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Thank goodness emergencies did not find their way to me, unless there was someone more useful than me also on deck.
Sean and Mary flew in on Thursday. It was great to see them. Sean looked a little tired after a very hard workout on Wednesday, but was quite the sport when I dragged them to JoAnn's, PeiWei, Karin's, and Aldi. Of course, by the time we were headed home we had a feeling that there was something more going on than sore muscles. Hmm...what to do, what to do?
R-Rescue. I could do that. Water maybe? Aleve! Yes!
E-Evacuate. I guess we got him to get out of the car.
V-Ventilate. Hmm...well, he was breathing, so we skipped that one
A-Attack. Really?
S-Salvage. He was still in one piece.
I'm kind of thinking that REVAS did not quite apply in this situation, meaning of course...this was not a real emergency! Whew!
By dinner-time, Sean had quite the fever, so Doc Mary and Doc Judi re-evaluated the situation. We packed him in the car and made a trip to the Minute Clinic. It was probably the flu, we determined. Open til 8, we soon found that in order to be seen by the PA ("PA NOT DOCTOR" emphatically, they stated) ~ You had to be signed in by 7:30. Well bummers, we arrived 30 seconds late for that. Who knew? Rude PA too...cancel that CVS option for the future!
Off to the Doc in a Box - well, that is what Roger called the little Orlando Health clinic that is not quite an emergency room. Someone saw him there, but since it was time for them to go home, they wanted him to go to the ER for bloodwork. Great! At least they ruled out flu.
He hobbled back to the car and covered up in a blanket and off his two amazing docs went to the ER...evaluating all the way. This is not flu. 101 is not that much fever. Chills can be cured with a blanket. He did not eat much. He did not drink much today. What if we make him drink a bunch of gatorade instead of sticking him with an IV? We came to the conclusion that if there was no wait at the ER (possible on a Thursday night?) ~ then we would stay. If there was a wait, we would go home and make an appointment at a Centra Care. Fine Docs, we felt!
Driving to the ER was one of those things where I knew I had to keep moving forward and yet I really did not want to go there. The last time I was at the ER, things did not turn out so well for the patient. I did not really want to tell that to Sean, but I thought it. Maybe the wait would be really long and we would not stay. I am really not cut out for this medical stuff.
Mary jumped out of the car and came back to report a three and a half hour wait. Full room. Lots of sickness. ICK. As we had planned, we headed home. Sean was in and out but I am not quite sure that he thought we had his best interests in mind. How do these medical people know what to do? Do they just say ER because someone else has to make the decision that way? Do they just pass the buck? We made a phone appointment for morning and a plan to wake him every 4 hours for a new dose of Tylenol SEVERE flu. And lots of Gatorade. That should do it!
By morning, Sean's fever had broken, a shower woke him up, and he was only moderately stumbling over his feet. Did we give him too much Tylenol Flu? At least his "docs' could still laugh! Oatmeal Brûlée offered improvement, as did another nap or two.
By evening he was in good shape...good thing too, because I had told practically everyone that he was here to run for Roger and come in first! I am absolutely positive that our fine doctoring skills, plus the much needed rest for his achilles was all that was needed for him to run a 16:07 race on Saturday morning and place very very far in front of racer #2.
Roger's Lesson: No doubt it would be that I need to pay attention to the Acronymns and use the right ones for the right situation. REVAS is for things like building fires.
Oh well....this is either your calling ....or not. Clearly it is not mine, so anyone sick would help themselves out if they hung out around someone else. But I do know my Acronymn. (One anyway).
And major thanks to our Great Physician. He had it all under control and knew this 24 hour bug would pass.
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