ER

Oh how much I have forgotten how much I dislike hospitals.  All the beeping of the machines and the organized chaos that runs around like recess at the local elementary playground.    The look of concern and death on all that are around.  How could I forget the smell, damn the smell, the trying to mask decaying peoples excrement with lysol to give it that pine fresh smell.  While nurses and doctors try to keep a straight face when talking to either their patients or their families but all the while having no idea what is actually wrong, second guessing that time that they decided to get high instead of studying back in med school.  But enough of trying to figure out what is wrong in all their lives, hell most of the staff here dose not give a shit about how I feel, some are here just to collect a paycheck but others, well others are here just because they need the feeling of hurt, sorrow or some sort of pain just to feel alive.

My girlfriend and I got to the ER around 9:00pm and sat in the icebox of the waiting room we sit and wait and wait and wait, five hours go by and we still are not seen.  My girlfriend at this time has gone to talking to the other patients just to pass the time and to kill her hunger pains that are growing deep inside her.  One couple has been here for over eight hours and are still waiting to get in, I think she said they were here due to the younger man getting a broken jaw some how.  Sitting in this uncomfortable chair I have had enough, from not being able to breathe, swallow and having a high fever I drag myself up to the check in window and decided to tell the on-call that I'm going home.  

Here is where things happen that I still don't understand.  The head on-call tells me that I can not leave and if I do they can charge me with going A.W.O.L., at first when I hear this I think she is joking and just laugh in her general direction, until she says it again.  At hearing this I snap at the lady, "Just how in the hell are you going to charge somebody with going awol if they are not even in the fucking active duty Army and that I have been out for five years!"  Now to charge a soldier with awol means that basically a soldier just leaves and doesn't tell anybody where he is going, kinda like running away.  It is a serious charge for most soldiers or for kids who join and go into boot camp.  The lady goes into the back and grabs the head nurse in charge and tries to have her explain this charge against me, "sir you came in here, signed in and therefore you are our responsibility, not to m-", Ma'am I say, "I need to remind you that I am no longer in the Army and therefore can not be charged with awol, so therefore you all need to get your facts straight before you go and threaten somebody". Saying all this probably didn't sound anything like I thought it really sounded like but I made my point and still left to go home, I mean hell it was already like one in the morning and I have not eaten since this morning. 

After getting home my girlfriend and I attempt to get some sleep and I will try the college clinic here in the morning.  That night was the worst night of my life as far as sleep goes, every time I would fall asleep my throat would clog up and choke me to where I could not breath and Erin would shake me to get me up.  I don't think that either one of us got any sleep, I even got up twice in the night to take a really hot shower to try to open up my system so I could breathe.  I have to be honest that at this point I was really starting to scare myself. 

The next morning we both go up the hill to the medical services building to get me looked at.  The staff here is very friendly and wants to help so it puts me at ease, I get put through the regular checks that goes on in here.  While here I get seen by two students, two doctors and one nurse who look at me like they have seen a ghost.  They tell me that since they can not see into my throat due to all the swelling I need to get to an ER to get looked at right away, makes sense because I have not been able to breathe correctly.  So here we go for the second day in a row, back to the ER at Trippler, god I hope that I don't have to wait five hours again.  We arrive at the ER around noon and decided to do the sign in and wait plan of attack again.

This time it only takes four hours to see me, and right away the nurse in charge starts to hook me up with an IV and flushes my system with a wonderful cocktail of steroids, morphine and antibiotics.  All the well educated around me are pleased with the success of their med cocktail.  After watching me and my machine change numbers from high to low and my look getting better they decided to release me with some pills and to take care with a half hearted smile.  I even have to admit that I felt great and was thankful for everything that the doctors had done for me.  God I slept well that night and when I woke up I felt like a new person.  So obeying doctors orders I stayed home and just relaxed in front of the television and great 80's movies.

The problem with being released from the emergency room after being pumped full of drugs is that when the meds leave your system you crash hard, hella hard worse than before.

At three in the morning I choke my self awake and stumble downstairs to throw myself into a hot shower to help open up my throat.  This hot shower trick has usually worked in the past and I was hoping that it might work one more time so I can get back to sleep.  While in the shower I start to gag on my own saliva and phlegm, I drop to my knees trying to spit up this invader of my airways so I can breathe, im starting to get more scared now, I can't breathe.  I manage to turn off the water and crawl out of the shower to where im in position to puke up what ever is in my system into the toilet.  Enough is enough and I dress myself not even bothering to dry off, I climb the stairs up to Erin like they were the rope ladder in the gym.  I stumble to her bed and attempt to sit down, feeling for her hand I finally find it and give it a gentle squeeze, she wakes up and notices that Im not well, she starts to talk to me but I can not respond to her because I can not talk.  Tears falling out of my face I grab my cell phone and just type on the screen please take me to back to the ER.