Real Life Drama (Not a photostory)

Today I am substituting a real life story in the place of one of my photostories.  I wish I had pictures to show, but I forgot to take them along the way.

Remember I said the pain in my leg was getting worse?  Monday I called my doctor and reported I had swelling in my leg and foot.  She asked me to come in on Tuesday so they could rule out blood clots.  Tuesday morning, I woke up about 4am and tried to make sure I could get out the house, and head to the doctor by 10am.  I popped pain pills every couple of hours to ensure I could walk.  By 9am it was clear the pain was still too great.  I canceled my appointment and told the doctor I would try again in a couple of days, thinking that a couple days of rest would help.

Later that day, I was worried.  What if it was blood clots?  Blood clots ain't nothing to play with.  So I decided I would get up Wednesday morning, and go to the emergency room.  Wednesday morning, I got dressed and called for an ambulance.  Pretty soon there were four firemen and two paramedics in my bedroom.  DANG! Are all firemen good-looking?  They were oh so fine.  I was in excruciating pain, but I was still enjoying the eye candy.  They were trying to get me into a rolling chair, I was in so much pain, it was taking a little while.  I turned to one of the 6' 3" fireman and asked, "Shouldn't you be throwing me over your shoulder and taking me out of here?"  He laughed and said he could do that, but it would be very painful.  I finally got into the chair.  They strapped me in and said, "whatever you do, don't reach out."  Didn't make sense to me.  Why would I reach out?  Well after they rolled me down the first stair, I screamed out in pain......and reached my arms out to grab the wall.  Oh is that what he meant.  LOL!  The fireman in front of me, who was lifting the chair from the front, was soooo cute!  He wasn't quite Shemar Moore cute, but he was close.  I was super happy that I had gotten dolled up for the trip.  We finally made it down the outside set of stairs with more screaming from me.  Now I had to get from the chair to the stretcher.  More screaming.  Finally we made it to the back of the ambulance and we were on our way.

Shemar Moore

Has anyone ever ridden in the back of an ambulance?  That was my first time.  What a bumpy ride!  I almost fell off the stretcher a few times.  We weren't even going fast.  We arrived to the hospital and had to wait 10 mins for a room.  It was interesting to see the interaction between the paramedics and the ER staff.  All I could think about was the old tv show called Emergency.

You know that little trick they do to get the person into the bed...sliding the sheet from the stretcher to the bed.... it was quite painful and there was more screaming from me.  Once I got into bed, a 31 yr old, blonde, and yes, handsome male nurse entered to take all my information.  His name was Brian.  I swear he could have been a Ken doll.  One that I would have been proud to add to my collection.  He was funny, and he had a great bedside manner.  Next in was the doctor.  Let's just say I was less than impressed.  He came in with an attitude like, I'm not sure why you are here, and I'm not sure what I can do for you.  He barely touched my leg and said, "I'm 90% sure you do not have blood clots.  So what would you like for us to do for you."  I explained that my oncologist wanted to have an ultrasound done to make sure I didn't have a blood clot.  "Okay, I can order an ultrasound and call your doctor afterwards."  Then he left.  My mom and I watched tv for over an hour before the ultrasound lady showed up.  She came in, and proceeded to dig the ultrasound probe into the leg with the excruciating pain.  I was very close to slapping her as I was wincing in pain.  Instead, I threw her hand and the probe, away from my leg and explained that she was not going to do that because of my pain.  She said, "oh they didn't give you something for the pain?"  Noooo.  So she went to get the doctor.  He came in, again with attitude, all but questioning if the pain was as great as I was saying.  I must have given him a crazy look because he said, I'll just order a pain shot.  Within three minutes of getting the shot, my pain was under control.  Why he didn't give me something for the pain earlier is beyond me.  Did he really think I would arrive in an ambulance if I wasn't in pain.  

Fifteen minutes after the ultrasound, the doctor came in the room, very apologetically.  Turns out I do have blood clots.  So much for his 90% sure that I didn't.  He even went so far as to say, he would have missed that one for sure.  So thank goodness, my oncologist had requested the ultrasound.  Apparently, this ER doctor wouldn't have gone that route.  He was a different doctor after that.  

TO BE CONTINUED.....