Emergency Room

There's something about going to the hospital that suspends reality. Time stops. No matter whether one is inside for a few minutes or a few days, that same feeling of dazed disorientation has to be overcome.

Mom called me yesterday about 8:00 to say that she was feeling nauseous and had been hurting off and on the night before with what the doctor had told her was probably a kidney stone. She felt like she needed to go on to the emergency room to get checked out, so I went and got her. We spent the next six hours in one of Podunk's big medical facilities waiting on results.

They did x-rays, scans, EKGs, and ran all manner of tests only to tell her that they thought it was some sort of deep muscle pull caused by her doing too much heavy labor in the yard, something that of course, she's right back out there doing today. Her nausea abated, and by the time we stumbled out into the parking lot again, things were fine. Sitting in that tiny exam room was surreal, though.

Mom and I did have a chance to sit and talk for awhile. It seems like it takes some sort of crisis for us to do that these days, which is not a good thing. After everything was over, we had lunch in the hospital cafeteria, and I took her home. I got back home by about 3, but it seemed like I'd been gone for days. We always have some weird stuff during Thanksgiving. I hope this is it for this year.