Part Eight

 Wednesday, Feb.29th (Leap Day) Later on that day......

Now, I'm sure most of you have experienced the reality show that takes place in the ER. It's ALWAYS a nightmare!! There's ALWAYS a long waiting period. There's ALWAYS at least one person looking really, and i mean really effed up. Like they need to be seen like STAT! And for some reason, there's ALWAYS someone moaning out loud. Basically...... this place sucks! No denying. As I continued waiting for my name to be called there was this guy sitting across from me, on the verge of passing out, who was either extremely drugged up or heavily inebriated. A hot mess, indeed. Over the loud speaker we hear "Jose (can't remember the last name called) They repeated the name a few times. The guy is out cold at this point. I take my crutch and tap the guy on his foot to wake him. I asked "Hey, are you Jose?" He wakens and looks at me and with a drunken slur in his voice says "Me? Jose? Nah......I'll tell you who I am" Then, in his semi-slumped position sings out loud "Joooossseeee, caaan youuuu seeeee, byyyy the dawn's earrrrly  liiiight, etc, etc" The dude used the name Jose to start off the Star Spangled Banner. And he was making an effort to do it in key. So, I did what any other normal person would've done....I laughed my ass off! By the way, turned out his name wasn't Jose after all.
 After a very,very long time of more waiting, my girlfriend decided to threaten them with a lawsuit if I wasn't seen within 20 minutes. Seventeen minutes later I hear over the loud speaker "Hakim Wilson". And off to a room I go. After the blood tests, they prescribed me with Coumadin. And also Lovenox for self injections. They told me to inject myself twice a day. One in the morning. One in the evening. Take the Coumadin once a day. The Coumadin takes several days to take effect in your blood, so the Lovenox injections are to thin the blood temporarily, but instantly. They didn't want to take any chances with waiting for the Coumadin to kick in days later. So, once being taught how to inject myself in the belly, I finally was able to leave. By the time i got back home, after picking up my prescriptions, it was about 8:00pm.
 My day, that I thought was only going to be 2 hrs or so,turned out to be almost a 9 hour day. Man, what a day! It was just crappy news after crappy news. But the one good thing I can take out of all of this is: Damn am I glad that I mentioned the soreness behind my knee!! Who knows what could've happened if I had never said anything?? Me barely bitchin' about that pain perhaps could've saved my life in the long run. I've since learned a bit more about blood clots and how serious they can be. And even sometimes fatal. So, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it wasn't such a crappy day after all.

Part Seven

Wednesday, Feb.29th (Leap Day) 12:30pm

 I hated this day. It sucked! Boooooo Leap Day!! O.k., let me explain.
I left to visit the ortho center for my 2wk later recast. As I sat in the patient's room I wondered how exactly were they going to remove this fiberglass cast. Then, in came the guy with the machine. He wasted no time with getting right to my leg with his tool straight from the movie "Saw" or Hostel" or any movie that used power tools for torture. "Holy shit......is that what you're using to......", then came the whirring sound of the blade. Then seconds later......contact. To say 'my body was tense' is an understatement. I had actually positioned myself to kick the guy in the head, with my good leg, in case that blade decided to meet my skin. "How the hell do you know how deep to cut with that thing???", I asked. He explained that it doesn't cut through the cotton (which was layered under the cast). It can only cut but so far. But, damn dude....give me a head's up first or something. Damn!

 So once that was removed (the cast, not my leg of course) the surgeon returned. I decided to nonchalantly mention, to merely sorta mention this tiny annoyance I felt behind my knee for the last few evenings. "Well, just to make sure that it's not a blood clot, let's send you to get an ultrasound before we put a new cast on you". Personally I thought she was overreacting. "Are you kidding me???", I said. I was just assuming that I was sore from keeping my leg up while walking around on crutches all this time. She explained the possible severity of blood clots and thought that 'It's better to be safe than sorry'. 'Yeah,yeah,yeah', I thought. I know, doc. I get it.
 So,off i go to a place nearby to get my ultrasound. I wasn't happy. I thought this whole thing was a waste of time. After they scanned me, the radiologist shortly returned with the results. "So, Mr. Wilson, um...it looks like you have blood clots, in your leg, here, here, and here. We need to send you to the ER for blood test and to get prescriptions for blood thinners."
 "Whatchu talkin' about, Willis???" echoed in my head. But I ended up saying "WHAT?!? Are you serious??" I couldn't believe what she was telling me. Man, what a blow. That hit me like a bag of bricks across the head. "Fuuucccckk" i mumbled under my breath. Then i said it aloud. I was pissed. I was disappointed. And I felt like I was going backwards. I kept saying "dammit,dammit,dammit" all the way to my new destination. The goddamn emergency room.