Over that next weekend, and into the following week, January 18-21, 2020, some of the rest of the family also got sick with the flu. I took Autumn to a doctor in Arborg on Tuesday, Jan. 21 because she is the one who gets the sickest from our kids. She had to go for a urine and blood test and her and I ended up having a big spat over it in the lab bathroom as I tried to convince her to give a a urine test. The joys of pre-teens! The stress we had been living under was definitely showing up in our family life.
The next day, I forced myself to go back to work even though I felt very weak and still had lots of joint and muscle pain. I loaded up on Aleve and braced myself for a day of appointments. My colleague Denise, a Registered Dietitian, and I were heading out to a neighbouring First Nations Reserve to do outreach appointments at the Health Centre there. I felt bad leaving my colleagues covering for me so much and needing to reschedule appointments with clients who really needed support. So I felt I needed to push myself to get back to work.
However, I probably should have just stayed home that day as a couple of hours into my day I got an urgent phone call from James saying he had had an accident with a saw while working on our house renovations. He had nearly cut off the tip of his thumb! I could hear he was in shock. He asked me which hospital to go to. My brain was numb. How could I think about this clearly when I was barely hanging on physically myself and trying to put on a brave face while meeting my clients? Maybe it wasn't that bad? Maybe I could finish my day with my clients and then go to the hospital? My brain raced. I told him to get a ride to a hospital and then messaged him to go to the Percy E. Moore hospital which was the same building my office was at. Meanwhile I saw my last client of the morning - I don't think she got the best care from me that day...
I felt like a robot- Denise drove me back to my office and offered to cancel my afternoon appointments for me. I felt bad making her cover for me again. How could we be having this many health crises' at once? It was getting to be too much.
I went to find James. He was pale and in lots of pain. His thumb didn't look too good. The doctor was on the phone with Plastic Surgery in Winnipeg and we prepared ourselves to go into Winnipeg - a 2 hour drive from the hospital. I contacted our families and tried to arrange childcare. I felt feverish - achy and chilled- how could I look after James when I still felt so bad myself?
My mom offered to drive us and I gratefully accepted. The doctor stitched James' thumb together as best he could and gave James morphine and off we went to Winnipeg to the Health Sciences Centre ER. Rural hospitals don't get the best service from the city specialists so in the end the plan was that we go to the ER in Wpg and they would consult further with Plastics.
By the time we got to the ER, James and I were both in bad shape. He was in pain and shock and I could barely walk or move. My joint and muscle pain was terrible - my meds had long worn off and the stress of the day had taken a toll on me. We sat there in the ER for about 4 hours. My dad came into Wpg as well for support and my parents faithfully sat there with us. We finally sent them out to have some supper as it was a very long time to sit and wait on hard waiting room chairs. The waiting room was full of sick people - moaning and groaning and throwing up. Not the most fun way to spend an evening.
We finally got to see a doctor around midnight and he had a look at the thumb. He decided there was enough blood flow, etc. that surgery could wait till morning. Surgery was scheduled for 8:00 the next morning.
My mom, being the awesome crisis support person that she is, booked 2 rooms at the attached Canad Inns hotel - 1 room for her and 1 room for us. We crashed into bed at 1 AM to try and get some rest. I had my long awaited appointment with my family doctor, Dr. A, the next morning in Arborg at 10:40 and I couldn't miss that appointment. My mom was going to drive me back there and James' dad was going to come into Winnipeg to pick up James after his surgery.
What a day. It was all feeling quite overwhelming.
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