Friday, January 06, 2012

My evening

So, how was your night?

Me? Well I woke up at 3am because I had to pee. When I open my right rye, it got stuck. My eyelid was in the way.

WTF?

I reached to feel my face and my entire right side and jaw to my left ear felt like there was concrete beneath the skin.

Really, WTF?

So I went to the bathroom and switched on the light. At first the brightness was blinding and I couldn't keep my eyes open. But when I did, this is what stared back at me from the mirror.


What the hell? Who came in and beat the shit out of my face?

So I got to thinking. Do I go to the hospital? Is there an urgent care center open? Should I wait until the morning to see a doctor.

My choices ran in my head for about a minute. There was no way I was going to be able to go back to sleep, so I let Barry out, put on some deodorant, brushed my teeth and got dressed. Then I googled the closest hospital. And off I went.

As I was driving there I wondered, do I call someone? Do I call Charles? He's only a mile from the hospital.


I went in and there were a few people waiting in the ER. I gave my info, and spoke to the triage nurse.

I told her all the medications I had taken that day. In addition to my normal meds, I was dosing up on pain meds to get rid of a headache and body aches I had had for the last two days. The last thing I took was Alka-Seltzer Cold tablets before I went to bed.

She handed me two Benedryl and I thought that these might be the most expensive Benedryl I have ever taken.


I sent out a quick text to a friend to let someone know where I was.

I waited back in the waiting room for about 30 minutes. I finally got called back by the doctor and he ran through the routine blood pressure, listening to lungs, but by this time the swelling had gone down enough where I looked human.

I was prescribed steroids and said was discharged.

As the nurse was gathering the rest of my insurance information I asked if I overreacted by coming into the ER. She said that allergies could spread quickly to the mouth and throat causing breathing problems, so I did the right thing by coming in. I think she was trying to make me feel better because I felt pretty stupid about the whole thing. Not that I was hoping for a full Scrubs episode, but I was in and out of the ER in less than an hour.

I'm glad I didn't call Charles. That would have been awkward.

1 comment:

  1. OK, if this ever happens again, just call me. I will be happy to listen and talk to you to chill you out. I can't promise that I won't give you a hard time afterward, but that will only be to keep things light.

    Seriously, call your friends (like me). We will be there for you, even if we can't be there for you.

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