Sunday, April 13, 2008

love is in the air...HAH!

An explanation for being in the emergency room on Friday night. My mom has had an ear infection/ache for the past 2 weeks. She has seen a Dr. twice(well kind of, I will not mention the Dr.'s name, but if you happened to be from Vidor and I told you who it was you would realize what I mean when I say 'kind of') My most wonderful mother-in-law finally convinced her that she needed to see a specialist and pulled some strings to get her an appointment asap. Unfortunately asap = Tuesday and it had progressed to the point that my mother was non functional from the pain(she said it felt like her ear was in labor), we headed to the ER.

I was under no delusion that we would be taken care of quickly. I know if you go to the ER you get to wait, and I was pretty proud of myself for the first 4 1/2 hours for waiting and being pleasant to the medical personnel who crossed our path. After that, when I realized that the outcome of sitting there patiently was that my mother was going to be told to keep taking her antibiotics until her Tuesday appointment...Wow, I don't think so. I began to get edgy and to pace...and at this point my non-confrontational mother started trying to distract me from my desire to march down to the nurses station....

She has had an ipod for over a year at least, and mostly uses it to listen to audio books, but recently has been experimenting with downloading music from itunes. She asked me if I wanted to hear my parents "song" from when they were engaged. Gamely I sat down and it was a nice romantic dancing song. I was listening and imagining my parents twirling around the dance floor...then I remembered that this was my dad we were talking about...the one who announced to his future in-laws "Brother and Sister Hilton, Rachel and I are going to be married...I think I'm going to vomit!" and the same one who while dancing with my mother(before they were married) swooped her down into a low romantic dip...gently laid her down on the dance floor, walked off...and didn't come back. Yep, that is my dad, Captain Romance. At this point I had to ask my mother if my dad even knew that they had a song, and giggling she admitted that he didn't. We sat there laughing and giggling, and discussing examples of how "romantic" my dad is. I am sure if he had known about their song he would have teased her unmercifully. Now I must admit that the older my father gets the softer and sweeter he gets toward my mother. He is going to end up one of those old men who absolutely dote on their wife...but this development is after almost 30 years of marriage. Ahhh romance! This did provide a lot of fun conversation while we waited...but alas it did not stop me from eventually walking down to the nurses station and demanding a few things take place and soon as my mother was HURTING. I don't know if once you begin harassing the nurses/pa's in their sanctuary they figure it is worth their while to get you out of there, but amazingly, those things did take place and we were out of there 45 minutes later. It surely did not reinforce the idea that being nice and patient will bring its rewards...at least not in the emergency room!

5 comments:

Joel and Crystal said...

Amen....as I heard mom tell of the experience I had a few unChristian moments....however what can you do.... The loudest wheel gets the oil! I hate going to the hospital as a patient cause....I aint that patient. I sort of feel like because a hospital is such a large organization...there is a bit of beaurocrisy that you need to bull through! I hate it! I hate being on the patient end!

Anyway...enough venting! This is Joel by the way....Crystal is much nicer and a good deal more patient!

Joel and Crystal said...

Meg, I'm glad you talked mom into going to the emergency room. It is really frustrating but I'm glad you guys had some fun conversation. Love you guys!

Anonymous said...

what a great entry! such a great story. it is great to learn things like that about your parents.

Melissa said...

I know we were only there for a few days for Michael and Laurie's wedding, but, Your family is so cool! That is so funny about your dad, he seems to have it all put together...well, maybe now he does. How is your mom doing? Was is anything serious?

Melissa said...

What a nice love story intertwined with the ER. I loved it. I laughed so hard about the part where your dad dipped your mom and left her on the floor. Your mom is an angel. Hope your mom feels better soon. Way to stand up. I hate being a patient too.