Friday, December 28, 2007

Christmas, Wollmeise, ER Visit & moving part 1 (WARNING ITS LONG AND NO PICTURES!...yet)

Christmas in our house starts Christmas Eve. We lay around and watch Christmas movies and open up gifts from the relatives after dinner. Just a totally chill day. This is normally how it goes and it went this way except the fact that I had a fever from 101.2 to 103.3 during most of the day. I had started not feeling good on Thursday. My throat was starting to feel scratchy but I didn't think anything of it until Sunday when it was getting really hard to swallow and I started to get a fever that night, nothing major just a low grade fever. I thought oh well I will have a little cold during Christmas nothing major.....Right? Well Like I said Christmas Eve was chill but then Christmas Morning came. Oh my gosh I felt horrible. I pushed through breakfast and Christmas Morning present opening like a champ, if I do say so myself. At 9:30 ish we got a knock on the door. I was some beautiful Wollmeise yarn that I had order just days before. (More about these later)Around 10am that same morning our friends came over and we exchanged gifts with them. I say friends but they are more like family to us. They could tell that I wasn't feeling up to par (I wonder what gave it away, the fact that I was sprawled out on the living room couch with my sons Spongebob square pants blanket with a cold rag on my head, or the other fact that I really couldn't look at them when they came in the door.) We did our gift giving talked for a little bit and then parted ways so that we could get ready for Christmas Lunch/Dinner at 1pm. NO I DID NOT COOK, thank goodness I live on a Military Base. We went to the Dinning Facility aka Chow-Hall and ate lobster, crab legs, shrimp, turkey, mac n cheese, greens, salads and desert. They had way more there then I could remember. I forced myself to eat something, like I said I couldn't swallow. Everybody enjoyed their meals. I was glad that I didn't have to cook and clean up. All though it was a struggle getting ready and getting me out the house on time I didn't feel as bad as I had earlier that morning. My fever went down the only thing was I had a really bad headache.

When we got home I took something for my headache and went to the couch to lay down a bit. 7pm-ish that night it started to really kick in again, the fever that is. And around 10pm my husband decided that 3 days of a fever higher then 103.0 can't be a good thing so he took me to the German Hospital. All well in good, I thought okay they will check me out give me something and send me home. Boy was I WRONG. I forgot what Country I was in. Germany is infamous for keeping Americans in their hospitals because they know that they will be paid,if you have lived in Germany as a military member you know what I mean. The nurse in the ER was nice enough that wasn't the problem, the ER was packed with sick elderly people, drunk people and who knows what other kind of problem people. The nurse took me to a room that I shared with a Homeless drunk guy. My husband stayed to only until they took my blood and did an EKG because German hospitals are strict about "visitors" After he left I laid in the bed in all my clothes and shoes and waited to fall asleep. This of course didn't happen. I wont get into all the nasty details lets just say that they halls were filled with SICK patients, one patient cussing and yelling at the nurses the whole night and my roommate was SICK too and attached to an IV so every time he had to go use the restroom to well you know he had to walk right past my head and bed. I thought that I was one tough cookie until that night. I wanted to get up out of that bed and walk my sick ass home. At around 1am the nurses came into the room and said that they were going to take me to a different floor, "thank you, there is a God" is what I though "finally some rest." They wheeled my bed into a room that I was going to be staying in. There was an elderly lady there asleep in her bed already. All I cared about is that I wasn't in that DAMN ER anymore!!!


After I got to the other room thhe night went pretty smoothly I did get some sleep. They gave me something for my fever to go down, the only down part was my roommate would wake me up with a loud grown in her sleep every once in a while but nothing like the hell that was going on around me earlier that night. The next morning I felt much better, my fever was gone and I was eating a little better. It still was hard to swallow but I could deal with it. I wanted the Dr. to check me and give me some meds so that I could get the HELL out of there. I had to go home regardless of what had happened the night before, the movers were coming to get our furniture and stuff to send back to the States. The Dr. came in after breakfast and took more blood and told me that I need to stay in the hospital at least one more day. I couldn't believe it. She claimed that they didn't know why my fever was so high and that they wanted to start me on Antibiotic injections. I argued with here and said that I couldn't stay that I was going to have to check myself out so that I could pack clothes and other necessities like yarn (I didn't tell her the yarn part...I don't think she would've understood the need for that) before the movers came the next morning. Well she was trying to convince me to stay I just laid there looking at her like "this can't possibly be happening","what a day for this crap to happen" She told me to think about it and that she would be back in a few minutes. In those few minutes the nurse came in because my roommate who was bedridden rang the nurse bell to go to the restroom. Well like I said she was bedridden. The nurse got the big Silver bed pans, more like big salad bowls, and placed them under her bottom and left the room. She did her business and let me tell you I started crying. Everything hit me all at once, I flashed back to the night before in the ER and now this lady is doing her business in the bed and it's not going quickly either and its cold outside you don't want to open the window and well you get the picture. Then in the midst of my tears my husband and baby girl come in. I really start to loose and I tell him " I'm going home, I don't give a shit what that doctor says, I am not staying here!!!" He asked "What's wrong." I said "she's taking a shit in her bed and they say I can't leave this place." He went and talk to the DR. and told her that I was going to check out. About an hour later they had discharge papers in hand and a Dr.s note saying that I had "Tonsillitis" (remember earlier they didn't know what was wrong with me)so that I could get a prescription from the American clinic.

"DUH" I could have told them that. I used to get that all the time when I was little. Like I said before they just wanted to keep me there to make money. They wanted to do Ultrasounds, draw gallons of blood and do EKGs for days. Long story short, haha, I got the hell out of there at around 1:30pm. I took it easy most of the day after I found all our passports and important documents before the movers came in the morning. More of this long drawn-out story and pictures of pretty yarn to come...

3 comments:

peaknits said...

OMG - horrible story but great visuals - ugh!:) I am glad you are outta of that hell hole and on the road to recovery. Good luck preparing for your move!

Minerva Turkey said...

Sounds like you are coming through it ok! I hope this week brings some great rest and relaxation for you.

nova said...

I hope your 2008 involves no ER visits. None, whatsoever! Happy New Year!