Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Love. Life. Laughter….while in a small town ER

Its sad that a hospital visit is what it takes to get the ME back that ive wanted. But well…that’s what happens when youre in a very small town hospital with literally nothing better to do than sit and stare out the huge window across the room and look at a trailer park. Yes that’s right…a trailer park.

Now let me explain to you some of the happenings before I got to view this lovely scenery for almost 24 hours. …

I got sick.

Lol…ok ill give ya more than that lol..my head was congested…I had the entire body fever…chills and (for lack of a better term) hot flashes…nausea when eating…I was a disaster (and yes this part Does relate to the whole story) and in two days went to the bathroom a total of 3 times. Tmi. I know oh well. Too late to take it back hehe. Ultimately I was taken to the hospital Tuesday evening and was hooked up to an iv with morphine..sound familiar? I had a fever of 102.5 and my white blood cell count was 25.9 (they like it between 5 and 10). Then once they determined it wasn’t mono they gave me some meds to actually make me feel better. That night I believe I was stabbed 3-4 times with needles (for bood and then the iv)…this too is important. Once I finish every drop in the saline iv bag…the nurse was adamant I get every drop. Ive personally never seen someone stand there and tilt the bag until it was empty…ya..it happened. My temp when I left was still over 100. So once that is complete I head home…try and eat some simple foods and take my meds (augmentin tastes terrible. I kid you not. Even when you don’t cut that horsepill in half its terrible. Im sitting here tasting it from when I took it last night. Ya…*shudder* vicodin…now there is another drug to give you the chills. When the doc said she was sending me home with vicodin I think my jaw actually dropped. Vicodin is what House is addicted to on House md. …this is serious narcotics). I take the augmentin, the 2 vicodins, and 4 200 ibuprofens as instructed to do by the doctor…extreme? I say yes. Went to bed. Woke up, felt nauseous, spat some gunk out in the toilet and promptly fell asleep leaning on the toilet bowl…2 hours later…what came up was black. Now this is where reading too much and being too educated can psych you out…one of my favorite books I read over and over is called the hot zone…it’s about the origin and outbreaks of the Marburg and then the ebola virus. “what hiv can do to a person in 7 years…ebola can do that in 7 days.” Its nasty nasty stuff and I have no clue why I love reading that book…but I do. One of the things tho is that ebola literally turns everything to mush inside and you puke black stuff within other stuff..coffee grounds is what it looks like fyi lol (and yes when I told the doc it was black, she asked if it looked like coffee grounds…it kinda did…) but anyways…no I don’t have ebola…no im not gonna die lol…but it was just kinda funny to me. I skipped my morning dosage of pills and slept and slept and slept.

Emily woke me up when she brought my saddle that had just been delivered…oh. Well…surprise! I bought a saddle. Ya..i know what youre prolly thinkin…a saddle? You work on a ranch! Are there not plenty of saddles? Why did you need to buy one? Theres not enough room to store your saddle anywhere is there…and how much do saddles cost huh? Well. Let me lay it out for ya…I bought the saddle 3rd hand off blonde Emily here. Its an all purpose that was mainly used for barrels for quite some time. It’s an original circle y saddle with the acorn pattern detailed into the leather. The seat is roughed leather and is a lighter color than the rest of the saddle. Its in great condition and is a size 14 seat…it’s a near perfect fit and once im in the saddle on a horse, we’ll see if I like it even better…which im sure I will. Granted the saddle is built for a quarter horse build but that can be dealt with easily. Brand new saddles start at a thousand dollars…better quality are more expensive obviously. Now the ranch has this deal with a saddle company…you tell us what you want in a saddle (size, design, buckin rolls, cantle, tree, skirt…everything) and you get it half off from what we would normally sell it for and you can get it within a matter of days…(because they just throw the pieces together and voila you have your saddle). JR, one of the wranglers did that and payed $660 for his. What I spent was $330 for a saddle in great condition with a breast collar and shipping. If I want buckin rolls, I can get some later on down the road. I figure that I can spend 300 on a saddle that does everything I need it to and as long as I take care of it and keep it soaped and oiled, I can have this saddle basically forever. Plus, my major and what I want to do in life kinda demands I have some equipment. And having a saddle so I don’t have to rush to grab in horsemanship cause it’s the only one that fits me would be amazing and I won’t have to worry about stirrup length cause I already have it set to exactly how I like it. So there. I bought a saddle and I love it.

Promptly after em left the room…my next porcelain bowl encounter was a green one. Disgustingly green…called the doc up and asked if they thought I should come in…basically the answer was no. so Kirsten went and picked up my prescription and picked up a bottle of anti-nausea medicine. I took some of that, took my meds, had a little bit of light food (or so I thought) and about an hour later it came up too. After this final red experience I called the hospital…they agreed it wasnt working and to come in. they had saved a spot for me (small hospitals can only hold so many).

Pause here…im done writing and so hopefully theres a second part to this lol

and comment from blonde emily today referring to someone we work with..."i hope she gets eaten by an armadillo!" ...oh brother!