Two ER visits

Hang on.... there weren't for me this time.  *whew*

The first ER visit was for Donna.  She called me Friday night at 7:20 pm.  She thought her shoulder was pulled out of its socket and she was outside in her pasture.  She was lucky she had her cell phone with her and lucky she was able to reach me as I had just come in the house for a few minutes.  Daisy was dawdling at eating her food so I waited and was there when Donna called.

I drove down and then out into her pasture to look for Donna.  The sun was setting and in my eyes so I had to be careful to not accidentally run her over.  I found her laying on the ground on the west end of her pasture.  Donna had been walking her colicky mare when Donna noticed a break in her electric fence. When she walked over to check it out her horse panicked.  The horse was fearful of the electric fence and pulled away.  Donna held on to the rope to control the horse but for whatever reason her shoulder was pulled out of its socket.  Or so she thought.  Her arm was dead to use and she couldn't move it.  She was in a lot of pain.

First I had to get the horse and lead it back across the pasture and then into the corral.  I didn't know about the electric fence and the horse's fear of it.  The electric fence came near the gate I chose to use.  As we neared the fence the horse started to act up.  I was able to control the horse and get it into the corral where it quickly calmed down.

Then I got Donna into my pickup and took her to the ER in Whitefish.  There were no other patients there so they got her in quickly.  The hospital workers couldn't hold a vein to administer an IV so they had to give her some shots for pain and to knock her out.  The medicine was called some big name I didn't know.  Apparently the street name is Vitamin K.   The drug worked.  The side effect is it took a long time to wear off and made Donna loopy.

Once Donna was out the ER scanned her and found her arm was indeed out of its socket.  The doctor reset her arm back into its socket.  Once she woke up her arm felt much better even though her hand and fingers felt really sore.  An annoying part is Donna is right handed  and this was her right hand.

I got Donna to the hospital sometime before 8 pm.   With only one magazine to quickly read, alone in the waiting area, I had nothing to do. Once a three year older girl stopped crying in the room next to where I was, I fell asleep.  The little girl started crying and whining after she arrived when the nurses tried to weigh her.  I don't know what she was in for but from her reaction this was not the first time.

Other than being woken up later by the girl starting to cry and whine again, I slept till midnight.  I can sleep about anywhere and in most positions.

Donna was awake by midnight.  Once the doctor checked the scan done after the arm was reset, Donna was free to go by 1 am.  But she was really loopy from the drug and was seeing double.  Since the hospital wasn't charging by the minute (unlike they did for me) Donna waited until she felt better.  I was starving.  Tim (or was it Bill?), the ER nurse, let me have some food from their snack room and that tided me over.

At 2:50 am Donna was still woozy but now felt good enough that she thought she could making it home without falling or getting sick.  I got her home a little after 3 am.  Once I filled my cattle's water trough and closed all the open house windows, I went to bed by 3:30 am.   Saturday morning, even though her hand was really sore, Donna felt better.


The second ER visit was for Jan's dad.  He is 102 years old and mainly lives alone in Arizona.  Apparently Friday night he fell and was injured.  He was flown to a trauma center in Phoenix.  He apparently hit his head and gashed it, broke two vertebrata in his neck, and injured his hip.  He flat-lined once or twice and recovered from it.  Jan's brother is in Arizona and is on his way to where their dad was flown.  The dad is a tough old North Dakotan.