A couple more hospital experiences for your enjoyment.
I had a surgery when I was 18. This was the first time I had to do a bowel prep. My surgery was scheduled for a Friday. We got to the hospital and waited for an hour or so. Then the nurse came in to tell us that the doctor wasn't happy with what happened in the last surgery, so they were going to do that surgery over again and move my surgery to the following Monday. I had the choice of only having clear liquids for three days, or eating and doing the bowel prep again. I chose to eat! Sunday night I did the bowel prep again.
When I got to the hospital that Monday I was so dehydrated that they couldn't get an IV in. It took 4 tries and two different nurses, a hot pack, and a lot of flicking my veins. I had some massive bruises on both hands.
Thankfully the rest of that hospital stay was normal.
The next time I went to the hospital was about a year later. I was studying Musical Theatre and Dance at a community college, and we were on dance tour. One of the dances had bowling balls in it. My job in that dance was to roll the bowling ball across the stage, trying to get it as straight as possible. There was another girl on the other side rolling it back to me. One of the rolls went crooked. In my attempt to catch it one of my fingers got smashed between the bowling ball and the metal light stand. I looked at my finger and there was a big dent in it. Thinking it was just my skin, I pushed on it and it started bleeding...a lot. I shoved the ball at someone else and told her to throw it and then ran to get help. My dance instructor saw me and said something like "What are you dong!?" and then she saw my finger and her eyes got huge! My friend S, who was acting as the stage manager (I think), grabbed the first aid kit and ran me to the bathroom. We managed to get my CTR ring off and then she braced my finger with two Q-tips, and wrapped it up with a bunch of gauze. Then I went out and performed the dance I was in (while holding my finger in the air so the blood wouldn't go everywhere).
After that they took me to the ER. At check in they asked what happened and I explained. We waited for maybe 5 minutes before they called me back. There were some other people in the ER with some bad looking, bloody head wounds that had been waiting a lot longer than me, but I had a really good story so I got back first. ;)
While I was there getting my finger looked at I told that story three more times. I had 3 or 4 nurses in my room at all times (they traded out so they could all hear the story), and talked to 3 different doctors! My finger was broken and needed surgery. They sent me home with a huge cast on my hand and arm. I had the surgery the following day (no more dance tour for me, poo). They put two pins in my finger to hold the bone in place. That all went well. I had another huge cast on for a few weeks, and then they made a custom cast for my finger, that I still have.
The play we did that year was Steel Magnolias, and I was cast as Annelle. I had to wash hair in the play but I couldn't get the cast wet. At first we tried clear gloves, but the cast was too big for the gloves to fit over. My director came up with the idea to use a condom. My poor friend J was the lucky guy that got to go buy those for me. He was so embarrassed! I still have one of the condoms I used for my finger during the play,lol! After my finger healed and they took the pins out I went to physical therapy. Even with all the therapy my finger has never bent again. Occasionally I forget that it doesn't bend like my other fingers and I get it caught in things. Ouch!
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