Thursday in the ER

On Thursday night, a crazy sequence of events unfolded that ultimately led to me being admitted to the hospital.  I am fine, but the doctors need to watch me for a couple of days to make sure I stay that way.  Let’s flashback to Wednesday afternoon…

I had developed a bit of an annoying hacking cough that was irritating my throat, giving me a raspy smoker’s voice and allowing me to hock up some thick mucus.  It was annoying, but everyone seems to be sick these days and a cold/cough usually isn’t much of a big deal.  On Thursday, the cough continued and I could feel my voice getting rougher as the day progressed.   Around 5 PM, I went upstairs to rest for a few minutes in preparation for Florence and Sadie returning home from work and daycare.  My hand grazed my forehead and I felt a little warm, so I decided to take my temperature – 100.8 degrees.  So, I had a slight fever, but I have been told countless times by my oncologist that you must call the doctor if you develop a fever of 100.4 or higher.  So, I call Memorial Sloan-Kettering at Basking Ridge to report my symptoms and the nurse calls back a few minutes later to let me know to take some Tylenol and that the doctor would like me to go to the hospital to get checked out, just to be overly cautious.  There is no rush to get to the ER, but I just need to make sure that I go tonight, so I tell the nurse that I’ll be there around 9 PM.

Now, it’s 6 PM, so I call Florence to give her the news.  Then, I call my parents who are driving home from work and ask if one of them can come by after they get home so that they can watch Sadie while Florence takes me to the hospital.  Let’s zip through the next sequence of events – Mom comes over, Florence finishes putting Sadie to bed, we pack overnight bags for the hospital (because you only stay overnight if you don’t prepare for it), we make tortellini for dinner to bring with us to the ER, and we ultimately arrive at the ER in Summit Overlook Hospital at 8:45 PM.  That arrival time is important to remember!

The desk nurse checks me in, after I just stood there for 10 minutes waiting for her to show up.  Where was she?  No idea, but clearly not at the location that her job title would suggest.  Then, we wait and eat our dinner.  One hour later, at 9:45 PM, the triage nurse calls me in, taking my vitals and asking me a bunch of questions about my medical history and symptoms.  Then, we wait.  One hour later, at 10:45 PM, the registration desk calls my name to register me.  Then, we wait.  Another hour later, at 11:45 PM (three hours after I first arrived), they finally take me to an actual room in the ER to examine me.  Since this blog is titled “Thursday in the ER” and it’s now approaching midnight in the story’s timeline, let’s stop here.  Join us in the next blog entry (to be posted immediately after this post) titled “Friday in the ER”.