the many misadventures of being a kreeton (or, "kristen's night in the ER")
so this weekend started off real awesome.
on his way over to see me, austin got in a car accident. thank god he's okay, but the car is now yet again in the shop. keep in mind, this new car of his has been in the shop for something like 8 of the 10 weeks he's owned it. and as soon as he got it back, it got wrecked.
on friday, it rained insanely hard here in l.a., hard enough to even shame seattle. I hate it when it rains here because the place is totally not structured for it-- landslides and floods are a guarantee, and it seems like there's no such thing as a light drizzle. anyway, at 20 mph while coming down the off-ramp by school, austin hit a puddle and hydroplaned downhill and smacked his tire into the curb, breaking the axle. I freaked out and, in pure desperation, asked justin to take me over to him. we took the car to a body shop in the playa del rey and then justin brought us back to school, and ana had to come pick us up.
the rest of the weekend isn't worth mentioning, except for yesterday.
I've been coughing a lot lately, due to what I thought were my allergies acting up. around thursday or so, I noticed that, when I coughed, it would hurt the bottom of my ribcage on my right side. I figured it was from coughing too hard.
the first day it hurt just when I coughed; the second and third days, it hurt around nighttime, but I managed to sleep it off; and the fourth day, it hurt all day, even when I didn't move. breathing hurt. walking hurt. I was incapable of sitting up by myself. actions like climbing into bed and bending over sent such sharp pains piercing through my side that it brought tears to my eyes.
when austin dropped me off, it dawned on me that the pain was much more intense than I thought. he helped me get up into bed, and as soon as I lay down, pain radiated through my whole torso and into my back and it made me cry instantly. he had to go to go do work in his area, which upset both of us, but it couldn't be helped. so I called my parents after he left and asked them what I should do about the pain. my dad, who's had about every medical malady in the book, told me it sounded bad because the area that hurt was near my appendix and my gallbladder. they told me to go to the emergency room to be checked out, for safe keeping.
so I called mary and asked her to come be with me. she did, but her diagnosis said I should be fine just staying low in bed. I felt hot, but we had no way to measure my temperature. she left around the time monet came home, and monet thought I was looking pretty bad (which I was) and recommended checking in with an EMT who lives nextdoor to us. I'm lucky that she knew that he was over there, and that she had the courtesy to go get him for me. he came with two female EMTs and they checked me over and asked me a thousand questions, and they told me I probably should have gone to the ER hours ago if I felt this poorly. they asked me if I could get a ride to the hospital, so I tried calling calvin, but couldn't reach him, so the EMTs called me an ambulance. at this point, my pain was pinching me so hard that the slightest movements were agonzing, and I felt as if I were in a furnace room I was so hot.
the paramedics came about 10 minutes later, along with the fire department (?!??), and before I knew it there were about 9 people in the room with me at once. I got asked the same questions and had my blood pressure and temperature taken over and over again. then they brought in a gurney that was folded up like a chair, sat me into it, and wheeled me off to the ambulance. I was scared and not wanting such a huge display and I felt sorta embarrassed.
in the ambulance, the paramedic sitting with me asked me if this was my first ambulance ride, and when I said yes, he said, "well, there's a first time for everything!" and that made me think for the rest of the way to the hospital about the other "first times" I hoped I'd never have, like "my first malignant tumor" or "my first public stoning" or "my first surrendering of myself and my brain to a dictating alien overlord."
it was around midnight when I arrived at the daniel freeman hospital in the marina del rey. I was put into a crappy bed in the ER and told to take off my sweater (I was in my pajamas) and put on a hospital gown. I was terrified and really not wanting to be alone. a doctor came to speak to me and told me what kind of tests I'd have. I had a heart monitor clipped to my finger, and 3 adhesive patches hooked up to another monitor stuck to my chest and my side. I was ordered to go pee in a cup eventually, and then I was hooked up to an IV to pump sodium chloride into me. I had blood work drawn two times in a 15-minute period. a man came in with a huge machine and took an x-ray of my chest. around 2:30-3am, I managed to doze off for a very short while before I was woken up by another man to give me an ultrasound.
I had a fever of 105. it took about 4 hours to get it under control.
during the whole ordeal, a woman named katie from the lmu health center called me in the ER and asked me what was going on. she gave me 3 different phone numbers, including her home number, to call her on for when I had news. she wanted to know immediately if and when I would need to be admitted to the hospital. she also told me that when I needed to come back to school that she would either send public safety for me or pay for a cab to come get me. I was really surprised and impressed by the lmu health staff that night...it was making me feel comforted. but I was still miserable and lonely and frightened.
the man who gave me my ultrasound was like a russian version of my animation professor, jose. he was very sweet to me and I liked being pushed in a wheelchair by him. the actual ultrasound was pretty unpleasant. I had the horrible jelly put on my belly and he massaged me rather aggressively with wands. when he pushed over my ribs and side, it was pretty agonzing. he printed out pictures of my insides. I sorta wanted a picture of my womb, just for the hell of it. I imagined pranking austin on april fools' day and drawing a little fetus on it and being all "surprise!!" and that kept me mildly amused as I had my ribcage pounded into by the examination. he was looking for my gallbladder, to see if it was the problem, but it said it was "shriveled up and hard to see." I can't imagine that being a good thing.
I was in pain after the ultrasound- it hurt my stomach in the process- so I stayed awake until about 4:30, then managed to sleep again for, at most, another half hour.
at 5 am I was woken up by noise from my roommates and the louder-than-appropriate nursing staff. I had the horrible misfortune of sharing my room with a thousand-year old woman who had the most ungodly cough I have ever heard come out of a human being. around 5, the nurse decided it was a good time to "suction" her- as in, shove a tube down her throat, make her cough, and suck all the nasty whatever the fuck out of her. at that point, covering my ears was totally pointless, and I felt incredibly horrible about life.
they also told me that they were going to admit me to the hospital. I had an antibiotic IV hooked up to me, which made me arm feel cold and itchy. I had more blood drawn. I waited and waited for them to come tell me that I could go to my room....I wanted so badly just to sleep.
kate called me again. I told her what was going on. she sounded upset.
I text messaged and emailed from my phone to pass time. I had nothing to do but cough and listen to the disgusting woman next to me.
around 7, the nurses changed staff, and new people came in. a nun came to my room who had a bloody mouth-- this poor woman, on her way to church this morning, was attacked by an armed terrorist in her neighborhood, pistol-whipped across her jaw repeatedly, and then had her home destroyed and robbed. the world seemed frightening to me. I sat and lay in my bed and thought about how much scary stuff there is in the world. I wanted my parents, my austin, my friends, my cats, my family, my bed. I wanted to sleep. I would have done anything to get out of there.
no nurses were checking on me, as if no one had been assigned to me. frustrated, I spoke to austin on the phone, and feeling frightened and angry and neglected, I began to cry. one of the male nurses walking by saw me and came over to me, looking sad and apologetic, and he was the one who took care of me for the rest of the morning. he changed my IV and even had a plate of (disgusting, but appreciated) hospital food brought down to me.
I was then told that, because my tests all came back normal (somehow), that they were going to release me and not have me stay in the hospital. although, their diagnosis was that I have a serious infection....and that I have since my last remicade infusion.
see kids, the thing about those infusions is that they destroy any hope of me having an immune system. anything can fuck me up, even just a simple cold. and my body has no way of fighting infection. so when I got the flu right after my infusion over break, and then when I had sick roommates and caught that headcold... I had no chance. and that's why I've been sick for 6 weeks now.
they prescribed me some really strong antibiotics, and the sweetest public safety officer ever came to pick me up. he drove me right to my building, like I was v.i.p. or something.
ashley brought me lunch and her company made me feel a lot better. I managed to get some rest. and then in the evening, austin came to see me for a valentines/post-trauma date. have I mentioned enough how lucky I am to have austin? because I really, truly am... that man is my whole world. he really is. I am so lucky, no matter how sick I am. he is so wonderful and between him and my friends and family I am never really alone, scary emergency room experiences be damned. I felt so sad being in that place all night... but I knew that I would be out soon enough, and that I there were people who care for me available. it was a horrible time though, and I hope it never happens to me again.
seeing how I missed all 4 of my classes today, I think I need to email my professors now and inform them of my most recent misfortune... I'm still wearing my medical bracelet from the ER, partly because I want the proof that this really happened to me, and partly because I want people to see it and know that they have to be nice to me because I've had a rough time lately. it's like that sticker that steph got last week... "be nice to me, I gave blood today!"
oh, and if valentines day is your thing, happy v-day to you. if you don't care, happy february 14. and happy 25th birthday to my awesome older sister kate, too. I shall use my mushy austin icon in honor of this day or whatnot (even though I strongly detest this holiday and all it entails).
I'm building character. that's what I'm telling myself.
I am building a whole shitload of character.
--------
(p.s.: I got my dress on sunday. rapture!!)
(p.p.s.: austin just called to tell me about the $300 check he got for working a sidejob tonight. his exact words were, "yeah, your hubby's a baller, baby!!" that makes me so happy I think I can forget about the trauma from last night and dream of peaceful things. <3)
on his way over to see me, austin got in a car accident. thank god he's okay, but the car is now yet again in the shop. keep in mind, this new car of his has been in the shop for something like 8 of the 10 weeks he's owned it. and as soon as he got it back, it got wrecked.
on friday, it rained insanely hard here in l.a., hard enough to even shame seattle. I hate it when it rains here because the place is totally not structured for it-- landslides and floods are a guarantee, and it seems like there's no such thing as a light drizzle. anyway, at 20 mph while coming down the off-ramp by school, austin hit a puddle and hydroplaned downhill and smacked his tire into the curb, breaking the axle. I freaked out and, in pure desperation, asked justin to take me over to him. we took the car to a body shop in the playa del rey and then justin brought us back to school, and ana had to come pick us up.
the rest of the weekend isn't worth mentioning, except for yesterday.
I've been coughing a lot lately, due to what I thought were my allergies acting up. around thursday or so, I noticed that, when I coughed, it would hurt the bottom of my ribcage on my right side. I figured it was from coughing too hard.
the first day it hurt just when I coughed; the second and third days, it hurt around nighttime, but I managed to sleep it off; and the fourth day, it hurt all day, even when I didn't move. breathing hurt. walking hurt. I was incapable of sitting up by myself. actions like climbing into bed and bending over sent such sharp pains piercing through my side that it brought tears to my eyes.
when austin dropped me off, it dawned on me that the pain was much more intense than I thought. he helped me get up into bed, and as soon as I lay down, pain radiated through my whole torso and into my back and it made me cry instantly. he had to go to go do work in his area, which upset both of us, but it couldn't be helped. so I called my parents after he left and asked them what I should do about the pain. my dad, who's had about every medical malady in the book, told me it sounded bad because the area that hurt was near my appendix and my gallbladder. they told me to go to the emergency room to be checked out, for safe keeping.
so I called mary and asked her to come be with me. she did, but her diagnosis said I should be fine just staying low in bed. I felt hot, but we had no way to measure my temperature. she left around the time monet came home, and monet thought I was looking pretty bad (which I was) and recommended checking in with an EMT who lives nextdoor to us. I'm lucky that she knew that he was over there, and that she had the courtesy to go get him for me. he came with two female EMTs and they checked me over and asked me a thousand questions, and they told me I probably should have gone to the ER hours ago if I felt this poorly. they asked me if I could get a ride to the hospital, so I tried calling calvin, but couldn't reach him, so the EMTs called me an ambulance. at this point, my pain was pinching me so hard that the slightest movements were agonzing, and I felt as if I were in a furnace room I was so hot.
the paramedics came about 10 minutes later, along with the fire department (?!??), and before I knew it there were about 9 people in the room with me at once. I got asked the same questions and had my blood pressure and temperature taken over and over again. then they brought in a gurney that was folded up like a chair, sat me into it, and wheeled me off to the ambulance. I was scared and not wanting such a huge display and I felt sorta embarrassed.
in the ambulance, the paramedic sitting with me asked me if this was my first ambulance ride, and when I said yes, he said, "well, there's a first time for everything!" and that made me think for the rest of the way to the hospital about the other "first times" I hoped I'd never have, like "my first malignant tumor" or "my first public stoning" or "my first surrendering of myself and my brain to a dictating alien overlord."
it was around midnight when I arrived at the daniel freeman hospital in the marina del rey. I was put into a crappy bed in the ER and told to take off my sweater (I was in my pajamas) and put on a hospital gown. I was terrified and really not wanting to be alone. a doctor came to speak to me and told me what kind of tests I'd have. I had a heart monitor clipped to my finger, and 3 adhesive patches hooked up to another monitor stuck to my chest and my side. I was ordered to go pee in a cup eventually, and then I was hooked up to an IV to pump sodium chloride into me. I had blood work drawn two times in a 15-minute period. a man came in with a huge machine and took an x-ray of my chest. around 2:30-3am, I managed to doze off for a very short while before I was woken up by another man to give me an ultrasound.
I had a fever of 105. it took about 4 hours to get it under control.
during the whole ordeal, a woman named katie from the lmu health center called me in the ER and asked me what was going on. she gave me 3 different phone numbers, including her home number, to call her on for when I had news. she wanted to know immediately if and when I would need to be admitted to the hospital. she also told me that when I needed to come back to school that she would either send public safety for me or pay for a cab to come get me. I was really surprised and impressed by the lmu health staff that night...it was making me feel comforted. but I was still miserable and lonely and frightened.
the man who gave me my ultrasound was like a russian version of my animation professor, jose. he was very sweet to me and I liked being pushed in a wheelchair by him. the actual ultrasound was pretty unpleasant. I had the horrible jelly put on my belly and he massaged me rather aggressively with wands. when he pushed over my ribs and side, it was pretty agonzing. he printed out pictures of my insides. I sorta wanted a picture of my womb, just for the hell of it. I imagined pranking austin on april fools' day and drawing a little fetus on it and being all "surprise!!" and that kept me mildly amused as I had my ribcage pounded into by the examination. he was looking for my gallbladder, to see if it was the problem, but it said it was "shriveled up and hard to see." I can't imagine that being a good thing.
I was in pain after the ultrasound- it hurt my stomach in the process- so I stayed awake until about 4:30, then managed to sleep again for, at most, another half hour.
at 5 am I was woken up by noise from my roommates and the louder-than-appropriate nursing staff. I had the horrible misfortune of sharing my room with a thousand-year old woman who had the most ungodly cough I have ever heard come out of a human being. around 5, the nurse decided it was a good time to "suction" her- as in, shove a tube down her throat, make her cough, and suck all the nasty whatever the fuck out of her. at that point, covering my ears was totally pointless, and I felt incredibly horrible about life.
they also told me that they were going to admit me to the hospital. I had an antibiotic IV hooked up to me, which made me arm feel cold and itchy. I had more blood drawn. I waited and waited for them to come tell me that I could go to my room....I wanted so badly just to sleep.
kate called me again. I told her what was going on. she sounded upset.
I text messaged and emailed from my phone to pass time. I had nothing to do but cough and listen to the disgusting woman next to me.
around 7, the nurses changed staff, and new people came in. a nun came to my room who had a bloody mouth-- this poor woman, on her way to church this morning, was attacked by an armed terrorist in her neighborhood, pistol-whipped across her jaw repeatedly, and then had her home destroyed and robbed. the world seemed frightening to me. I sat and lay in my bed and thought about how much scary stuff there is in the world. I wanted my parents, my austin, my friends, my cats, my family, my bed. I wanted to sleep. I would have done anything to get out of there.
no nurses were checking on me, as if no one had been assigned to me. frustrated, I spoke to austin on the phone, and feeling frightened and angry and neglected, I began to cry. one of the male nurses walking by saw me and came over to me, looking sad and apologetic, and he was the one who took care of me for the rest of the morning. he changed my IV and even had a plate of (disgusting, but appreciated) hospital food brought down to me.
I was then told that, because my tests all came back normal (somehow), that they were going to release me and not have me stay in the hospital. although, their diagnosis was that I have a serious infection....and that I have since my last remicade infusion.
see kids, the thing about those infusions is that they destroy any hope of me having an immune system. anything can fuck me up, even just a simple cold. and my body has no way of fighting infection. so when I got the flu right after my infusion over break, and then when I had sick roommates and caught that headcold... I had no chance. and that's why I've been sick for 6 weeks now.
they prescribed me some really strong antibiotics, and the sweetest public safety officer ever came to pick me up. he drove me right to my building, like I was v.i.p. or something.
ashley brought me lunch and her company made me feel a lot better. I managed to get some rest. and then in the evening, austin came to see me for a valentines/post-trauma date. have I mentioned enough how lucky I am to have austin? because I really, truly am... that man is my whole world. he really is. I am so lucky, no matter how sick I am. he is so wonderful and between him and my friends and family I am never really alone, scary emergency room experiences be damned. I felt so sad being in that place all night... but I knew that I would be out soon enough, and that I there were people who care for me available. it was a horrible time though, and I hope it never happens to me again.
seeing how I missed all 4 of my classes today, I think I need to email my professors now and inform them of my most recent misfortune... I'm still wearing my medical bracelet from the ER, partly because I want the proof that this really happened to me, and partly because I want people to see it and know that they have to be nice to me because I've had a rough time lately. it's like that sticker that steph got last week... "be nice to me, I gave blood today!"
oh, and if valentines day is your thing, happy v-day to you. if you don't care, happy february 14. and happy 25th birthday to my awesome older sister kate, too. I shall use my mushy austin icon in honor of this day or whatnot (even though I strongly detest this holiday and all it entails).
I'm building character. that's what I'm telling myself.
I am building a whole shitload of character.
--------
(p.s.: I got my dress on sunday. rapture!!)
(p.p.s.: austin just called to tell me about the $300 check he got for working a sidejob tonight. his exact words were, "yeah, your hubby's a baller, baby!!" that makes me so happy I think I can forget about the trauma from last night and dream of peaceful things. <3)