Today has been an extremely tiring day.
Last evening, myself and two other REACT team members drove up to Piedmont to meet with the organizers of an event that REACT is going to assist with this Saturday. The event is “Concert in the Cornfield,” and it is a concert to benefit those that were affected by the tornadoes that hit Piedmont last May. One of the managers at my office is actually one of the coordinators and she asked REACT to assist with parking and crowd control. We had a great meeting and had the opportunity to check out the site where the concert is going to be so we would have an idea of what to expect.
While we were up there checking things out, I receive a call from my son. Here is his story. Several weeks ago, he got a tattoo on his arm. He doesn’t take very good care of himself sometimes. Anyway, while at work, he managed to cut his arm and he did not clean the wound properly. Because of that, it got infected. So, we went to an after-hours emergency clinic, received some medication for a staph infection and went on his way. So, last evening, he called me (when I was still in Piedmont) and told me his arm had swelled and he was in a lot of pain. He wanted to know what to do. I told him to call his mom and get some advice from her.
Well, that backfired. She sent me a text back, asking me what we should do. I suggested he go to the emergency room and have it checked out before it got worse. I also suggested she pick him up at his apartment, take him to St. Anthony Hospital ER and I would meet them there. She did not like the suggestion because she had not driven after dark in three months and was afraid to get out….so…..since I rode with the other two REACT members, they took me back to my truck, I drove to my son’s apartment, picked him up and took him to the ER. The place was packed. It was noisy, with the sounds of screaming kids and loud adults.
Once again, the people that were in the waiting room looked very scary (kind of like Wal-Mart customers). At one point, I thought they were having a family reunion because there were at least 8 people that came with a girl. I am not sure what her problem was, but she mentioned she was in a lot of pain. I am not sure what the pain was because she laughed the whole time we were sitting there. So many people use the ER for minor stuff….stomach aches, head-aches, little pains here and there, constipation, etc…….when it should be used for emergencies, such as bad cuts, broken bones, heart problems, etc……
There were also kids running around in the waiting room making all kinds of racket. Stephen and I didn’t say a word to each other, but we did text one another. He was as frustrated with the noise as I was. We arrived at the hospital at 8:30 pm and was finally put in a room at 10:45 pm. They drained the bump on his arm, gave him a tetanus shot, gave him some pain medication and sent him home with some ointment. The procedure was painful for him, but he took it like a man. We finally left the hospital at 11:30 pm. I got home at midnight and got a whopping 5 hours sleep.
www.centralokreact.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment