Something pretty amazing happened last night. I had to take my 16 yr old son to the emergency room due to what looked like a really bad infection of an injury he received when getting cleated at a soccer game on Wednesday. Stressful enough, worried about gangrene and staph and all the big bad infections you hear about. He had a immense swelling around the wound in his ankle, fever, a headache and just generally didn't feel well. When we first got there all went well. We were seen immediately by the triage nurse and she put him in the fast track waiting room, which implies FAST, actually no implication it clearly states FAST. 1 hour goes by, to be expected. 2 hours, upon request they give himTylenol for his headache (can't do ibuprophen unless seen by a doctor..) 2 1/2 hours he is kindly given a pillow and blanket, not looking good. 3 1/2 hours, I finally asked if they had any idea when we would be seen. The triage nurse glumly shook her head and said in fact at least 2 people were ahead of us and then informed me that there was only one doctor. Unbelievable. I know we're not Boston or anything but our local hospital serves quite a few surrounding communities. Spent another half hour struggling with the decision whether to wait it out or leave and see his regular doctor in the AM. 4 hours later, we left.
What was amazing was that normally I would have gotten really upset, tense, angry, frustrated, mean, etc. But on this evening, while I did feel angry, I was calm. There just really was nothing I could do to change the situation but leave and that we finally did. I didn't swill down glasses of wine to calm down when I got home. I didn't rant and rave. I simply dealt with the situation at hand. I like being calm and I like that I didn't drink the problem away.
ps: My son was diagnosed by his primary care with cellulitis which could be potentially life threatening. Massive dose of antibotics should help.
pps: I actually wrote this last night but the computer crapped out. So Day 9 post on the beginning of Day 10.
What was amazing was that normally I would have gotten really upset, tense, angry, frustrated, mean, etc. But on this evening, while I did feel angry, I was calm. There just really was nothing I could do to change the situation but leave and that we finally did. I didn't swill down glasses of wine to calm down when I got home. I didn't rant and rave. I simply dealt with the situation at hand. I like being calm and I like that I didn't drink the problem away.
ps: My son was diagnosed by his primary care with cellulitis which could be potentially life threatening. Massive dose of antibotics should help.
pps: I actually wrote this last night but the computer crapped out. So Day 9 post on the beginning of Day 10.
2 comments:
I tell this tale often because it reminds me of the depths of my disease. When I was still actively drinking, I thrived on trauma so much that I secretly fantasized about the death of those I loved because of what a grand opportunity and reason to drink it would be.
"I don't have to explain to folks why I'm drunk, I had a death in the family!"
In recovery, I instead thrive on solving problems and reducing stress. I have discovered the steps I take in my recovery program actually empower me to handle stressful situations that often those "without problems" have difficulty in handling.
Good luck
The Discovering Alcoholic
Thanks and well said. Also, I think there is probably a difference between "real" stressful situations and situations that are stressful because you are drunk, want to be drunk, hungover, tired because you were hungover all day, etc. I'd say my experience in the ER was stressful but had it happened 2 weeks ago, it would have been much more so, it would have become stressful for my son and I would have come home and I would have come home and had a bottle of wine to "get over it". Thank God that's over!
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