My Broken Ankle Adventure III

So, after a peaceful, non-eventful ride to drop off the kids and then get some gas and then head on out to Spohn, we parked and JoAnne dropped me off where the ambulances bring patients. There was a think, Latino prisoner being watched by a lady cop. Joanne and I couldn't help but look at this young person in a head brace that looked like a wifi antaennae ( don't know how to spell antaennae). This young person was throughly sedated. We walked on to the triage age so they could assess my injury. After being warned by a well-meaning relative of some patient that it was a 6-8 hour wait. We asked her what was wrong with the patient. He had like boils and lesions. So, I understood what triage was doing. A boil or lesions should be handled in the doctor's office and not in the Emergency Room running up all kinds of expenses. It sounds like an out-patient surgical procedure. They took my info and we sat out in the waiting area and before hardly any time (we're talking ER time, like Dog Years), they called me to be assessed in Triage. Definitely,

a potentitial broken bone is more of an emergency. So, we walked to an exam room I hadn't seen yet. We waited. Nurse verified info. We waited. That took my vitals. We waited. Dr. Rudy came out and examined my ankle. We chatted and I by chance mentioned a previous break of that very ankle. Dr. Rudy had one of those Dr. House moments like where time stops and they do a surprised House face close-up.

An angel from heaven all glowy white and smiling brought me a pain-killer and a cup of water.

So, quite casually he suggests I get x-rayed just to make sure I didn't re-injure my old break.

Mr. Joe, came and applied an air-cast. I was pleased because it was not heavy and I could shower easily, scratch if necessary. They had splinted me in treatment of a sprain.

A nice x-ray tech showed up and wheeled me up to xray, splint in place, in a wheelchair.

I jumped on their counter and x-rays were taken of my foot in various positions. They wheeled me back to little exam gurney. Weeeeeee! That Lortab made for a nice improvement in my disposition and pain level. The wheelchair was much too much fun for a woman my age.

So, we waited. Joanne read her latest book. I fidgeted like a little kid. I was so tired. The Lortab helped but made me sleepy. Suddenly, an x-ray machine was at my feet at the end of my gurney. Now they needed x-rays without the splint. I knew it. So, we unwrapped my ankle and they positioned their x-ray machine and took more intimate pictures of my right ankle.

We waited. After some while they came back to tell me the old fracture had been re-fractured. Sonuva!!! In came Joe with a new cast for me. This time a hard cast. I was told to get an appointment with ortho as soon as possible.

They gave me crutches. I am horrible on crutches. I am more likely to cause more harm than prevent it in crutches. So, we went to the window and I was processed out. Right by us were about 6 very big Bandidos, their ladies, and an older Bandido that wasn't looking so good.

They gave me my prescription and I found out that they had a 24 Spohn pharmacy. Good to know. After I paid $10, she released 1 more 24 hour period's dosage. So, we were off to wait for 1 days worth of pills. We passed the Bandido contingency and now the sick dude looked like he wanted to hurl. We flew past that and ended up waiting at the Pharmacy.

We waited. I got my meds.

We passed the waiting area and everyone was gone except for the Bandido Lady and about 3 Bandidos. We asked about their friend and they said he was in bad shape but was getting help now. We told her we'd pray some for him. We tried to open the glass doors but between me, crutches, laptops, purses, backpacks that wheelchair was something else to handle. Three of those Bandidos jumped up like Knights in T-shirt Armor in their leathers, bandanas, and badges, and they made sure we cleared the glass doors. They were very gentelmanly. Joanne went to bring the car closer and I just stared at the stars wondering WTF.

We went (the trip was a blur, I took 1 Lortab and now had a foot in a cast). We were gonna treat ourselves. It represented the substitution of something sinful in place of the paper dolls my mother used to give me when I got sick.

So, we relaxed and Joanne had some Strawberry Pancakes, I had Strawberry Blintzes, and we split a fried banana Cheesecake with nuts at IHOP. The evening was complete. Joanne dropped me off and I made my way to bed and lay down. Emotionally drained. Physically in pain. Discouraged. We bantered with a very charming mid-east gent, manager, and then it was all over for anything strawberry on that table.

I slept all that day after the sun came up on Wednesday.

The next Thursday morning Joanne picked me up and we were off to CC around 8:30am when she discovered me posting and awake on FB and declared that we may as well get an early start. I agreed.