This was suggested by a friend who is a member of NOTH that I put this here, because she thought other members would be interested.
It has been a crazy week around here, Claire a friend of mine was staying at her camp. Well she hurt her back (has had problems since a car accident) so I have been helping her to the local ER. Well this time the local ER said she should go to the ER near her where they have back specialists. They wouldn’t transport her by ambulance they said she wasn’t bad enough, despite the fact she had no feeling in her left leg from her hip down to her toes and couldn’t walk, nor drive, etc. So I couldn’t stand to see her that way, so off we went to the ER near her home (65 miles away). While there she needed an MRI, they don’t have them at the hospital, so we took an ambulance ride from the hospital to a building across the street and around the block, there and back (foolish huh!). She has claustrophobia and didn’t want to go alone so I got to ride in the ambulance with her both ways. I have never been in one and thought I hope I am not claustophobic!
On top of that my dog was at the vet hospital back home, so while she was in the MRI machine I was trying to find someone who could go and pick him up for me before they closed, because my husband did not get out of work til 4:30 and had a appointment at 5. Well it ended up she has something wrong with a disk in her back and may need surgery and needed to see a doctor in her home town the next morning. Well she couldn’t stay by herself at home, because all her stuff and regular medication was at the camp, the hospital wouldn’t keep her, so I took her back to her camp. Luckily the lady who lives next door is a retired nurse and hasn’t moved back home liked a lot of her neighbors. So she was going to be better off there and I and a friend of mine are going to get her on Friday morning and we are going to move her back to her home after her appointment. We are hoping that the doctor will set something up for her and if we get her moved out of camp she will be able to stay at her house. The lady next door and I did a lot of packing to get ready for her move on Friday morning.
Well I added a friend Bob to the group to help my friend Claire and we were like the three stooges – LOL! I got up early to get ready and for some fool reason decided to color my hair –don’t ask me why. So I did it and while waiting for the 30 minute set time went to check out my computer – another dumb move because I need more than 30 minutes when I get on the computer. Well as I was heading back upstairs to rinse out my hair when Bob called and said Claire had fallen and was flat on the floor and we would need to leave sooner than planned. So I dunked my head under the sink, rinsed myself out, put a comb through and flew out the door. Picked up Bob told him I hadn’t had breakfast so stopped at Dunkin Donuts. He said he would pay because he wanted a coffee. He gave me a $20 bill I grabbed the coffee and donut and started to take off, when we realized I forgot the change. Backed up (everyone in line) and got the change.
Left again and headed for Claire’s camp, nervous the whole time thinking she was lying on the floor. We get there and there are three cars there. She had crawled to the phone, called Bob first, then her neighbor (80 year man with heart problems) who called the local store/restaurant and asked if any people there knew Claire and could they come and help get her off the floor, so three elderly couples came. They had just got her off the floor when Bob and I arrived. One of the ladies had come after I left on Thursday and packed up the rest of Claire’s stuff and the neighbor and her put it all in Claire’s car, so all we needed to do was bring in Kayak into the garage and catch her five cats.
Now I love animals but these animals were outraged at all the commotion going on there and were hiding in the most peculiar and very small places. So upstairs I went searching for cats, crawling under beds, checking out closets, chasing them all over the place and all I could catch was four and get them into their carriers. We left enough food and water for the other one and someone tthis weekend is suppose to be going to the camp to clean it up and close it for the season and catch the fifth cat.
So we put the cats in the back of my car face to face so they could see each other, got Claire in the car and Bob drove hers and we headed to her home 65 miles away to drop off her car, cats and stuff and take her to her appointment. On the way down one of them got sick and two others went to the bathroom, all the windows in the car quickly went down, thank goodness it was all in the carriers and not my car. By the way Bob is a bad back seat driver; he also doesn’t understand that until I shut the car off and take out the keys his door will not unlock. Claire stayed in the car the whole time we were at her house. So now off to the doctors.
We get there, the building next to the hospital and couldn’t get close enough to keep her from walking to far. So I told Bob he was either going to have to take her upstairs to the doctor’s office by himself or go park my car. He didn’t want to carry her pocketbook (that was funny), but decided it was better than driving my car. I had to still get out of the car and give her the walker (Bob forgot to) and then Bob expected her to get out of the car by herself, which she couldn’t. So once I got them on their way, jumped back into my car found a parking space in the garage and headed back to her doctor’s office. She was in there a long time and they came out to get me. She had broken down when they told her the news that she was going to have to have surgery and right away because the numbness in her left was increasing because the herniated disk was doing something to her spine (not sure of all the medical talk) and they came to get me to help her calm down. She had back surgery years ago from a car accident, but this time her parents are deceased, she has no siblings and no one to help take care of her. Her relative with medical power of attorney, etc is 86 years old! The doctor told her she needs to find someone younger but she has no one.
So going down the elevator Bob said he is hungry and will take us out to eat at Denny’s. Claire is not sure because her pain meds are wearing off and she forgot to bring them, and we need to go back to the MRI building to get some more x-rays first. So I go get the car, pick them up, drive to the MRI building (thank goodness for the Ambulance ride because I now knew how to get there). Help get Claire out of the car, Bob is still holding on to the door, get Bob to take her in, go park my car and go in myself. They want Claire to sign in; she needs to sit because of how painful it is to walk, so I sign her in. They come get her after a while and Bob and I wait and he wants to talk politics. I told him no way because I knew he wanted McCain and I have decided on Obama since Hilary wasn’t in the running. So I gave him a puzzle to do. Then just before Claire came back out, Bob needed to use the bathroom. So I told him where they were. He hadn’t come out, when Claire did, so I had to get Claire settled in a chair and we had to wait for Bob who had gone into the ladies room and not the men’s room. When he came out I told him to read the sign next to the door, boy did he feel foolish but all the staff around desk all cracked up laughing. So I went to get the car again, help Claire get in again, and off we went to Denny’s. I drove next to the door, dropped them off, went and parked and met them inside.
They told us 35 minute wait for food, so had Claire make me a list of stuff she needed at the grocery store, and I left them to go to Hannaford’s across the street. Dummy me didn’t take a cart from the parking lot, expected to find one inside which I didn’t so I use the basket, picked up cat litter, cat food, frozen dinners and a few other things and by then my arm couldn’t take it anymore (it was in a brace due to tendonitis). But I managed to get it out to the car and drove back to Denny’s when I realized as I was parking there that I had been driving since the MRI building with my emergency brake on!!! Got inside and seated as they brought the food. When we were done eating, Bob asked the waitress if she knew the manager of Denny’s, she gave him the name of her boss and wondered why. He told her his step-grandson had married a Russian girl who was adopted by a man who was the manager or something of all the Denny’s on the east coast (all three of us are geneaologist, not the waitress). She couldn’t have listened because she gave the name of her boss again and Bob tried explaining again, meanwhile Claire is getting in more pain with no meds. So I told Bob he needed to end the conversation as we needed to get Claire home.
Claire had a hard time getting in the house (stairs) but we got her in. Then Bob put her car in the garage and while I got her settled in the house, Bob emptied her car, but when he saw the big organ in her spare room, he forgot what he was doing because he wanted to play the organ (he can really play). After awhile I got him back on track and helped him finish emptying the car. Claire was afraid that the cats might have got out, so Bob and I went looking, under beds, bureaus, closet once again. We found three of the four we had brought back and about half way home she called and said she found the fourth one. While we were still there she was calling around to find someone who could help her out once in awhile but not much luck.
I called her when we got home, and she said a neighbor would come in a make sure the cats were fed and get groceries for her when she did her own, but didn’t want anything to do with the litter boxes. Bob and I are going back down there on Tuesday for a meeting and will stop in and check on Claire, but at the meeting (which Claire is also a member) we are going to ask if any members can help her out, they all know her there. I told her I could come down once in awhile but at the end of this month I will no longer have a car. My husband’s didn’t pass inspection and it is not worth fixing. I went to bed early last night I was exhausted. I wonder why?
Tags: Funny Sad ER
