So when I say “hilarity ensued”, it did on a couple of occasions. It started all the way at the beginning of the story when my wife took me to Urgent Care. See, I called the Nurse line for our Health Insurance and described my symptoms, what I did to attempt to relieve my pain, etc. The Nurse told us to go to Urgent Care and that we had the option of going to a location in Fredericksburg or Woodbridge. Now, it’s getting late at night. Fred is a good bit closer to my home that Woodbridge, so that’s where we head.
After being in Urgent Care for a couple of hours, the Doc orders up a CT Scan. Which is great. Except for the fact that the Fredericksburg facility doesn’t have the ability to conduct a CT Scan. The closest facility that can is… Guess where. Yep. Woodbridge. Thankfully, Fredericksburg had the barium prep in the pharmacy. You may be asking yourself why they had the prep but no CT; I asked myself that same question as well. Heck, I even asked the Nurse and she had no idea.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Man, that’s really unfortunate but I’m not sure I would describe it as hilarity ensuing.” That Friday evening when things (OK me) stopped; I did the same exact same thing. Called the Nurse line. Informed them of what is going on. They then gave me an option of what ER to go to; Stafford Hospital or Virginia Hospital Center. Stafford Hospital is a ton closer to where we live, so that’s where we chose. We hit the ER, get checked in, go through triage and make our way back to a room. Fortunately, the ER wasn’t THAT busy, but it takes a little bit to run the gauntlet. ER Doc comes in. Guess what facilities Stafford Hospital doesn’t have? If you said an Abdominal Surgical Unit, you win! Do I even need to write where the closest Hospital is that has an Abdominal Surgical Unit is located? It’s Virginia Hospital Center (VHC), if you didn’t see where this is going.
To really appreciate this situation, you have to be familiar with Northern Virginia and the traffic that we endure out here. While the distance driving isn’t all that much, the traffic. You’re talking an hour, maybe two hours from Stafford where I live to Arlington where VHC is located. Oh, and that amount of time. It varies depending on when you leave and what direction you are going (North or South).
Moral of this story is “Don’t allow me to pick a medical facility in an emergency.”
So, yeah. At least I got to ride in an ambulance; never done that before. Truth in lending here. I slept most of the ride in the ambulance. I was tired by that point in the morning and had already received some pretty nice drugs for the pain I was having. While it was a new experience, it was pretty much wasted on me.
No. That’s not true. Not true at all. The experience wasn’t wasted one bit. I spent the entire ambulance ride from Stafford to Arlington praying. I prayed and left this entire “thing”, for lack of a better word, at God’s feet. Whatever was going on, and whatever the outcome would be; I left up to God’s Will. There were two verses that went through my head during that ride. The first was Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discourage, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” The second was Joshua 24:15 “… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Those two verses got me through that ambulance ride, as well as through the first few days in the hospital.
The Story So Far 