The First Trip to the ER

 First Trip to the ER – August 5, 2021

When I asked my wife to take me to the ER, she looked scared. I never went to the doctor so she knew it must be bad.  Deb asked, “Which one do you what to go to?” Luckily, our family had been healthy, and we never had to use a hospital or ER, so we really didn’t know where to go.  We made a quick call to our local clinic and could not get through.  So, with no plan we drove to find the ER associated with our clinic; it was a very long twenty-five miles. When we got there, the parking lot was mostly empty. At the door there was a lady checking people in, she let me into the ER and told my wife she had to wait in the car. There was no one in the waiting room except for a nurse that took me to an exam room. After filling out all the paperwork and answering a few questions she gave me a covid test. It didn’t take long, and she returned with another nurse and told me that I had covid and that I was very dehydrated. The other nurse started to explain that they were overrun with covid patients, and they were completely full, along with every other hospital in the area. She said there were still a few hospitals in Nebraska taking patients, seven hours away. “There is nothing we can do with the covid, it must run its course,” she said.  They gave me IVs with steroids in it. Boy, instantly the fluids did the trick I started filling less foggy and better right away. The nurses took turns in the room while I was on the IV. The first nurse finally got brave enough to ask the question that had been hanging in the air, “Did you get the covid vaccine?” “No,” I answered. There was a short pause while she looked over her shoulder, then she responded, “That’s OK, don’t feel bad, I’m going to tell you a little secret; all but one of the people upstairs in the hospital with covid had the covid shot.” She went on to talk a little trash about people taking beds when they really didn’t need to, but it seemed very important to her that I knew that. She made me laugh. The next nurse came in as I was finishing up. When we were alone, she asked the same question, and I gave the same response. “Don’t feel bad,” she said. “It doesn’t keep you from getting sick, let me tell you a secret….”  After having pretty much the same conversation, and as she was walking me out the door, she said, “Go home, get lots of rest, drink lots of fluids, and get feeling better.” Then she grabbed my arm lightly, looked me in the eyes and said, “DON’T’ COME BACK, you really don’t want to come back. Get me?”  I wanted to say something sarcastic like ‘No Shit, Sherlock’ but just answered, “Gotcha”. I thanked them and headed back to the truck, empty handed, but feeling better.