The wait time on the board when I arrived was about 1 hour. As I had never been to any emergency since I've lived in Winnipeg (13 years), little did i know that the there were 2 sides of the emergency. Critical and non-critical for the people who needed stitches or had a cough. I sat and sat and sat. The joys of free healthcare. I watched me slip back on the wait times to an average wait of 3 or more hours. I didn't know they were also adding the non-critical people on the other side into those numbers. At one point, I asked the nurse how many in front or approximately how much longer. She told me that it depended on urgency and yada yada yada. I knew that. I then said, if I am not considered urgent, send me to the other side or I'll go home. She got a little snarky with me and said "We're all adults here and if you want to go, you can go". In my delirious state, it seemed as though all the nurses around kind of looked and nodded their heads in agreement. Something inside of me told me to just shut up and sit down.
Soon after I was finally called to the other side. I was one of the lucky ones to not be put in a "curtain room" and got an actual room that I would be my home for 36 hours. As I waited patiently, the doctor finally came in. Oh great....Hello Doogie Howser. I'm assuming he was fairly new resident. Over the course of the next little while he poked, prodded, pulled. Nothing was wrong that he could see. He wasn't concerned about me being lethargic or the speech issues I mentioned. But he was concerned about my headache (which was so tiny)....I had to tell him a few times....NO its not the headache....I would not be here for that. He also kept saying my strength was good. In my head I kept thinking "of course it is....I'm a f*&%ing ironman". Obviously stuck on what would be wrong, Doogie kept going back out the door to what I can only assume was to consult with the attending. At one point he came back in the room and said (with one hand on the door knob) "are you sure it's not just the flu? Because when I get sick usually I get lethargic a few days before". I finally pushed back from frustration. "NO!!" I said. "I'm an athlete and I know my body and I know how I feel when I'm getting sick". Even though his one hand was on the door knob for the quick escape, I think I scared the poor kid into looking for another test. I didn't care...again, something was telling me not allow them to tell me nothing was wrong. I knew I needed to push.
When he came back a few minutes later he then asked me to stand, put my arms out like I was holding a pizza and close my eyes. I immediately fell into the wall. He then had me do what I can only assume is a field sobriety test that cops would do....and had me walk foot over foot. Again I fell but this time into the bed. Both of us looked at each other and went "well that's not good". I do way more intense balance drills all the time and suddenly I couldn't even walk.
He went away and popped his head back in to the room and said "we're ordering a CT".
I called my parents to tell them where I was but that I didn't think anything was major but I was getting checked out. Even though I never go to the doctor, I've been known to use Dr. Google and do a lot of self diagnosing. In that moment, I really felt nothing was wrong and I was maybe over reacting. Maybe it was the flu.
After finally receiving the CT, I waited what seemed like an eternity for the results. It was only about 20 minutes but a nurse had checked my vitals but left a machine on that was beeping every 15 seconds and driving me nuts!
I was sitting in the bed, probably checking Facebook when the door swung open and Doogie walked in. The way he walked in, I thought "oh he's gonna tell me there is nothing there and make me feel like a jackass". I thought that maybe he would say it's dehydration and we'll put you on an IV drip for a few hours. Or perhaps I really was having a nervous breakdown and they were going to bring in a psych consult.
He then sat down, and looked at me and didn't start talking right away so I said "so I'm full of shit, right?!" while I chuckled. He just said no I'm sorry. The CT shows a lesion on the brain and we don't know what it is. He then talked a little more while I completely shut down and went blank. In my head it was a lot of WHAT THE F*CK. AM I DYING TOMORROW. OMG OMG OMG. HOLY SHIT. I did tune back in, in time to hear "Do you have someone you can call. A husband or a boyfriend?" lol Thanks for rubbing the salt in the wound Doogie!! From there, a whole gaggle of nurses kept coming in and out. Some for vitals, some for IV's...another to fix the IV when the first one didn't work. They all offered sympathy. This group of nurses also included one nurse who happened to be standing next to the original snarky nurse (saying I could go if I wanted). She looked me in the eye and just said she was so happy I decided to stay and that they had no idea the outcome was going to be this. The way she said it, I could tell she was apologizing for and the others for not believing me earlier. I get it....people like me are in there everyday and a lot of the time, it's for nothing. That's the downfall to free medical care. People overuse the system to the point of the nurses and doctors being over worked and doing all they can to rush others out the door.
One nurse then came in and I basically told her my life story. The poor girl didn't know how to respond so she offered to find me spiritual counselling. At the time I was like don't you offer that to people on their death bed....omg I am dying. haha
I can't remember if I had called my friends or my parents first. I didn't want to tell my mom and dad over the phone but eventually gave in and did it. The toughest thing I ever had to do was tell my parents that their baby, the independent girl has something going on in my brain but i don't know what. I told them until the MRI happened I wouldn't know anything so I told them to stay home. That must have been so hard for them to sit and wait by the phone like that.
The second calls I made were to Ash and Erin. I was concerned about getting my car out of the parkade so I wouldn't be paying a fortune when I left there. LOL Ash and I have joked about that conversation since then. I was a sobbing "can you come get my car for me I'm at HSC" I didn't even tell her what was happening. She had to interrupt me and say ok Joanne, just back up a bit and start from the beginning. Her and Erin were there within 40 minutes.
While I was waiting, I sent an update to Kris and Ayn who were checking in with me all day....I actually texted them the news....again....I wasn't thinking so clearly! Ayn was already at HSC for a meeting and came right down. Ayn called Fern...who was down there just as quick. That was the start of one of the craziest nights of my life. I swear we almost got evicted from the ER.
I was in the ER for almost 3 days total....more on that another time, but it was filled with a lot of waiting, an MRI, meeting my neurosurgeon, having an EEG completed, meeting my neurologist...along with 10,000 other doctors, Kris and Scott embarrassing me (see attached business cards) but then karma getting them back by being called my parents and then being forgotten about in the observation area. This was just the start of me really getting to know how health care really is!
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