- At September 22, 2005
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
5
Cranky. At the ER last night, had a 102 fever, allergic reaction to an antibiotic and a kidney infection. Though they were giving me big doses of narcotic painkillers, and I was in huge pain and so out of it I was hallucinating, I stopped the nurse three times from giving me doses of medicine in my IV that I had stated when I first came in that I was allergic to. The resident came in and apologized an hour later, oh sorry, I should have known. Yes, you should have. Note: go to the ER with someone who knows your drug allergies and have them watch the nurses doing the IV drips like a freakin’ hawk.
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
Peter
Jeannine: OMG. How bizarre and frightening. (The same thing almost happened with my sister afew weeks ago, glad I was there to stop it.)
I hope you are feeling better soon my dear!
Rusty
Ack. I’m going to reinforce the positive vibes I’ve been sending your way. Sounds like you need some more. Be well.
One of my roommate’s dad went in for surgery to reattach his Achilles tendon. He was drugged, since he was being put under for the operation, and as he was about to pass out, he noticed the nurse drawing on his knee with a grease pen. In a panic, he managed to make his mouth work long enough to explain “WTF are you doing–my surgery is on my Achilles tendon, not my knee!” or words to that effect. The nurse was like “What? Really? Your name isn’t Mr. X?” Very scary.
Wendy Wisner
Feel better soon, Jeannine.
jeannine
Thanks Peter, Rusty and Wendy – I am finally feeling a little better, and I will try to avoid the ER in the future. It’s the urgent care clinic or nothing for me! 🙂
Will try to get back to blogging about poetry again as soon as I can.
Thanks again for your well-wishes.
32poems
I thought they were supposed to draw the X for surgergy BEFORE putting the patient out? Scary
JHG Sorry to hear about your frightening experience. Hope you are back to your old self soon.
–d