Trial Run

We had a tad bit of a scare a couple weeks ago. I woke up at 3am with heartburn so bad I was choking and couldn’t breathe. At first I was more annoyed than scared. But that’s me. Get angry first and then cry. I got up and went to the living room so my husbandito could finish his REM cycle. I sat down with my legs propped up trying to catch my breath and decide whether to call the firefighters to knock out the wildfire in my throat. Suddenly my hands and feet swelled in a frighteningly short amount of time and a headache ensued. Since I haven’t had a headache in months I thought it wasn’t a good sign. I retreated to the bedroom, woke up Paul who of course wants to call the OB nurse. I’ve decided that whichever nurse you call they are ALWAYS going to tell you to go in to the ER. Working in the ER myself we get countless amounts of minor issues who say, “the nurse from the hotline told us to come in” of course she did, she can’t see you and even though she’s probably thinking “you’re fine, you ninny-muggin” she’s saying, “get it checked, sir or m’am”. I knew this but I panicked and worse, Paul panicked in his deliriously sleepy mind, so we listened to her. It didn’t help that she added, “Well, it could be preclampsia or a blood clot in her lungs”. Oh sweet. Those two options sound nice. So we get in the car and drive and so starts our trial run.

Problem #1: We weren’t quite sure how to get there. We hadn’t been to our hospital before. (The one I work at is less than two miles from us, but the one we're supposed to go to is 20 minutes away…damn insurance restrictions)

Problem #2: Gas gauge says empty and a couple miles into our drive the light comes on. Just peachy.

Problem #3: Headlight is out. We’d known about this for a couple days but our work and sleep schedules had prevented us from making it to the mechanic during opening hours and we’d been told we couldn't change it ourselves. Believe me, I tried.

Problem #4: Police noticing the missing headlight decided to follow us. And when we crossed city lines, another took up interest. Sweet alfalfa, an escort.

What we learned:

A. The hospital is father than we thought

B. There are 5 gas stations on the way there, 2 of which are not open 24/7.

3. One road has construction. The other has a LOT of red lights.

D. Get a mechanic who will do house calls.

5. Oh, and pack a bag in case we have to stay.

I think that about sums it up. So far, no more embarrassing ER visits where they run your lab work, tell you everything is fine and add, just for good measure, this your first? um hmm.