My Record Remains Safe
Hello! So last weekend i had a bit of a scare. I got a fever and of course our (my parents and me) minds immediately went to worst case scenario. Did i have an infection? Had we done something wrong? Was our record of a year and 2 months without an infection going to end? The fever got up to 102.5 and me and my dad started packing. I got PJ's, my retainer, books, video games, phone, music, tooth brush, and my panda bear. Daddy got his IPad, his wallet, and a bottle of soda to keep him up and we headed out into the not so late night. It was only around 7:30pm when we left but both me and my dad knew that we were likely to be up for the next 7 hours. We were facing the infamous EMERGENCY ROOM.
Having a chronic medical condition means that i am no newbie to the Emergency Room. Therefore i knew to expect the worst going in. The Emergency room is one of those things people joke about like airplane food or their ex-wife. In the ER everything takes forever, everyone can be completely forgotten and you can be there for anywhere from 4 to 13 hours. We walked in, they checked us in and we were systematically forgotten about for the next hour and a half. Finally once my nurse remembered i was there, she came in and introduced herself. One of the most annoying parts about the ER in my opinion is that you can never really be that mad. No matter how long anything takes, they are generally pretty nice and they are willing to be there at 10 pm until about 5 am. My nurse was nice. She made jokes, smiled and sympathized with me when the doctors told me i needed to get blood drawn from my arm. After meeting my nurse i was then introduced to a doctor who had to be completely caught up on my entire medical history. After ordering blood tests and telling me that she would try to get everything taken care of as fast as possible, we began the waiting game. My dad and i played games on my Ipod, we made jokes about the many noises we heard (the door sounded exactly like a cat!!), got snacks from the vending machine, and tried to find medical supplies to play with. (Anyone for a game of "Fling the wadded up paper towel of tongue depressors" or " lets blow up gloves like balloons and hit each other"?)
At about midnight the tests came back, on paper there was nothing wrong with me. That doesn't mean that i don't have to be admitted, it just means ... well to be honest I'm not really sure what it means. I guess that they can't tell what's wrong with me yet. They got me all checked in so that i could be eventually moved up to my temporary dwelling in C51- Pediatric Transplant unit. A funny doctor came and asked me all sorts of questions about school, and how much food i had eaten during Thanksgiving. Doctors in the emergency always want to know about your life. I'm not sure if they ask to distract you from being in the hospital or if they actually want to know. Either way i answered his questions and i was moved upstairs.
Even though i dislike being in the hospital, it is definitely a relief to get to my usual floor. I know the nurses, i know the doctors, i know how to hold down on button on the remote to get it to flip through channels faster and i know how to figure out what's going on. All the nurses said hi, commented on my new hair style and my lack of braces. My dad went home and i watched tv till about 1 am.
The hospital visit wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I ate, i got preventative antibiotics in case there was anything wrong, doctors came to see me and i did some homework. I got visits from all the different people that are supposed to make your stay in the hospital better. The child life person came and asked if i wanted any games and i got some colored pencils so i could work on a map for AP World. The pastor came and we talked about his recent trip to ireland. My nurse came and we chatted about high school, the ongoing search of colleges, and she was able to find me some chips that were MUCH tastier than what was on my hospital meal tray. I never grew a culture and was let out on monday afternoon with a diagnosis of "you probably got a virus".
Everything turned out all right in the end and my record was not tarnished. Have a great day to all that read what i have put out into the Webiverse. Good Bye!
Having a chronic medical condition means that i am no newbie to the Emergency Room. Therefore i knew to expect the worst going in. The Emergency room is one of those things people joke about like airplane food or their ex-wife. In the ER everything takes forever, everyone can be completely forgotten and you can be there for anywhere from 4 to 13 hours. We walked in, they checked us in and we were systematically forgotten about for the next hour and a half. Finally once my nurse remembered i was there, she came in and introduced herself. One of the most annoying parts about the ER in my opinion is that you can never really be that mad. No matter how long anything takes, they are generally pretty nice and they are willing to be there at 10 pm until about 5 am. My nurse was nice. She made jokes, smiled and sympathized with me when the doctors told me i needed to get blood drawn from my arm. After meeting my nurse i was then introduced to a doctor who had to be completely caught up on my entire medical history. After ordering blood tests and telling me that she would try to get everything taken care of as fast as possible, we began the waiting game. My dad and i played games on my Ipod, we made jokes about the many noises we heard (the door sounded exactly like a cat!!), got snacks from the vending machine, and tried to find medical supplies to play with. (Anyone for a game of "Fling the wadded up paper towel of tongue depressors" or " lets blow up gloves like balloons and hit each other"?)
At about midnight the tests came back, on paper there was nothing wrong with me. That doesn't mean that i don't have to be admitted, it just means ... well to be honest I'm not really sure what it means. I guess that they can't tell what's wrong with me yet. They got me all checked in so that i could be eventually moved up to my temporary dwelling in C51- Pediatric Transplant unit. A funny doctor came and asked me all sorts of questions about school, and how much food i had eaten during Thanksgiving. Doctors in the emergency always want to know about your life. I'm not sure if they ask to distract you from being in the hospital or if they actually want to know. Either way i answered his questions and i was moved upstairs.
Even though i dislike being in the hospital, it is definitely a relief to get to my usual floor. I know the nurses, i know the doctors, i know how to hold down on button on the remote to get it to flip through channels faster and i know how to figure out what's going on. All the nurses said hi, commented on my new hair style and my lack of braces. My dad went home and i watched tv till about 1 am.
The hospital visit wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I ate, i got preventative antibiotics in case there was anything wrong, doctors came to see me and i did some homework. I got visits from all the different people that are supposed to make your stay in the hospital better. The child life person came and asked if i wanted any games and i got some colored pencils so i could work on a map for AP World. The pastor came and we talked about his recent trip to ireland. My nurse came and we chatted about high school, the ongoing search of colleges, and she was able to find me some chips that were MUCH tastier than what was on my hospital meal tray. I never grew a culture and was let out on monday afternoon with a diagnosis of "you probably got a virus".
Everything turned out all right in the end and my record was not tarnished. Have a great day to all that read what i have put out into the Webiverse. Good Bye!
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