2004-01-21 - 7:36 p.m.
black out
After showering and stuff this morning I made Adam drive me again to Urgent Care for bandages which I had accidently left in my co-worker’s car yesterday afternoon. The nurses looked at me without a clue about what to give me, so I was taken back to Room 2 where the adventure began yesterday. A nurse took off the brace and bandages with a none too careful hand and then continued to touch my tender wound for no reason I could see.
This time I looked, in a weak effort to get used to stitches on my finger. She touched me one too many times. Without warning, something turned in me. Just as I became aware that I should say something, my sight became a tiny checkerboard of white and black that criss-crossed. Next, I was in a nightmare with bad things coming at me down a corridoor. I woke up wimpering and not surprised to feel a dull thud on the back of my head or to see the nurse, but I wanted to do anything to get rid of the disoriented feeling. She apologized, looked a little amused, and kept asking if I had any warning so she wouldn’t feel so bad about not being able to catch me.
There I lay stretched across the floor with the nurse telling me that I was lucky it was early and the floors were still clean when in came the nurse who helped me yesterday, the one who joked about my loss of blood. She glanced at me, then turned to the other nurse to ask her question and promptly left like nothing was weird or wrong. I told Adam that I must be the laughing stock in the office this week for the ridiculous display I have made of myself in less than twenty-four hours.
I told Adam that I might be a little more patient next time I'm in a doctor's room, knowing that people like me walk in without appointment, without even signing in, and black-out while another patient waits for attention.
