safety, overreactions, and the bonus staple [2]

[Please note:  you might want to start with part one to understand the whole story!]

When we last left off, our hero had a superficial wound and was on his way home when ….

It seemed like I’d never get out of that situation, and finally I relaxed while Eric drove home.  He turned onto the dirt road and immediately pulled over and parked.

I said “what’s up?”

He meekly said, “I’m only doing what mom told me to do.”

I indicated, “What? Lets just go home, its only 4 miles up the road and I’m tired.”

The Discussion

Just then Jackie pulled up with the other vehicle and motioned for me to get in.  What??  I wandered over and we began to discuss the situation.   She had caught the irrational fear bug from my customer.  It was clear there was no danger or bleeding at all.  I was coherent a’ plenty, and needed no help in holding my own in what was growing into an “impassioned discussion”

As the volume went up, I could see she was firm on this one.  I was tired and decided I would take the rest of the afternoon off to demonstrate to her and the kids that “Love is patient”.  I knew this was a waste of time, but for Jackie’s peace of mind, I would go along with the trip and wasted expense of visiting the doctor.

The Waiting Game

When we arrived at the walk-in section of the medical clinic, I got to answer a few questions and count “how many fingers”.  They decided I could skip the emergency room and wait for a doctor’s evaluation.    ho hum, dumm dee doo.  Another 20 minutes later I got the chance to answer another series of questions from a nurse.  Patience Marshall, patience, I thought to myself.  After another 10 or 15 minutes, someone came to walk me back to one of the rooms.  Jackie, Eric, and Ondra, came with me to the room.  ( This was a mistake, and made things worse.)

All four of us waited in the tiny room for another 10 minutes, while I had to remind curious teens to leave everything alone.  I was really tired and headache.  I envisioned being in bed at home sleeping by now, but no, for the sake of Love I am here waiting for a doctor.

The Doctor

The doctor arrived, and Jackie had seen her before.  She asked me similar questions, looked at my pulse and blood pressure.  Then she asked when my last tetanus shot was.  Jackie chimed in, ” oh, wasn’t that 11 years ago when you got that sliver building the house?”.   I didn’t get my injury on metal, it was drywall!  No matter, you get a shot, just for your timely visit.  Arrgh.

This was no fair, three against one.  They really brought out my impatient attitude.  This lady doctor sure seemed to pick up on it.  She looked over my scalp and said a couple staples should hold this together just fine.    She’d save us a trip by giving Jackie the disposable remover-tool.

Now at this point I must explain that my daughter loves animals and likes to watch and learn about these procedures.  In face she has perfected a chick rescue-from-the-half-hatched egg surgery I did a couple years ago.   Needless to say Ondra wanted to watch and see everything!

I think the doctor decided I didn’t need any numbing of my scalp, that my poor attitude would suffice.  They literally press a real staple gun (medical grade)  to your scalp! She did one staple, OUCH, and a second staple, OUCH!  Ondra was fascinated, and the doctor liked having this inquisitive student.    I don’t really know what was behind the doctor’s next comments, but she said she didn’t like the looks of one of the staples.

What? A practice stable for removal??

The doctor said, no problem, now I can show Jackie how to use the removal tool!  This was nuts.  Was it a female conspiracy against what they though was male bravado??

Anyway, Jackie got her practice, and I got the Bonus staple!

I’d like to say that this is the “real” incident, but there are often two sides or more to story.  In the interest of fairness, and love for my spouse,  I’m  letting Jackie read this and include her corrections to my version below:     [Love takes risks, this is mine]

Jackie Says:

I got a phone call from Marshall asking me to come get him from a client’s house.  That was odd.  Then the client took the phone from Marshall and told me he had a head injury and needed to go to the hospital.  The kids and I left. When I arrived, Marshall was walking around with ice on his head.  I looked at the injury and saw it was a gash, and probably needed a few stitches.

It wasn’t horribly bad, but the responsible, and  sensible thing to do with a head injury on someone you love, is to HAVE IT CHECKED OUT. So that’s what I did.  I thought the Dr. would use a local to put the staples in, so was surprised she didn’t. I have to say though that Marshall was whining and complaining  the whole time at the Dr’s, so I wouldn’t be surprised she skipped the local just to teach him a lesson! Anyway, he survived it just fine.

So let me review.  I bumped my head because of a bad ladder choice.  My afternoon gets wasted, I get a tetanus shot.  I get 2 staples in my head.  I get a bonus stable to “grow on”.   Talk about too many consequences!  Am I more careful? Even in small things?  You bet!

What small choices have you made that resulted in too many consequences??  Tell us now in the comments below!

Related posts:

1. safety, overreactions, and the bonus staple [1]
2. Jackie’s fright turns into Ondra’s delight