An OB Nurse, A Cleaning Lady, And A Lactation Consultant Walk Into A Bathroom...

I would like to preface this post saying that I have just taken a muscle relaxer and a Vicodin, so details might be a bit distorted!

I was nursery nurse at work Saturday - the OB nurse that goes to the deliveries and does the baby part of the delivery and any transitioning or resuscitation. I went to the bathroom in the afternoon, and as I was getting ready to wash my hands...I don't remember a thing. I wake up about 30 minutes later laying on the bathroom floor, and my leg is soaking wet from a giant puddle of water under the sink.


My head is throbbing. I try to get up, but my back hurts so bad that I can't move. I feel like I'm going to throw up. Then I go back to sleep. When I wake up, I grab my work cellphone and start dialing numbers. "Must call Julie B...must call Julie B..." She was the team leader on Saturday, and that's the only person I thought to call. I strangely didn't think that anything was wrong with me, but since she was in charge I thought I needed to call her and ask her to help me get up. I don't remember the conversation that I had with her, but later she told me that I kept asking her to come to the bathroom. Which one, there are many on our floor. Then I rambled a while about how there were two doors in the bathroom, but not the bathroom next to the manager's office, but it was the bathroom by the manager's office, but there were two doors, etc etc. (There are no bathrooms on our floor with two doors.) Julie didn't believe me at first when I said I'd fallen, because we play jokes on each other a lot and she thought I'd be hiding in the bathroom to throw a glass of water on her or jump out and say BOO or something.


I'm not quite sure how much later, but I heard people calling my name through the bathroom door. The door was locked, so Julie got a PSA (the cleaning girls) to get a key to break into the bathroom. That's all I remember until the point where the bathroom was flooded with OB nurses, I was hooked to a blood pressure machine, everyone was freaking out and calling people, and Theresa M put a washcloth on my forehead. Then out of the blue, I was wearing a neck brace. I don't remember anyone putting it on, but there it was. Then I heard a conversation between one of our lactation consultants Ginny and the rest of the nurses - Ginny thought that I should be moved to a wheelchair but no one else thought it was a good idea to move me since there was a possibility of a spinal fracture. Hooray for all of those that voted against moving me!! When someone asked me what my name was, I remembered that. When she asked me what my social security number was, I think I said 4. Just 4. And I didn't remember the President either, not sure if that one was out of concussion or denial that he's actually the President!

Next thing I knew, someone from the ER transport was sliding me onto a board and they put me on the stretcher. And they kept strapping me down, and tying my hands. I felt claustrophobic! Then I think I made a comment like "This feels like an S&M video gone wrong...very very wrong!" The transport nurse laughed, and then Julie said that she'd go to the ER with me and pretend to be my SO for a joke. Then I laughed, but it gave me a huge muscle cramp all down my spine so I think I shed a few tears. I think I slept some more on the way to the ER.


Julie and I had fun checking out all the equipment in the ER. It's different seeing all of the equipment in adult size, since we usually just take care of newborns. The ET tube was HUGE! Then Julie thought it would be funny if we could set my alarms off so she told me to hold my breath. I didn't have anything better to do, still tied to my stretcher, so what the hey. I held my breath, but it still showed that I was breathing. Then my pulse started to drop, and drop, and drop. She freaked out and finally made me start breathing.

Julie had to go back to the floor for a while, so she left while they took me to get my X-Rays and CT scans. When I got to X-Ray, the nurse asked me how far I fell. I was really confused at this question, so I said "Oh I don't know...about 5 feet 2 inches??" Not sure that's what she was asking me, but that's the answer she got. When I got back to the ER room, I felt a little more "with it" but my head was pounding horribly and my spine really hurt - along with every muscle in my back and legs spasming. All of my X-Rays and scans came back okay, so I was going to be discharged from the ER. I got some Rx's - an anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxer, and pain pill. I wasn't supposed to take the pain pill that night since it would make me really sleepy. I'm supposed to call Workmans Comp Monday morning and figure out what I need to do next; I'm assuming that I'll have to follow up with one of the hospital's doctors and take things from there. My doctor went through discharge things with me, then my nurse called Julie to come pick me up in a wheelchair.


The ride back was funny, and Julie filled me in on all of the things that I said in the bathroom, people that were there, etc. She got me the form I needed to fill out for an employee injury and I filled that out; although my head was still pounding, and I don't think I had the greatest thinking skills still. I told everyone I was going to drive home, and I was practically pounced by people refusing to let me drive. Which now, I realize that it was stupid to even think of driving. But it seemed like a good idea at the time!


Mike came to pick me up and take me home. The pharmacy on the way home was closed, so I decided to just pick up my Rx's the next morning. I took a few Ibuprofen, laid down on the couch, and passed out. I was so exhausted! Then I kept getting poked by Mike to "keep me awake." But I was so exhausted...


Today, I went back to the hospital to pick up my car. It was kind of embarassing with everyone there knowing that the day before I'd had a concussion at work. Jackson came with me, and he had a good time looking at the babies - Julie was gavage feeding a baby so he got to see that through the window. My back is still really crampy and hurts a lot, and my head has the worst ache ever. I feel like I got hit by a truck! I've noticed a few times that I've forgotten things since yesterday; like after church this morning I told Mike that we parked in one lot, but he insisted that we'd parked in the other. I could have sworn we parked to the right, but apparently he was right and we did park to the left. I was also talking with someone at work, then totally repeated myself and didn't realize it.


I've got ice on my neck/back, and feel okay when taking a little medicine for now. So I guess we'll see what they say tomorrow about the follow ups I need.


If there's a water puddle to slip in, you can be sure that I'll find it...