joyride

three weeks ago i experienced a new york city emergency room. again. same one. they have a file with my name on it.

shane [roommate], laura [next door neighbor], and i were outside on the porch having a cigarette on sunday evening. it had been raining earlier that day, so it was wet outside. we call our apartment[s] the treehouse because there are four levels inside our apartment. which means there are stairs inside the apartment as well. the porch is off my room, which is the top level. when we came back in my feet were wet, and they slipped out from under me on the stairs. the end of the crash was a broken mirror, so shane and laura heard and came running to see what happened. at first we laughed. hard. but then my head caught up with body, and i fainted [with my eyes open the whole time i was out, supposedly] as my head registered the pain i was in. something was very wrong with my back. and no amount of cursing or wincing was making it any better.

they finally got me on the couch in a semi-comfortable position. after some deliberation, including a phone call to a family friend of shane's who's a doctor, we decided to call an ambulance. the EMTs weren't in a hurry, but i was. i wanted something for the pain. i did manage to squeak out a few jokes, including one where i told one of the EMTs he was short. he started it. shane and laura, not the genius EMTs, helped me down the stairs and into the ambulance. i laid on my stomach because it was easier to maneuver, they strapped me down, and off we went. shane asked for the flashing lights, but EMT alexander explained they were going to go slower as to not jolt me too much. trade offs.

when we got to Beth Israel, daniel and bodie were there waiting. the last time i went to the ER i was alone sans cell phone, so it was nice to have an entourage this time around. when they first wheeled me in they had something covering my backside. i asked mr. clean [bald EMT who's name i can't remember] to remove it so people wouldn't think i'd gotten something stuck up my ass. he obliged. i never actually got a room, i just laid on the stretcher in the hallway, but at least it was near chairs for friends to sit...right next to the wasted guy with hiccups.

we had to wait for a while before someone would even talk to me. at one point my murse offered me some tylenol, and i just laughed at him. i wanted the drip. eventually the doctor came and made me do some jumping jacks and somersaults. ok, not really, but i did want to hit her in the face for the way she was making me move. finally i got the goods. a percocet. it made me feel drunk, but it didn't do a damn thing for the pain. they eventually diagnosed it as a muscular strain with no concrete answer as to when it would heal. i was thankful it had nothing to do with my spine. i was given prescriptions for meds [not the good stuff though], and we were sent on our way. getting home was the worst part. after all the moving the doctors made me to do analyze the injury, walking out of the hospital was brutal. i honestly have never been in pain like this before.

finally i got home, cursing the fourth floor walk up we live in. i laid on the couch for a solid week. i got lots of emails, phone calls, visits, etc from people. it was good to be reminded of the great people i have in my life right now. it's gotten much better, but i'm still [kind of] in rest mode.

moral of the story: always grip the rails in the treehouse. always.