We live in a funny world. I don’t know if you have noticed that but I sure have. Over the weekend Chris and I spent the night at our favorite Westin in Edina. Chris was to take a flight out of Minneapolis and we like to stay there when he has an early morning flight or an overseas flight. It was our belated Valentine’s celebration—like we need a reason to celebrate!! He had just finished a couple days of meetings sitting in uncomfortable plastic chairs and had kind of tweaked his back on Thursday. Years ago when we had our own business he had injured his back when he pulled a pallet load of matboard off a truck and it got stuck. He would rather me glorify that injury and say that he got it while being on a super secret CIA mission in parts unknown but it was not as glamourous as that. But now and again it flares up and causes him issues and he was being very careful.
Sunday morning came and when it took him 20 minutes to get out of the bed I suspected that something was wrong. Nancy Drew is at it again! He was in misery and quite frankly I did not know what to do. He kept saying that it would be okay but I was thinking otherwise as he shuffled at the pace of a snail. I had just “met” a friend of a friend online that week and she had seen on my Facebook status that we were in Edina and messaged me. Well….get this…..I got to chatting with her briefly and told her we were headed to an urgent care for his back and she told me that there was a good hospital real close to where we were staying because she used to live there!!! How cool is that? Coincidence that I had basically stalked her earlier in the week and gotten to be her “friend” on Facebook? I think not!!! So anyway, the decision was made that we did indeed need to go to the Emergency Room and off we went. Slowly. Did I mention we moved very slowly? And painfully?
Once in the hospital I had a seat and Chris stood because it felt better to stand. There was a mom and daughter in our little seating area and we struck up a conversation. I think Chris was creeping them out a bit with his standing. That along with his pained expression and scruffy face probably made them feel a little bit worried but I laid their fears to rest and chatted them up. Pretty soon the dad and brother came. The stories unfolded. We were drawn into the family fold. Whether we wanted to or not. The girl most likely had a kidney infection and was not allowed to eat anything. The younger brother went to the vending machines and of course got the 2 most disgusting things known to mankind—-Red Bull and Funyuns. Nice. He proceeded to eat them next to his sister and breathe on her. There were stories of drunken nights. Mom talked about all the Cosmos she had. Son talked about being totally laid out the night before. Dad just sat there. Chris continued to stand.
After everyone in the hospital knew that Chris was to fly to China that night the doctor came in. Quick exam and history, prescriptions prescribed, recommendation to postpone trip and we were on our way to the phramacy.
More stories to be heard there. One woman brought back her pills because they were not the green and white ones. She did not like these and did not want them. She wanted to return them. And she wanted her money back. What happend to the green and white ones? Another man was irked that his insurance would not pay for the full prescription and proceeded to rudely tell the pharmacist (who just happened to be foreign) that he could not understand him and he did not want to talk to him anymore. Pharmacist stomps off. Tech tries to smooth things over. Pharmacist eventually comes back and tries to explain what he was telling the man before. Man stomps off. What is wrong with people? Maybe they all needed some of those drugs that they gave Chris!
Lessons learned during this little excursion? I am not sure. Be kind to everyone and don’t breathe Red Bull/Fynyun breath on people? People are just people. Everyone wants things done their way. Immediately. With no thought of anyone else who might be around. I don’t know. And in case you wondered—Chris is off to China tonight—a few days later but in less pain. Muscle relaxants and pain pills are good things at times like this.
