The Rock Wall

Rumors of my demise, which I started last week, have proven to be overstated thanks to the Cedar County Memorial Hospital emergency room crew. Dr. Casey sent me there last Tuesday, Oct. 20.  I’m not sure what he told them to check, but they checked everything.

That place is a beehive of activity. The director, RN Amanda Schiereck, is a human dynamo. She was constantly on the move most of the time almost at a running walk.

After I spent about three hours on a gurney, gave several vials of blood and posed for chest and head x-rays, they told me my problem which had me feeling so bad I didn’t really care if I lived, was a UTI (bladder infection) which the medicine I had received was not treating.

I asked how to prevent the frequent UTIs I have been having.  My little nurse (literally at 4’11”) told me to drink more water.

Kimball discovered a new water we really like but it is too expensive to replace the regular stuff. It’s called Propel and comes in a variety of flavors. We like lemon best. It has all sorts of electrolytes and nutrients in it.

As my little nurse, Kellie Lile, was putting me in our vehicle I noticed that she had a dime sized tattoo behind her right ear. I asked about it and she told me it honored the twins she lost. She told me on the phone Monday that in a fit of rage nearly 30 years ago, her husband hit her in the stomach killing the twins that were two weeks away from delivery and robbing her of the ability to have any more children.

The only good thing that came out of the ordeal was that she adopted an infant who is now a fine young man of 22 serving his country in the U. S. Navy.

• I would call my trip to the emergency room an unqualified success. I feel good. I have an appetite. I drove myself to work Monday for the first time in a week.

• Halloween night Kimball and I will celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary. We plan to take our son, Davis; our grandson, Ben; our granddaughter, Reese, and each other out to dinner. We would include our daughter-in-law, Erica, but she has to work.

• Remember to fall back Saturday night, setting your clock back an hour before you go to bed. If you fall down on your own, just tell them you had to “fall back.”

• I don’t know that I have been in the Cedar County Memorial Hospital Emergency Room before and I’m in no hurry to go back. But I can tell you this, if you need it, they provide first class service. The ER doc was a fine soft-spoken gentleman who listened when I suggested he call Kimball to learn what symptoms I had been exhibiting since I was too loopy, as Kimball called it, to remember everything.. I hope he’s not the kind who carries a grudge. He told me to squeeze his hand as tightly as I could and offered me four fingers of his left hand.

• I instantly clamped down with my right hand and Dr. Mayheu instantly indicated he had seen enough. I guess I passed the grip test… and I didn’t even study for it. KL