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The Slushie Of Doom!, Part II

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We got to the hospital and they took Jeanette in directly. I had to walk around to the front and sit in the waiting room. I’ve found most of being in a hospital is waiting for something to happen. I’d already called Missy and let her know what had happened. I started contacting everyone else that needed to know while I waited.

After a bit, one of the EMTs came to get me and take me back to Jeanette’s room. When I got there, one nurse was working on getting an IV into her. I found out later that he was a nursing student and had some problems finding a vein on Jeanette.

The EMT that rode in the ambulance with Jeanette was in the room. She asked me what happened. I told her about drinking the slushie, my chest getting cold, getting a brain freeze and passing out. She said that was similar to people who ride tall roller coasters. They get so stressed from the top crest to the bottom curve that they pass out. Sounds a lot like possums. They get so stressed that they pass out and look like they’re dead.

Another nurse came in and parked a tablet on a roller in front of me. This was the registration / check in process. I answered a bunch of questions and was connected to a registration specialist. She got me to get photos of Jeanette’s license and insurance information. Then she set the screen to the contract I had to read and sign. Long, legalese, and not easy to get through while other people were in the room working on Jeanette. Finally got through reading the thing and signed on the dotted lines.

Then came the phone call to my insurance company. Another litany of questions and answers as they got all the relevant details of what happened. Got several text messages after that whole process letting me know they approved a rental car. So much nicer than dealing with State Farm, may their name forever be besmirched in the annals of piss poor customer service.

Then came calling several friends and neighbors trying to get a ride to the car rental place before they closed. Ultimately our neighbor Steve was good enough to give me a ride.

I left Jeanette to the tender mercies of the medical staff and went to get the car. They had X-rayed her, given her pain meds, but were still waiting to do a Cat Scan on her. They were concerned about the possibility of a spinal injury. They had a neck brace on her which caused her quite a bit of pain until they let her sit up.

The rental process was relatively painless, unlike Budget Rent-A-Car we used on our last road trip to try to celebrate our honeymoon. I ended up with a Mazda CX5, which handles well and has enough room for Jeanette.

Went home. We’d left Major Tom and Sirocco in the backyard when we first left on our errand run as we expected to only be gone an hour or so. They were overjoyed to see me and barked up a storm as they ran inside. Got all the dogs fed.

Contacted some more people to let them know what was going on. Made a quick sandwich and an apple for myself and ate.

Back to the ER to see how Jeanette was doing. The place was packed with no option but to stand in line to speak with someone about getting to see my wife. As I said, hospitals are mainly waiting for something to happen.

I finally retrieved Jeanette and headed home. She was in pain but ultimately she had a broken finger and a lot of bruising. She should heal up just fine.

This could have gone much worse. I’m thankful it didn’t. As I keep saying, tomorrow is not guaranteed. Best get your living in now, while you still have the chance.

If you’d like to support my efforts, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum

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