My Trip to the ERrrr

Listening to - Far Less - Garage Band Degree

It should first be known that all ended well and there was no real emergency to begin with... It was just another lovely day in the land of hospital construction. The usual dust and grime had began to irritate my right eye but not enough to cause major discomfort. After breakfast though it was so annoying that I needed something to rinse off my lens and replace said contact lens.

Conveniently enough the employee health department is right across from our cafeteria, so I walked in.

"I need you to leave this room right now!" says the bitchy old angry nurse with a reputation of being a bitchy old angry nurse...

"Umm... ok..." as I about face and leave. "Eff this," I say to my coworker, "Crazy Carpenter said he has saline solution in his truck."

So off we went to find Crazy Carpenter. He was no where to be found but we found Crazier Carpenter who said he talked to Crazy Carpenter and found said "saline" solution. It was indeed not saline solution, but eye wash - ok that should work, right?

I rinse off the lens but by this point my eye is so irritated that my contact will not fit correctly and simply causes more irritation.

"This is bull, thanks bud but it's not doing anything."

A normal personal would carry a spare pair of glasses around, along with maybe some of the regular saline they use and a case. Me - nah... who needs that crap?!

As I walk back to the main building to figure out what the hell I'm going to do I run into Awesome Carpenter. We go and find a clean cup to put my lens in and put the offending contact into the cup, fill it with eye wash, and cover it with a lid while I let my eye settle down. We managed to get "saline" solution by going back to employee health and finding Nice Nurse there instead of Bitchy Old Angry Nurse.

Awesome Carpenter also thinks it will be funny and helpful to watch me rinse my eye out with warm water as well. I spend fifteen minutes and get half the water I attempted to flush out my eye with on my shirt instead. It was funny - really.

Finally lunch time and a good hour and a half has rolled around. My eye is finally feeling better and I decide it's time to put my right contact back in. Plop, life is good, I can see again!

Two minutes later my eye is on FIRE! Hello allergic reaction!!!

I take the lens out and decide to go back to employee health to see what they say. Maybe they'll have more "saline" solution and I can just keep the lens out until I'm done with work. I arrive to find Bitchy Old Angry Nurse there again, and she claims I took the last bottle before. I make her look again, and she turns up with nothing.

"Go to the ER, they should have some."

Off I go to the ER. I ask the nice girl at triage where I could get some eye saline solution so I can rinse out my eye and clean off my lens. She lets me in and tells me to ask the nurse in cubicle 2, she should know where I can find some.

"Hi! My eyes on fire, and I just want some saline. Can you help me out?"

"Huh? What? Did you sign in?"

"No ma'am, I'd just like some saline for my eye, my contact had something on it, I needed to clean it, long story short I think I had a little reaction with whatever employee health gave me and I just want to either store this lens or try cleaning it off."

"No, sign..."

"I would really just like some saline please, I work here and need to get back..."

"SIGN IN I DON'T CARE THAT YOU WORK HERE."

"... ok..."

I sidestep over to the triage registering clerk and tell her nurse said I need to sign in. A few minutes later a nursing aid is checking my BP/Pulse/Temp and asking what happened.

"Well you see I really just want saline..."

"You'll have to talk to a nurse hun, you know how things work here."

"I know I know" is my response. Gotta bust through the tape, but seriously all I want is some damn saline!

The RN sees me next in triage. "Yeah your eye should probably be flushed and you should probably get some drops..."

"...well can we accelerate this process so I can get back to work?"

"Sorry hun, gotta wait with everyone else..."

Oh come on now...

I go and register, tell them sure I'll pay you a copay later, and sit down like the rest of the world.

An hour and a half later I decide it's NOT worth it. My eye is no longer beat red, and there is no pain.

I get up, go to the clerk and tell her I'm leaving, I need to go back to work.

"Ok, you're free to go whenever, sorry we couldn't help you."

And that my friends... was my trip to the ERrrrr...

I knew I wasn't a critical case, but I could have just used some freaking saline! Lesson learned, remember to bring an extra case, saline, and glasses with me. You think after eight years of wearing contacts I would have learned that already.

On an aviation note, Niagara NY tomorrow if the weather holds out.