What Happened last night

[thebornotaku]

so, as a few of you know, yesterday was pretty hectic. let me start from when we left the house.

It's 6:20PM. my sister is rather sick, but my mom wants her to attend an award ceremony anyways. my sister was being honored. when my mom gets home, she asks if i would be willing to accept the award on her behalf. because my sister is not doing well, i accept. that part was pretty uneventful. i walked up to my principal (at a school district board meeting), get her certivigate, shook hands, then left. when i called my mother (who was at the urgent care center in Rohnert Park), they hadn't taken my sister into an exam room, so she couldn't drive to come pick me up. the urgent care is a mere 5 blocks away, but i am without a jacket and it's quite nippy outside. regardless, i decide to walk there. pretty uneventful.

when i get to the urgent care my mother and sister are sitting in the waiting room. i walk into the building, and just after, they call her into an exam room. i was told to stay in the lobby. so i pulled out a dollar, got a bottle of water, and sat there. for fifteen minutes; while they gaver her the I.V. needle, and called an ambulance. once the ambulance arrived, they did standard procedure, put her on the stretcher, strap her in, put her in the back of the ambulance, and before they leave; they tell my mother that they are going code two (Lights, no sirens [unless traffic is in the way]), and not to follow them (as in, don't drive like they are, and don't stay with them). so me and my mother get in my sister's car (my mom's had no room, so we took my sisters, mother drove of course), and we start taking the back way to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. on the way there, the ambulance passes us (we thought they were taking a different route).

by this point, we have the world on notice. my sister's boyfriend, our father, our step-father, my mother's boyfriend, and shortly after, AE (yes, AE. i wouldn't leave you in the dark), knows what's going on. when we arrive at santa rosa memorial hospital, it's 7PM. they take my sister into the ER building (she did, after all, arrive from a code two ambulance), and i go into the waiting room. my mother goes into the ER with my sister.

please allow me to digress. sitting in an ER waiting room was horrible. when we first got there, there was a group of college girls, and apparently (as i found out later), one of thier close friends got severly injured in a street racing accident (take it to the track, kids), and died an hour later; in the ER. once the news hit thier ears, you heard a loud collective wail, which, at first, was hard to distinguish from crying or laughter, but soon after made itself very obvious. one of the girs ran out of the building crying, and the other 4 girls were bawling thier eyes out, devastated by what happened. what did i do? i sat there, and hung my head, because i felt horrible. for something i couldn't control. for somebody i don't know.

they left soon afterwords. around 10PM, my father calls me. i walk outside (cellphone use in emergency buildings is prohibited) and find out that he is driving up to Santa Rosa from San Leandro. keep in mind, this is an hour and a half drive. and my father does not like hospitals at all.

here's why he doesn't like hospitals.

my parents had a son, before i was born. he was thier firstborn, and his name was christopher. he had down syndrome. christopher's short lived life was spent, in a hospital. he was constantly hooked up to an IV, a breather, and all kinds of things. he couldn't breathe on his own. so, my father came to dislike hospitals, because the bring bad memories. he had only been to two hospitals since chrostopher died (at a young age of 7 months), and that was at 1988 in san deigo, when my sister was born, and in 1991 in Adak, Alaska, when i was born.

Before my father gets there, around 10:20pm, i leave the hospital, in search of a convience store. after wandering around (and taking all the right turns), i end up at one. got abag of chips and a mountain dew. then i proceeded to walk back to the hospital. nevermind the almost-freezeing air. when i get back, i sit there and eat hte first thing i had in about 21 hours. it was good.

So, my father drives up to Santa Rosa. when it's around 11:05PM (when i posted from my mom's cell), he arrives. the first thing he does is get a facemask (you have to wear one in the ER), and he goes in. my mom sits in the waiting room with me. after about an hour, he leaves, and my mom goes back in. for the next two hours, my sister gets her spinal tap, and the test results come back. at 2AM. to kill the time, me and my father converse, and we also play around. he's a very playful person, mind you.

at 2:15, my sister walks out of the ER. she's walking almost like normal, and her speech is almost normal as well. she's not stuttering when she speaks anymore. however, she did tell me about the spinal tap needle. it's six inches long. she also told me how she'll never be afraid of antother needle agian.

after we leave the hospital, we drive to a pharmacy, where we get my sister's prescription, and also, i acquire highly caffienated beverages. oh, and a sobe. then we drove down to Petaluma, where we had breakfast at a place called "Pete's Henny Penny." it's a very good 24hr diner. woo.

after filling up the gas tank, we drive home. at this point it's around 3:30, and it has been a long ass day. everybody but me goes to sleep right away, i proceed in posting here, and another forum.

oh, and it turned out she had Viral Flu, plus dehydration. so she's fine.

-TBO

[thebornotaku]

Viral Flu? Is there any other kind?

Bird flu...?

[stranger]

So she had flu... Just flu.

And a spinal tap was necessary for this? Not to mention the hospital... Anyway, hope she gets better, give her my best

[thebornotaku]

well we didn't know waht was wrong with her, cause she had all kinds of symptoms. it wasn't until about 2AM we knew taht she only had the flu.