so, after i said that my trip to chattanooga was drama free, don't worry memphis more than made up for it. anyone who has been around me knows that i broke my fibula bone back in october. so, for the past four months, i've been in a walking boot and through physical therapy. i just recently joined the gym and started easing my way back into working out again. i have been so excited about working out and losing weight... well, as my luck would have it... that probably isn't going to be the case.
it's an ongoing joke with most of my friends how clumsy i am, i fall all the time. i mean, recently on facebook they posted memories about me, and they all had a memory of me falling, and usually it involves blood, tears, bruises, sprains, breaks, or crutches - i go all out, haha.
so, i guess my ankle joint (where the fibula bone break was) is still pretty weak... i turned my ankle over this morning. i seriously feel like i have an okay tolerance of pain, but this morning i thought i was going to die when i this happened. i couldn't walk. i managed to crawl back up to the bed. i was in memphis and couldn't walk, stranded, i had no choice but to call an ambulance to go to the ER. fun times. i have actually never been in an ambulance, so that was an experience.
first i'll start with the first responders, they came in my hotel, ask me a bunch of questions, my address, social, insurance information, and doctor information. i tell these people numerous times that i do not live in memphis - would i really have called for an ambulance for a broken bone? i would have had a family member taken me to a doctor if i was from the area. then the paramedics arrive, they ask the same exact questions, i repeat, i do not live in the area. they splint the ankle, in quite possibly the most ridiculous thing i've ever seen but that is okay... on the way to the ambulance we go. in the ambulance she continues to ask me questions. again, i tell her, now for the third time that i am not from memphis. keep count how many times i have to tell these people this critical piece of information.
so, on to baptist hospital i go. at this point, i'm so mad at myself. i hate that i am at the emergency room. i wish that i was at home, so i could have put my walking boot on that i already have, and just made an appointment with my orthopedist and carried on with my day... so frustrating. the admissions rep is the wackiest lunatic i have ever met in my life... he proceeds to ask me a million questions, including the same question that the first responders, the paramedics, and nurses in the ER... who is my doctor in memphis? did they miss the memo that charlotte is not in tennessee or memphis for that matter.
meanwhile, i should interject and say that quintiles was amazing today. i called my line manager when all this happened. she helped in a big way. she called my site and cancelled for me. she called another monitor in memphis to see if she could come and help me out if needed. the other monitor was willing to take me to the airport if i couldn't drive - i mean, the outpouring of support i got from all of these people was overwhelming to me. this other monitor didn't even know me and she was willing to come help me out, just so i could get home, i thought that was so nice. my study coordinator at the site was going to stop by the ER if i was still there and check on me, but luckily i was able to get out of there after just 4.5 hours, ha. i am so thankful for my job and the people i work for. i am so blessed.
back to the ER. so, i get back to the room in the ER, and don't see a staff member for the next 2 hours. finally a nurse practitioner comes in and asks the sames questions again. she cuts off the "bo-bo" splint and finally asks a few questions about my foot. she says, i really won't know anything until i get the pictures... i'm thinking no crap. so, she says it will be just a few more minutes until radiation comes to get you for x-rays. about 40 minutes later, i am pissed (sorry for my language) but it is the truth. i hop to the door, and get a nurse to come back there. i explain to him that i need to catch a plane, and how i am not from memphis and don't want to be stuck there all weekend. i explain that i am tired of being stuck in this room. he apologizes, and goes to find out what the hold up is. amazingly, 5 minutes later, the mean x-ray tech arrives.
the x-ray tech could have broken my leg even more with her aggressiveness. she had absolutely no bedside manner. i still am shocked with how aggressive she was. i mean, i was in a lot of pain. she took 4-5 x-rays, and wheeled me back to the jail cell as i like to refer to it as. i then am enlightened to the fact that the part of the ER that i have been placed in is called, get ready for this one, "FAST TRACK." i could laugh still at this one. the nurse, bless his heart, brian, was so nice. he was explaining how they are actually one of the fastest ER programs in tennessee, with this "fast track" system, but today they had an influx of people around 11AM, when they opened. i will give brian major credit though, once i spoke up and told him about my flight and wanting to get home, he really stepped up. he even wheeled out to the cab once i was discharged to get back to my hotel.
the nurse practitioner came back in and put me back in a walking boot. she even suggested crutches, i told them to keep the crutches, that i would not use them. i then get the cab driver to take me back to my hotel. i hobble around and get my stuff together.
i get back to the memphis airport. i get wheeled around in a wheel chair there. that was kind of a weird experience - i felt kind of stupid, but oh well there is no way i could have walked that far in the pain i was in. so, i sit at the gate, waiting for time to preboard. they gate agent calls the preboarders... the people who need, "extra time to get down the jetbridge." so, i go to hand my boarding pass to the gate agent, and this man was standing up near the door. he didn't appear to have a handicap or anything, i thought he was just a platinum or chairman preferred member with us airways waiting to board. i was trying to hand my boarding pass to the gate agent in front of this man, and he says, "um, NO, i am FIRST!" i literally couldn't believe it. i hobbled back, and let this man go first. he proceeded to fly down the jetbridge with no problems. the gate agent couldn't believe it, he said that was so rude, i am sorry that happened mamn. i managed to get down the jetbridge. i get on the plane and realize that this man did indeed have a glass eye, so he is allowed to preboard, so i understand his reasoning for preboarding, but still he could have politely told me that he would like to board first.
i finally arrived in charlotte around 10pm last night, exhausted from the days adventures. my foot was swollen, but i took a prescription strength naproxen and slept like a baby. please pray that this is just a minor setback in my road to recovery. in the grand scheme of things, this is just a little broken bone or bad sprain more than likely, but i go back to the dr. allen on tuesday to see what she says, so we shall see.
No comments:
Post a Comment