Well, no, I didn't go to sleep last night anyway. I went to the Emergency Room instead.
I couldn't get to sleep because of the itching, so I got up and took a luke-warm shower. After the shower, I noticed that I was getting even more spots. As I was reflecting on this phenomena, I noticed that my throat was feeling... funny. I don't like funny, especially when it could lead to a compromised airway.
So off we went, Karen and I, at about 20:30. Got checked in (as we were waiting, six or seven girls that I know walked by. Usually they are all very friendly, but when they saw that I was with Karen, they just gave me very small signs of recognition...) and Dr. McGovern examined me; he said that yes, there was signs that my throat was swelling, and from the description that I gave of my sub-sternal pain, I probably had a lesion on my esophagus too.
So I got a progesterone pill, 0.3 of sub dermal adrenalin and 25 of benadryl IV. Then we waited. About a half-hour later, there was no change, so I got another 50 of IV benadryl.
Shortly before that, we were listening to the ambulance radio... there were two code red traumas coming in, two code grays and a code white, all from the same wreck.
I was telling Tracy, my nurse, that I could go sit in the waiting room, since it was pretty obvious that they would need the monitor room that I was in... as we were talking, along comes Lisa, another RN, and said that yes, they would need the room... pronto.
I wound up in the EENT room sitting in a dental-type chair that was very uncomfortable, even when fully reclined. I kept wanting to slide off of the slick surface, but I didn't.
By this time, Karen was pretty well exhausted, she was dozing off in a chair that looked much more comfortable than the one that I was in...
One of the code red patients was a 9-month-old child, as was one of the code grays. The other code red was taken to the other hospital, because they weren't nearly as busy as we were. The two kids were in child seats in the back of the vehicle, but evidently not well strapped in, because they were both ejected from the vehicle out of the back window. The code red one was going to need a CT of it's head and belly... I don't know if it was intubated or now, but it wasn't making much noise. The other one was really raising a ruckus, though. One of the nurses told me that it was pretty much OK except for lacerations.
It was really hard for me to sit there and know that there was trauma work going on and that I was not involved. One of the evening techs stopped by and asked me if I'd ever done a belly on a 9-month-old, but I haven't; actually, given the woozy state of my brain, even if I had I probably couldn't offer any good advice.
By 23:00, most of my symptoms were gone. The itching had subsided pretty well, and the welts were about half of the size they were when I came in. I was deemed ready to go home, and I was really looking forward to being in my nice warm waterbed.
I was given a script for prednisone, but I didn't get it filled until this morning, after I got up at 10:00. I can still see the welts, but they're much smaller and not itching except when I think about them.
Re: the Colorado carnage... people are trying really hard to figger out the "why" here. All kinds of things are being blamed... the goth movement, if it could be called that, the movie Matrix, MTV, television in general...
Give it up, folks.
If you can get to the point of understanding, truly understanding, insanity, you will be insane yourself. And anything less than that will not be truly understanding. Sane people cannot understand insane people. That's what being insane is all about, after all.
Maybe more later...
Yesterday was pretty much of a waste, as far as getting anything done. Today will be much better, even though I'm getting a really late start on it.