I recently went to the ER.
If you’ve never graced one before, it’s like a three-ring circus, there’s so much going on.
First comes the paperwork as if you’re enrolling in college, with 12 pages requiring signatures, that you know, you should be reading before signing, but d0n’t.
You could be agreeing to donate your organs for all you know, while you’re still alive.
Then, a young man, looking more like a rapper than a technician, comes over with a traveling blood pressure machine to check that and your temperature.
I stupidly say to him, “Do you think I’ll be here for hours?” and without pause says, “Yes,” moving down the line. The woman next to me makes me feel even stupider by laughing before saying, “Where da ya think yar, the booty pa-la?”
If only.
Okay, so to my surprise, in less than an hour, a young doctor comes over to examine my leg, yes, I’m having gam issues, reassuring me, if I take my antibiotics the size of footballs, I’ll be okay in a few days.
There’s a handsome, muscular Latino man, in his 30s, sitting next to me, I see right away is in pain.
I ask him, if anyone has seen him yet, and he stoically nods, no.
When my knight in aquamarine scrubs returns with my release forms, I pull him aside and say, “Listen, the guy next to me is really hurting. Can someone see him sooner than later?”
Lancolot says, “Sure, sure, I’ll see to it personally.”
Before leaving, I loiter at the door waiting to see, if indeed this will happen.
After seeing him disappear down the corridor of no return, realize, he meant well, but probably forgot.
When I call it a circus, I’m not kidding.
There’s a man in a wheelchair they rush into the OR because his appendix burst.
A heavy-set woman with a skin issue that makes you move to the other end of the room.
A kid who can’t breathe, plus a good dozen people thinking they’re having heart attacks.
But back to the man who feels it’s a weakness to complain.
I see another doctor I make my same plea to, who looks me up and down like the latest Oldsmobile and says, “Did we take care of you?”
“You did, and I’m very grateful, but this man…
He cuts me off saying, “Who are you, the Norman Rae of the ER?”
(No, I did not make this up) Though taken aback, I say with great aplomb, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”
Not expecting this, he laughs and says, “Okay, where is he now?”
I take his arm, like Scarlett in Gone With the Wind, to make sure he really takes care of my man, who has no idea, Norma of Arc, is in the house.
SB
Great story! Are you ok ?
Hal Rubenstein from my iPhone
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Hope to be. A bit disabled at the moment. Imagine Chester in Gunsmoke, in Chanel pjs.
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You can’t mess with triage! Actually, that is self-evidently not true, since you’ve clearly done precisely that. Pretty face versus lean black belt efficiency: pretty face wins every time. 😉
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I think it was sheer embarrassment, because I watched him checking his phone, flirting with a nurse. I think sadly, doctors who’ve seen it all, get numbed out. Just a theory.
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I want you by my side if I ever have to go in. Sometimes when you don’t feel good, you don’t feel well enough to fight for yourself. Sally Fields would be so proud.
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Yes, I can see her on a steed like Joan, but in her Flying Nun costume. LOL
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You are something else again, Susannah! You go to the ER for yourself and stay to help a man in pain! Amazing! Hope your football-sized pills do the job.
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Me too. I’ve been humbled Anne, to say the least. Enjoy your weekend.
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They should have someone do that, just go around talking to people to determine who needs help the fastest. I suppose they technically do, but ERs seem chronically understaffed. Anyway, good for you, Norma.
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It’s mayhem alright. So many sufferers. Yes, a coalition of comforters would be a good thing. 🙂
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You’re amazing, Susannah. The world needs more guardian angels.
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I’m told too often to mind my own business, something I should work on, but from being on my own most of my life, I see how others can’t stand up for themselves. I’ve learned to but know how hard it is. Enter Norma.
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Norma Rae is one of my favorite movies. I’d like to see more heroines like that on the screen…and in real life.
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I love when she climbs on the table and yells…It’s gonna take you and the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to get me outta here!
Just got chills.
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I like the part where she ran home to alert her children about the mocking they would hear in school. It didn’t matter what anyone thought about her. She just wanted her kids to be prepared. That’s a good mom.
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That’s such a wonderful movie. Sally Field was GREAT. I also like when she tells her husband she kind of has a yen for Rueben…he’s in ma head…she says. Whoa. On top of brave she’s honest too.
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I laughed and then realized you are 1000000000% right about that paperwork.
It’s safe to say there were only (2) people in that ER even knows who knew Norma Rae, and thank you God it was YOU and the professional. Rock on Norma, rock on.
I hope you’re feeling better after the horse pills.
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He was the superior physician. The kid who actually took care of me may have been a resident who was just great. I think the term Norma Rae should be added to Webster’s.
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I was only at the ER twice. Once when my youngest son was in a car accident. Everyone had non-life threatening injuries, thank God. The second was when my mother decided the carpet cleaner wasn’t cleaning some spots good enough and scrubbed them by hand. She had an allergic reaction to the full strength cleaning fluid. And yes, both times it was zoo there.
It makes you wonder why the hospitals don’t just hire more staff.
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It’s quite a place, the Emergency Room. If an elephant limped in, it wouldn’t be a surprise. When I came out, 20 people were registering at the Front Desk.
I always try to see the good, and one has to feel they do their best even if it doesn’t necessarily look that way. sigh
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If you have to go to the emergency room call an ambulance. Walk-ins wait for hours. Ride in on a gurney and they see you right away. I learned that when I fell at a shopping center and some kind people helped me. Hope you are ok, and don’t need the big pills for long.
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Noted. You’d think after watching all those medical shows I would have known that.
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I would expect nothing less of you, Norma.
Scott
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