#2087 could have been so much worse

This morning I missed a call from MT and he had sent a text that said, "Call me." Usually we don't talk much when we are working, so I knew something was happening. I immediately called him and he told me that he had fallen off a ladder at work. I asked if he was all right and he said that he was not okay and that he wanted me to meet him at home to take him to the doctor.  This conversation happened around 10 AM.

I locked my computer, grabbed my bag and headed out the door. I did tell my boss and my friends that I was going to take MT to the hospital. I was home in record time; I beat MT there. I located an urgent care near us that took our insurance and I heard the truck pull up in the driveway. I quickly went outside to see MT leaning against his truck with a look of pain in his eyes. T was with him and he looked kind of shaken up too.

MT slowly and painfully got into the car and I headed to the urgent care near our house. The waiting room was packed and we were told it would be about a 90 minute wait. MT could barely stand up on his own and he kept grimacing in pain. His knees buckled when a spasm hit his back. I decided to take him to the emergency room at the hospital down the road.

I dropped MT off at the ER door, parked the car across the street and ran - yes, I ran - back across the street and up the block to the ER. MT had made it into the waiting room but had not reached the check-in desk yet. I quickly filled out the paperwork and asked for a wheelchair for MT. I don't think I've ever seen him in that much pain, including when he broke his ankle when we were in college.

We got into a room by 11:00. There was no position that MT could be in that was comfortable. He would lie down, slowly and painfully turn himself over, get out of the bed, practically on his knees, stand up until his knees nearly gave out (scared me silly that he was going to crumple to the ground in a heap), then he would sit in a chair and repeat the rotation. The nurse did come in to check on us and let us know the doctor would be there "in a minute". That's a lie. We didn't see the doctor for like two hours.

MT was starting to freak out a little and wanted to go to a different hospital. I told him that we would be starting from scratch and that the wait time would likely be the same at another hospital. I did call the nurse and ask for some pain meds for him. I'm not sure why it took so long when the poor man was obviously in a lot of pain the first time the nurse saw him. MT took a couple of Valium then got a pain reliever and an anti-inflammatory through an IV. Those intravenous drugs worked fast. MT calmed right down and was able to sit quietly until the doctor came in. She examined him and decided to do an MRI on his head (which he bumped when he fell), his back and his chest.

Here's what happened: MT and T were working on an outbuilding for a client. MT was about four rungs up on the ladder (about four feet) and stepping onto a scaffold next to the ladder so he could take some measurements. The ladder was a bit wobbly, so when MT stepped off to the scaffold, he kind of pushed off of the ladder and it gave way. MT was caught between the ladder and the scaffold and fell flat on his back, hitting his head on the scaffold on the way down. The impact of the fall knocked the wind out of him and he said he struggled to breathe for about 30 seconds.  Then he got up and said he was done for the day and he and T left the jobsite. I think his being able to get up and get in the truck and drive home was pure adrenaline because when I saw him in the driveway and through the morning at the hospital, he was broken.

A bunch of scenarios went through my head as I was driving home and as I sat with MT in the hospital. Through it all though, the overriding thought in my head was, "He's going to be okay."

The initial result of the MRI was that there were no broken bones or torn muscles. It did, however, show a pulmonary contusion, which sounds dreadful. A bruised lung still sounds awful but less medical-y. A second MRI was ordered to focus on the lung area. That second screening came back normal. Yes, MT was in a lot of pain, but there is no long-term damage that could be identified.

#thankful

With another IV dose of pain meds on board, we left the hospital around 5:30 PM. We got some fast food to take home, since neither of us had eaten since breakfast H O U R S ago. The relief that he was okay drew out all the energy and positivity I had been holding onto all day and I was drained, physically and mentally. How is it that sitting on an airplane or hanging out in a hospital room can be so tiring? I was just sitting there but I was completely exhausted when I got home.

I picked up MT's prescriptions from the pharmacy, then I flopped down on the couch to watch some mindless TV (Queer Eye season two episode one.  Fantastic!) MT is in bed and he's been asleep for awhile. I don't know if he has taken any medicine. It's possible that the minute I drop off to sleep that he will wake up and be in pain. I've thought about sleeping in the spare room, but what if he needs something? It's my turn to help him since he helped me through two knee replacements.

To summarize:
     Always make sure the ladder is on firm ground
     Stay positive. It won't do you any good to worry about "what if". There will be time to deal with reality. Prepare yourself for the worst and always hope for the best.
      Queer Eye will help you calm down and relax. As will chips and dip and a Diet Coke. (I'm a stress eater!)
     We are going to be okay.