My emergency room adventures

I’ve been dealing with fluid on my left kneecap for about a week. Last week I saw a doctor and things just hadn’t improved, so yesterday I decided to go to the emergency room.

I know that I have been to this hospital numerous times over the years for either my children or myself. I haven’t had healthcare for about eighteen months and I don’t think I’ve been there in at least two or more years. I thought that I had remembered where the emergency room entrance was so I just drove around and parked my car. Then I walked up to a door, only to find a sign that said if you need help to push a button. I thought that was rather strange and I didn’t really see a way in. I just sort of stood there for a moment trying to figure out what this meant. Then I saw above the doors a huge sign that read AMBULANCE. Now I figured out that I was near the correct part of the hospital, but not at the right door. I sort of stood there for a bit to figure out what to do. Then I had to decide which direction to go, in order to find the right entrance. I’m not sure how much of this seemed familiar to me, but after a short time I was able to find the correct entrance and go in.

I filled out a paper and waited my turn. As I was talking to the triage nurse, I told her that I had a memory impairment and that I’d like to make sure that is in my records. Once we were done, I was taken to an examining room.

The next challenge for me was that I needed to go to the ladies’ room. I asked the triage nurse and she said to go to the end of the hall and take a right, then another right. While I'm walking to the ladies’ room, I’m concentrating on remembering. I made it to the ladies’ room. Then I realized in order to get back to my room, I needed to do the opposite, so I went left and left and luckily, I was able to find my room.

After seeing the physician's assist and having x-rays done, the nurse went over the details before I was discharged. Now came my third challenge. She brought in a pair of crutches. I’m fifty-four years old and I’ve never used these before. She got them to the right height and I think that she explained how I should use them, but I really didn’t have a clue as to what she was saying. I told her that I had a memory impairment and lots of times learning new things can be challenging and sometimes impossible for me. I asked if she would show me how to use the crutches instead of just her words. She showed me a little bit, but I just really couldn’t wrap my brain around it. She said that I could try them at home and that the hospital didn’t charge for them, so I carried them out the door with me.

Today, I had a follow-up appointment with an orthopedic doctor and I managed to use the crutches a little bit from my car to the building. When someone came into the examining room, I let her know about my memory impairment and that I would need things written down to help me. She said that would be fine. The doctor drained the fluid from my knee and I had a cortisone shot. I was given information and I remembered something about taking ibuprofen three times a day even though no one had written that down for me. I asked her to do that and she did. Right before I was leaving, I quickly read over the paper they gave me and I still had some questions about medications. I asked the nurse if I was still supposed to be taking the prescription that my doctor had given me for the swelling. She said something really fast and my head felt like it was spinning. I asked her to please repeat what she said, but please slow down so that I could understand. She did this and I was able to understand. Then she wrote down what she said because I knew that I would probably forget.

I also had a really nice visit with my mom this weekend, but I remember that yesterday she said something to me and I guess that I didn’t really understand what she meant. She didn’t really understand my response, so I told her sorry, I didn’t really understand what you said, but now I do.

I’d say that overall, my emergency room visit and doctor visit went pretty well. In thinking about my minor struggles with both of these, I wonder what it is going to take to get people to understand. I’m trying to let people know about my memory impairment and I also let them know how they can help make things easier for me.

All the orthopedic doctor gave me was a generic paper that they give patients that have had the same procedure done. Why I had to remind them to write ibuprofen on there is beyond me!