So after I fixed my own arm, my mom and sister showed up. They were understandably concerned, but overall relieved. They came in along with the doctor/nurse who were going to stitch up my foot. When I had the wreck, the only injury was immediately aware of was my foot. I had broken my ankle (all three bones) a number of yeras ago, and this pain was 10 times as bad. I was sure that my whole leg was mangled beneath the knee. So when they started sticking needles in my foot (which also hurt like hell), I was glad that I still had a foot. They gave me about 10-15 sticks and then started cleaning.
My wife and aunt showed up so sometime around now. I was so incredibly thirsty, that when she asked what she could do for me, I told her to spit in my mouth ;-0.
I knew intellectually that they had to clean the wound (since I had ended up in a dirty puddle), but that didn’t make the act any easier to bear. After what seemed like 20 gallons of saline, it was clean, and the stitching began. When my wife saw my foot, she almost passed out and had to sit down and drink some juice.
The guy who did my foot seemed to be really good at his job and made quick work of the stitches. While he was working, my wife (thank God she showed up) pointed out the large puncture on my left thigh, and asked if that needed stitches too. The look on the nurse’s face said it all, so I prepared for another round of local anesthetic sticks and more stitching.
About this time, the ER staff had to take some X-rays of the guy next to me, so my mom and wife had to leave. They went out to the waiting room and a new doctor prepared to stitch up my leg. He kept getting cell pone calls during the procedure, the contents of which lead me to believe that he was some sort of eye doctor. The fact that he wasn’t a regular suturer, was confirmed when someone else walked by and asked him, “You sewing?”. Great, an eye doctor sewing up my leg.
This guy finished up and my wife and mother came back in. Evidently there was a shift change out front, so the nurse wouldn’t let my wife and mom back in until they were done stitching my leg up (even though they had been there for the whole foot stitching).
I waited around for a while more and they came to cast up my leg and placed a few bandages on other small scrapes and scratches. And then I waited a while longer. Someone came in the ER with a gun shot wound and that ended up being an interestig story to overhear. A little more time passed and the nurse stopped by and explained why I hadn’t been discharged yet – there were riots in the area!
I started to get a pain in my stomach and realized that I hadn’t had anything to eat for over 8 hours and had had alot of medicine. So the nurse kindly provided one of the worst turkey sandwiches I have ever had. After a few bites, I had satisfied my stomach and set the rest aside. Now, something really wierd happened…after being fairly cool for most of the day since my injuries, I suddenly started to get really hot and sweat. They gave me some juice and it subsided after about 10 minutes.
The riots finally subsided (or moved in another direction) and they got me ready to leave. First they put a brace on my left shoulder for my dislocated shoulder. This essesntially tide my left hand to my stomach. Then, they placed a sling on my right arm for my broken collar bone.
A wheel chair was brought in, and I tried to sit-up…bad idea. The grinding of my collar bone almost made me pass out. Between the pure pain and the gross feeling, my lips turned the same color as my teeth (according to my wife).
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