreaction, but stitches were not out of the question. So, he goes to get his car to take me to the ER. ** Anyway, as I got cleaned up, it became clear that it initially looked a lot worse than it actually was. By the time the guy from the copy room got the first aid kit, it was barely bleeding. Apparently, as many people pointed out to me, scalp wounds bleed a lot more than other wounds. That explains some of the issues I've had since I started shaving my head. We got the sinks cleaned up, got my head bandaged, and I was off to meet my boss. It probablly wasn't necessary, and if I had done this at home, I wouldn't have gone to the ER, but this being work related, they weren't taking any chances. So, I show up at Deaconess Hospital, and fill out some paperwork. They asked me a bunch of questions, and they didn't seem to happy with a couple of my answers, in particualr :Do you have a family physician?? No. And "Is your tetinus shot up to date?" I don't know. "Has it been more than 10 years?" Probablly. Anyway, so I give them a friends name as my GP, and they seemed happy with that. The tetinus shot became a recurring theme, however. Anyway, they take me back to the treatment room, where I sit for a while alone. Then a nurse comes in with more paperwork, and asks me a few questions, including the one about the tetinus shot. Then the doctor comes in, takes a quick look at my head, asks me about my tetinus shot, and then leaves. So, I sit alone for a half an hour in that room. Then, the doctor comes in and glues my head back together. That's right, glue. No stitches or staples. Just glue. Pretty cool. Then, I wait another 15 minutes, and the nurse comes back with some instructions, and a form to give to my employer. And then, she gives me a tetinus shot. Good for 10 more years. Bring on the rusty nails!!!! So, a few observations: 1. I went almost a year and a half without health insurance. The ironic part is that I worked for medicaid for a lot of that time. Anyway, in that time, nothing ever happened. In the past 5 months, when I started working full time and became covered by health insurance, I have had 2 trips to the ER. 2. I think the show ER was very misleading. There should have been a lot more scenes with people sitting in a room by themselves. 3. My head has glue on it. 4. It will be a few weeks before I get to shave my head again. 5. They seemed really worried about the tetinus shot. 6. Rumor has it that "Hard Hat" is going to be my new nickname at works So, anyway, after all of that, I have to go back to work for the final 3 hours of my shift. Eventful day. But, I'm fine. posted
by Unknown @ 11:21:00 PM |
