Not Quite What I Was Looking For...

So I was pretty darned excited yesterday. Or for yesterday, however you want to put it really. It was Friday! No classes! I had all of the ingredients I needed to make Lasagna for a Potluck that Miki and I were going to attend, someone else was running Anime club for me and I had it all planned how I was going to stop there on my way to the Potluck with some Anime I needed to return to my friends.

My sleeping in idea was a bust because I woke up around 9:45, but considering that's better than the 6 or 7 (I have no classes till 10 normally so that time is ridiculous) I wasn't going to grumble too much. I did want to take a shower right away, but when I realized that not only was Miki still in bed, she had a "please do not wake me I do not feel well" sign on her door, I gave that up as bust.

I could always take one in the afternoon, right?

So I'm sitting at my computer (hunched in the dark, more like) typing emails and reading, when Miki comes down the stairs.

Woohoo! It's 10:15 and I can take a shower now!

But I peer through the living room to the kitchen and see...nothing. I squint, and then realize I can see her white knuckled hand gripping the counter.

"Monica? Can I have some water?"

Who knew this would be the beginning of an adventure, yeah?

In 20 Minutes I went from innocently...reading...on the internet, too watching my roommate rolling on the floor moaning. I'm a stupid college student, yeah? I call the Health Center on campus. The receptionist that always makes my appointments with my counselor called me 5 kinds of idiot and told me to call 911.

So I did.

And man, those ladies really are annoyingly calm.

The one's on dispatch, I mean.

But my old, dusty, and underused skills from Girl Scouts came to play (seriously, we were taught how to call 911. Cause our leader was an EMT, I think)and I knew exactly what to say to the operator! Which was cool, but she probably didn't think it was, considering I was talking so fast that She had to ask me to repeat all sorts of stuff.

I know they record those things, I wonder if I could get a copy...:)

It was pretty cool though. You know that person they kick out of the patients room for panicking? Like...The expectant father who's hysterical the entire time? Yeah, I'm that person. I broke my cousin's arm several years ago (don't ask) and while I was screaming and crying and getting dizzy from hyperventilating, she was sitting in the car next to me calmly prodding her arm.

"Wow! My bone is sticking out!"

Which almost caused me to have a hernia.

So needless to say, I was shocked that I was just about keeping my cool. Well, I wasn't quite panicking, or hyperventilating, but I did have an amazing adrenaline rush.

The operator asked all sorts of fun questions, though. And I pretty much had to translate them all. I never realized before yesterday how many practical things Miki didn't recognize. It was surprising, actually. I loved the questions. They made me want to giggle.

Although that might've been the nervousness. I felt a little like she was going to reach a point where she said "You're just a hysterical girl and you committed a federal offense by calling 911 for no reason. We'll bill you later."

Also, the questions got a little tedious, and repetitive. I swear she asked some of the things over and over but in a different way. I would've refused to keep answering if I hadn't heard the ambulance coming down the road.

Isn't it cool? Apparently I live like 5 blocks from the Fire Station!

It was amazing hearing the sirens, actually. Because then I didn't have to keep watching Miki and wondering whether she was going to die and whether it was going to be my fault or not.

To sum up the day in an easy list!

1. I got to run out into the street barefoot and in boxers and tee shirt to flag down the ambulance because I forgot to tell dispatch what apartment we lived in. >.<

2. I got to chat with a very nice EMT while riding in the front of an ambulance. My first time!

3. I got to go into the emergency room for the first time NOT as a patient.

4. I saw a doctor that looks JUST like that jackass doctor from Scrubs! Had a clipboard and everything...Needless to say I flattened myself against the wall to let him pass :D

5. Met a super nice orderly who took care of us.

6. We have no idea what was wrong with Miki, cept for super high Lactate levels. And considering I know one way how to get them high, and the doctor knew the others, and Miki didn't have ANY of those circumstances, we have no idea what happened.

7. She had almost 6 liters of saline solution, pretty much.

8. We were at the hospital for 9 hours, give or take.

Bloopers!

Every time the paramedics tried to ask Miki a question while trying to get her out of the house she asked (as an answer) if she needed her passport >.<

When a tech retrieved her for an ultra sound, she had no idea what 'ultra' meant until she connected it to something she knew....Ultraman! :D

Her identity bracelet had a barcode on it. When the nurse swiped it Miki said...
"Beep! One dollar! Ten Dollars! One Hundred Twenty Dollars, on sale now!"

And then the nurse and I had to struggle to keep from laughing because apparently Miki was imitating a clerk at the grocery store (and told us this, too).

Miki had to wait for 40 minutes for a nurse to disconnect her to go to the restroom. Because it took so long I flagged down that super nice orderly (nice elderly man. Good sense of humor.). As soon as he helped, the AWOL nurse showed up >.<

When the Doctor did a preliminary ultrasound (before the big one) of Miki he said "Guess what?! It's a girl!"

:D

That was priceless.

Oh, you know what's even better? Whatever painkiller they slipped into her i.v. made it so she doesn't remember pretty much anything from yesterday. Bravo. Which is odd. Because other than the occasional fazing out moments, and weird comments (Ultraman!) she was pretty darned lucid.

I would've been totally off my ass in the same situation :D Trust me, I'm a light weight.

So at 7 something we were finally let go with two prescriptions and a bunch of people shrugging and complaining that they had no idea what happened.

Fun.

Now this left me with a dead cell, a phone with no long distance, and no way home.

Woopee!

So I resurrected my phone for a few minutes and contacted Evan.

Who was unavailable and at home in Beaverton. Yay.

Okay. So then I tried a classmate of mine that lives in Salem. Woohoo he was free!

So we got home just fine. I did nothing all day (besides take care of Miki and sort of edit my poem for poetry class) and I didn't get my shower.

Guess what? I got my shower this morning and I still have a smug little smile on my face.

Regards from Purgatory,
Monica