Another ten years

So, why was Cletus at the all-girl health club, you might wonder. He had picked up Tdawg from football practice and he was in bad shape! His head was splitting; he was moaning; he was shaking and sick to his stomach. I do not like anything about hospitals! I have too many bad memories there. But I knew that we had to go. All indications were that he had a concussion and that meant Tdawg needed a cat-scan.

The main ER was typical. Slow (like turtles stampeding through peanut butter) and very uncaring. Once we finally got into a triage room, the twenty questions began. I was trying to answer some of the questions for Tdawg because he was throwing up at the time. And the nurse was very rude and said HE needed to answer ALL of the questions. She was completely clueless. Obviously, he has a head injury and she is jerking him around. She did not know why he was shaking and would not get him a blanket. I ended up taking off my shirt and laying it over Tdawg.

Finally a doctor came in. He was not much help either. He did not know why Tdawg was shaking so hard. He said we would need a cat-scan. Duh, we knew that 30 minutes ago! They were going to put Tdawg on the tram to the pediatric building. The tram would take forty minutes. Are you kidding me? Forty minutes to go less than four blocks? So, I put Tdawg back in the car and drove him over: four minutes. The scariest part: he got sick in the truck and I thought he aspirated it while I was driving.

The staff at pediatrics was a whole lot nicer. Of course, every time someone came in, it was the same twelve questions. But at least, Tdawg finally got a two warm blankets! Tdawg does have a concussion. Thank God (!) the cat-scan only showed a deep sinus infection. The doctor said that the shaking was from dehydration. So as soon as the cat-scan was clear, they gave Tdawg lots of fluids, anti-nausea medicine and pain reliever.

Poor kid! The dehydration gives you a bad headache. A sinus infection gives you a bad headache. A concussion gives you a bad headache. Tdawg had all three! By 11pm, he looked a lot better and we were released to get the prescriptions filled. It was a long long night. And I've aged another ten years.