Sunday, March 16, 2008

Close Call!

An email today informed me that SP had had to go to the hospital. Running down the list of possible things I'd have to do (plane ticket, pet sitter, call to work), I immediately called AN's apartment, where I got the story, first from SP (swelling violins and timpani), then from AN, who described how someone slipped while "washing his bits" in the shower.

It was perhaps unfortunate that I was on speaker phone at this point, because apparently my laughter carried quite clearly.

So our poor SP severely injured his elbow, and while it wasn't broken, it's very painful. Especially so for AN, who has to listen to the drama every time SP has to apply ice (or, rather, a frozen package of corn) to The Affected Area, and move the arm to keep everything from stiffening up.

A note: it took them ten minutes to be seen at the emergency room, and nobody asked for identification or insurance information. He got X-rays and treatment without fuss or cost.

SP also managed to enjoy himself by showing off his experience in editing medical texts, explaining to the nurse that he could not take ibuprofen because his allergy to NSAIDs results in edema of the lips and constriction of the throat area specific to the larynx.

Let's review: he bumped his elbow.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

NSAIDs

Anonymous said...

This story vaguely reminds me of the time my wife fell into the bowl of cat food while doing an "interpretive dance" around the area where the cat food bowls were kept -

She fell hard -
Cat food went everywhere -
It looked like it may have hurt -
Even the cat looked offended...

I laughed, then I made sure she was OK, then I laughed some more - in the end she suffered from nothing more than some sprained dignity - but I DID make sure she was OK before I laughed some more...

JC said...

And what,pray tell, was she interpreting?

Anonymous said...

If memory serves, it was an interpretive dance to the music in her head....

JC said...

She is my soul sister!