Emergency Room

Yesterday our family made a trip to the emergency room. It turned out to be a long wait for inconclusive results:

Sunday night Jennie was having abdominal and back pain, which kept her from going to sleep. At about 1:30 AM we drove to the hospital. Jennie was admitted at
1:40 AM. About an hour and a half later Keisha and I were asked to go to her room. We waited. And tried to keep Keisha from getting into everything.

Keisha had a rough time waking up, but after about an hour, she was wide awake, as though it was daytime. So there Jennie and I were, extremely tired, trying to keep Keisha from getting into everything in the examining room.

With the pillow Keisha brought I lay down on the floor and tried to doze off. How crazy. No chance of getting to sleep there. Why the long wait, we wondered. I went to the nurses' station and asked what was taking so long. I found out that they needed to do some tests on Jennie to try to uncover what was wrong.

I asked Jennie if she would mind if Keisha and I went out to get a bite to eat. She said she didn't mind.

So Keisha and I got into the car, trying to dodge the freezing rain, and we drove to the ATM and then to White Castle, the closest 24-hour restaurant. Of course they didn't have the Cinnamon rolls we wanted, so we opted for the Cheese danish and Apple danish. We drove back to the hospital parking lot and ate our food, and then we went back inside the ER. Nothing had changed; Jennie was still waiting, but fortunately, she had gotten a little bit of sleep.

I asked Jennie if she would mind if Keisha and I went back to the car and napped. She said she didn't. I told her that the hospital folks could call us on the cell phone if they needed. So Keisha and I went back to the car and fell asleep. At about 5:30 AM Jennie came out, having been discharged and with a prescription in hand.

It all seemed like a waste of time, to have waited so long for something that might as well been taken care of at the doctor's office. But, I guess it's better to be safe.

Jennie and I were suprised that Keisha still wanted to go to school, having had intermittent sleep during the night. But she insisted. I, on the other hand, chose to stay home and take care of Jennie. This came in handy when I go a phone call to go pick up a friend who had just had outpatient surgery. I was able to let Jennie sleep while I picked our friend up. I also was able to see Keisha off the school bus when it was time for her to come home.

In between these times, I got some more sleep. In fact, at about 2:30 PM, I told Jennie I was going to take a nap. I woke up at 8 PM.

It was indeed a crazy day.