We are not yet at that point where a phone call at 11 p.m. means something is wrong. The kids are up late and we’re generally up late so when the phone rang last night, I considered that pretty normal - right up until the part where Theresa said, “When was my last tetanus shot?” That was followed up with, “The campus nurse is here and says I need to go to the ER.”
Darling Daughter was going up the stairs in the dorm when she tripped. The stairs have metal edges. The nice metal edge sliced into her toe so she needed stitches. Did I mention her dorm room is on the 4th floor and there is no elevator in the building? We met her in her room and walked down to the car with Theresa hopping along. Soon as we get into the stairwell, she slips. “Can we please get to the hospital without you requiring a stretcher?” I told her.
It seems there is a rule in ERs about waiting a few hours. I don’t think I was ever in one where we didn’t sit and wait. We spent the entire time talking so that Theresa wouldn’t be thinking about her toe too much. We watched the cute, young cop who kept walking by. Theresa wanted to know what was taking them so long.
“Oh, they’re making sure they send you a really ugly doctor rather than one of those cute ones so they have to wait until an ugly one is free.” As it neared 2:30, we were getting a bit slap happy. She mentioned that maybe if her toe had come completely off, they would be helping her sooner. I replied that if it came off, she could have put the toe into her Delta Gamma scrapbook.
Finally a doctor came in to stitch her toe. Now I was always under the impression they used Novocaine so you wouldn’t be in pain while they were sewing you up. If I had known the Novocaine would barely make a difference, I could have saved us a whole lot of time and sewed it up myself.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:00 pm Quote
I have always thought that the novacaine shot hurt as much or more than it would have if they just stitched it up without any pain relievers.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:53 pm Quote
The injections from the Novocaine hurt like hell. Then, even with the Novocaine, the stitches hurt so the poor kid didn’t win either way. I spent most of today running around getting her Rx filled, trying to find her some sort of thing to wear on her foot since she can’t wear shoes, getting her assorted other first aid type things… I only got 4 hours of sleep and about ready to drop. Poor Frank only got 2 1/2.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm Quote
Agggh, sounds awful. The most painful shot I’ve ever received was in the bottom of my foot. About the only good thing about this is that with luck, Theresa will have her shoes on before the first snow hits.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:40 am Quote
Yeeouch! I can’t believe the novacaine didn’t work. When I slammed my head in a car door I cut my earlobe and my face. The novacaine worked then, but I could HEAR the stitching and I REALLY wanted to get up and run away.
Also, thanks for the google reader set-up. I figured it out quite quickly thanks to you!