A walk around the neighborhood

My wife took a walk around the neighborhood on Wednesday, September 10th. She said she’d return at 7:30 a.m., but came back about seven minutes early.

I was shocked! She looked as though she had been assaulted on the face! The cut above her left eyebrow seeped enough blood to cover the left third of her face. Several people later told me that the head has much more blood per cubic centimeter than the rest of the body. She had bruising under her left eye.  I don’t think she realized how bad she looked until she got a gander at the mirror. She also had some minor cuts elsewhere, on her fingers and knee.

She had fallen on the sidewalk, just like she had three years ago when she tripped on an uneven surface. But this time, there was seemingly no culprit.  She looked worse than that time.  

I made an appointment for her at the urgent care place, which she went to around 10:30. A couple of hours later, she called me and said the urgent care place had encouraged her to go to the emergency room at St. Peter’s Hospital. She was asked who had accompanied her, and no one had.

ER

I took the bus and met her at St Peter’s. She got to the triage area, or whatever they call it, with her on a gurney outside of a room, and eventually, I got in there, too. I was falling asleep in the Emergency Department waiting room, but in the triage area, that was impossible with all of the monitors beeping and buzzing.

Over a period of about four hours, she got some pain medicine, a CAT scan  (no brain injury), and some X-rays. At last, she got a splint because she had broken the bone on her left pinky closest to the palm. 

We noticed the couple at the next gurney since we had been there for a long time. The husband was there with his wife, the patient. She was in such a weakened state that the nurse asked the patient whether her husband could sign the consent form for her treatment, and she nodded yes.

The interaction gave me information that had not occurred to me.  The nurse asked him whether they had the same insurance, and they did so that he could provide the nurse with his insurance information. But my wife and I do not have the same insurance, so I need my wife’s information, and she needs mine.

My wife is recovering well, thank you. The black eye, worse than the last one, is fading. However, interestingly, some bruising on her shoulder and hip, not immediately evident right after the fall, became more prominent a week later before eventually fading. 

Epilogue

A week later, she went to a specialist, who wanted to bind her left pinkie with her left ring finger. This meant my wife removing her wedding ring, which was recrafted with her engagement ring.  Despite concerted efforts, they could not remove the ring, which was still swollen from the accident.    So they had to cut her ring off, which, despite their slow (over an hour) and deliberate efforts, was quite physically uncomfortable.

We were both sad about the ring, which we’ll get fixed after her hand is healed. 

Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto. View all posts by Roger