Friday night in the ER...

Well, it's amazing what a chance a few hours can make.
My wife Meli had her first seizure in @ 6 years earlier this evening. She then recovered and was talking to the ambulance crew, when another one struck. She went on to have a total of five seizures, but seems to be on the other side.

The cause was apparently an infection, most likely passed around her office stress due to work .
She's an HR assistant at the International Monetary Fund, which was forced (to a great extent by one member country) to cut a lot of staff in the last year, but is now having to re-staff VERY rapidly due to the global economic meltdown (caused to a great extent by the same country that ordered the staffing cuts.).
Trying to get 15 interviews scheduled in one day with people across the world while everyone is in a slight panic over the latest awful numbers with little sleep seemed to be the final tipping point.

Melissa was brought by ambulance, and I followed a little later by car. It was very nice to get several calls from folks due to my Facebook status about the seizure. Even nicer was Jane from the VKR and DCSC sanghas stopping in to visit (since she lives very close to the hospital).

My parents came down to the hospital, as did my sister (by different parents) Kimmie (long story). This was good. My mom's a retired nurse, so she could explain what all the numbers on the monitors really meant.
When Meli was getting a CAT scan (all normal - well, as normal as can be expected for anyone married to me :)), we went up to the Starbucks above the ER. Yes, there is, in fact, a Starbucks in EVERY corner of the civilized world.

The ER docs used a bit of aderol (sp?), which stopped her seizures and knocked her out. She was getting better - I helped her to the bathroom and to drink some water before she conked out again. It was suggested I go home for a little (which the animals enjoyed) to grab some sleep, and then call and come back tomorrow.

When I left, I was more concerned about some of the other people there - the doctor said that Fridays and Mondays in December are always awful. I heard someone "coded" in another room, and someone in another refered to as a John Doe. Lots of awful groaning.

There are literally no open beds at Holy Cross hospital tonight, and people who'd had heart attacks were being kept in beds in hallways. Also, the other nearby hospital, Washington Adventist, was closed to more patients due to lack of nursing staff.

If you forget that life is at base suffering, hang out at an ER sometime. And remember: all of us will most likely end up there at least once sooner or later. It's just a matter of time.

Well, time to go collapse in bed. I'll post more tomorrow (ok, later this morning :)) if all goes well.

Yogis, practice!

-JTR