Here's the deal.
Aug. 20th, 2004 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelleLate last night, while finishing my Platform for the Wench elections, I scratched what I thought was a blister or somesuch on the back of my left trapezoid. It started to bleed. And bleed. And bleed. I put pressure on it for 15 minutes or so, took it off, and blood started dripping, rolling slowly down my back. More pressure. More blood. Ice. More pressure. More blood.
This went on for five hours.
Now, understand, with one hand, I can't really drive. Even getting dressed to take Clue out so I could take a taxi to some hospital or another was cause for screaming and ranting-- not because it hurt, but because I just couldn't stop bleeding, and after the first hour and a half, you start thinking, "This isn't really funny any more."
I called Graduate and Penn Presbyterian emergency rooms. They said I'd probably nicked a capillary, and the word "cauterisation" came up. Finally, around 7, I called my family, who are, amongst them, a walking directory of just about every doctor in Philadelphia.
You know a conversation's going to be a doozy when it's:
1. Transatlantic
2. At an hour which you've been known to call "ungodly"
3. Starts with, "Okay, Mom, you're going to have to promise me you won't flip out on me, okay?"
They put me in touch with a fabulous office nurse for their Cardiologist (don't laugh, this is the family that sent me to the allergist to get my stitches out last year), who reiterated what I'd already been told: go to the nearest Emergency Room. Which would have been great, had I had a third hand with which to drive and hold some manner of padding on my bleeding shoulder. But just as we were about to hang up, she said, "You know, there's one more thing you can try."
One gauze pad, a quarter-bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and ten minutes of very hard pressure later, the bleeding FINALLY ceased. After FIVE HOURS.
I have been able to catch perhaps 45 minutes of sleep in the last 24, now. Bonnie, I'm aware you called, I have no idea what was said. Did I offer to make you President of Burundi? Or was that Rob Lowe? Or did I offer to make you President of Rob Lowe?
Jay's truck is broken down on the side of the road. With my corsets in it, half-finished. I'm home sick today with cramps-- thank G-d I hadn't taken any aspirin or Aleve last night-- I'd be kayaking to Faire tomorrow on a crick of my own haemoglobin. I have to pack Clue and all her belongings up tonight and take them to Liz for dogsitting. I'm only still upright now because part of me vaguely fears not having my shoulder elevated.
I think, however, my eyelids are too heavy to make this an issue much longer.
This went on for five hours.
Now, understand, with one hand, I can't really drive. Even getting dressed to take Clue out so I could take a taxi to some hospital or another was cause for screaming and ranting-- not because it hurt, but because I just couldn't stop bleeding, and after the first hour and a half, you start thinking, "This isn't really funny any more."
I called Graduate and Penn Presbyterian emergency rooms. They said I'd probably nicked a capillary, and the word "cauterisation" came up. Finally, around 7, I called my family, who are, amongst them, a walking directory of just about every doctor in Philadelphia.
You know a conversation's going to be a doozy when it's:
1. Transatlantic
2. At an hour which you've been known to call "ungodly"
3. Starts with, "Okay, Mom, you're going to have to promise me you won't flip out on me, okay?"
They put me in touch with a fabulous office nurse for their Cardiologist (don't laugh, this is the family that sent me to the allergist to get my stitches out last year), who reiterated what I'd already been told: go to the nearest Emergency Room. Which would have been great, had I had a third hand with which to drive and hold some manner of padding on my bleeding shoulder. But just as we were about to hang up, she said, "You know, there's one more thing you can try."
One gauze pad, a quarter-bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and ten minutes of very hard pressure later, the bleeding FINALLY ceased. After FIVE HOURS.
I have been able to catch perhaps 45 minutes of sleep in the last 24, now. Bonnie, I'm aware you called, I have no idea what was said. Did I offer to make you President of Burundi? Or was that Rob Lowe? Or did I offer to make you President of Rob Lowe?
Jay's truck is broken down on the side of the road. With my corsets in it, half-finished. I'm home sick today with cramps-- thank G-d I hadn't taken any aspirin or Aleve last night-- I'd be kayaking to Faire tomorrow on a crick of my own haemoglobin. I have to pack Clue and all her belongings up tonight and take them to Liz for dogsitting. I'm only still upright now because part of me vaguely fears not having my shoulder elevated.
I think, however, my eyelids are too heavy to make this an issue much longer.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 10:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 10:57 am (UTC)Since you are prone to this sort of mishap, I can recommend that if you ever get varicose veins do NOT nick them with a razor while shaving your legs...