My latest New York experience: The New York emergency room.
After attending a time management seminar at work, I was anxious to perform the first step from the seminar, the "mindsweep", where you basically write down everything you have swirling in your mind that you need to do. Doing that led me down a few rabbit holes, until I found myself finally cutting up my old ATM card that had sat on my desk for the last few months.
In doing so, I blatantly broke one of the other rules from my seminar: no multi-tasking. I was chatting away with my office mate, Anjali, and barely noticed as the scissors cut not only the card, but the end of my thumb. See why multi-tasking is not good, kids?
Two hours and several office-first-aid-kit bandages later, the bleeding refused to stop. So, I went to the emergency room. I was half expecting a New York emergency room to be full of gun shot victims and the occasional unrequited nurse-doctor romance (wait, that was ER). Alas, my fellow patients consisted of a few flu victims and a British tourist who had lost his seizure medicine.
Checking in, the nurse had a grand time with my last name ("Hey Flipper! Flipster! Those Flippin' Scissors!"). When I jokingly offered to take her to a Yankees game if she put me ahead of the line, she said "So long as you leave the scissors at home." Ah, New York emergency room humor, there is nothing like it.
Finally, they moved me to the Rapid Response room, where they send patients with less-than -emergencies. When the intern came to check my cut finger, I don't think he expected the unwrapped bandage to expose a finger bleeding that badly. He asked "My god, how long has this been bleeding?" I got a little panicked at that point. Who knew you could bleed out through the tip of your finger? I was rushed to the front of the rapid response line.
Just for future reference, it takes three shots to numb a thumb due to all the nerve endings. I HATE shots. I soaked through my t-shirt with nervous sweat in about two minutes. For some reason, I focused on Disney tunes to try to block out what was happening. I bet the doctor wondered why I started humming "Some Day My Prince Will Come" in the middle of the second shot. Honestly, I don't know why that song came in my head, but I ran with it.
Three stitches later, I was almost out of there when the nurse came back to give me a tetanus shot. Great, four shots and a sliced thumb in under three hours.
On the way home, before stopping in at Dallas BBQ for comfort food (chicken fingers and fries...I deserved it), I called my Mom to fill her in on my exciting day.
"Did you tell the Doctor that you had that horrible reaction to tetanus shots when you were six?" she breathlessly asked.
"WHAT? I didn't know that!!!" I, equally without breath, responded.
"Yes, you got that high fever and your throat closed up. The doctor said if you ever got another tetanus shot, to only get half a dose."
You know, this would have been good information for my Mom to remind me of sometime over the last thirty years....
After a fitful night of sleep (nothing like waking up every hour to check your windpipe for blockage), I am happy to report I am going to be just fine. No reactions, just a sore thumb and a sore arm from the tetanus shot. And lots of "rule of thumb" jokes around the office. My favorite is my co-worker, Nicole, who showed up yesterday with a rock of an engagement ring on her finger. She claims I was just trying to steal her digit's thunder. Bill sent around an email reminding me that people like me just fine, that "there is no need to be maiming myself" ....
Finally, the day culminated in a gift from MJ, a particularly smarty-pants HR rep on the 15th floor: A pair of safety-edged scissors, ages 4+.
Well, thumbs up to my co-workers for their creativity. At least I know I am loved.
