TIME AWAY

      I've been away for a few days. I admit that I have not read blogs or commented. 

       I had the mother of all nose bleeds on Thursday  morning. I was off to the bathroom about 1 AM and felt a drip fall from my nose. When I got to the bathroom and got the light on my hand had lots of blood on it. I tried to stop it and saw that the bleeding was continuing very rapidly. I called the Micro Manager for help. We quickly decided we had to call the ambulance.

    The paramedic tried pinching the nostril and using a gauze plug. Nothing helped. 

    They decided it was emergency for me. So out I went out  to the drive way in sock feet and boxers. The paramedic pinched my nose all the way to the hospital and while I was waiting for a bed. Then they put a clamp on my nose which stopped the bleeding but didn't cure things. 

     About 4 AM they inserted an inflatable plug. It wasn't nice but stopped the blood flow. 

    I was released  about 10AM. I didn't have glasses or hearing aids. I didn't have shoes. The micro manager sent up a shirt, pants and jacket. I couldn't get the shirt over my head. So I was on my way home with no shoes or shirt. 

    So it was a long sleepless confusing night.

    I went back Sat AM  and got the packing out and fortunately the bleeding had stopped. It was a treat that a  former student was in the ER and looked after me.

    So it was a miserable time with lack of sleep, worry, loss of blood and a darn hard hospital bed to lie on for 10 hours. 

   Aren't you lucky that I'm not showing icky photos? 

    

BRUTAL WEATHER

      I have been noticing with some alarm the extreme cold weather across the southern part of the United States. 

    The air with the extreme chill is a location where they are not prepared for extreme chill. They rarely get these low temperatures. I saw some temperatures with lower than minus 20 C. I would find that very cold if I had to stay outside and I'm used to cold and have winter clothing. I can only imagine the discomfort these people are going through. Everything is stacked against them: extreme cold, no electricity, no water, no heat, no food.

    Houses cool off quickly when the power is off. When the power is off most other things are off too. 

   All the power lines in my city are underground. We get power outages but not from weather. Our water lines are a minimum of 8 feet underground. We still get pipes freezing.

    So I feel very badly for the people suffering  through the brutal  cold in the United States. I hope they all survive and that the weather changes quickly.

Are You Safe?

      The micro manager developed a very sore neck on Friday. Yes, I know I'm a pain in the neck!!! The pain shifted around got less and got worse. 

     Yesterday we went to the walk in clinic. The Micro manager did not follow any of the directions given by the attending Physician. She was going for other medical tests this morning and didn't want to take medication that would interfere with the test. So you guessed it .This morning she had excruciating pain. So we decided to come home after the tests for breakfast and then go to emergency.

    We got to emergency and she was seen in less than half an hour. Many questions were asked. She was asked if she had a recent accident. Medications were prescribed and she was to stay for a few hours to see what the medication would do. I went home. She had a two hour sleep.

    While I was away she was asked, "Are you safe?"  She wasn't sure what they meant. They were wanting to know if there was any domestic abuse happening! She was most surprised by the question. I knew that they were asking this question of people who came to emergency showing some trauma or indication of trauma. I was not surprised . I was asked this same question when I went to emergency a few years ago with an owy.

    It has been found that domestic violence can be discovered by asking this question in emergency clinics. 

     Before I retired from teaching we were asking kids the same question when we saw certain types of injuries or bruises. The question was the same, "Are you safe at home?" We were to report to the councillor and the councillor would check the student and then if there were suspicions the case  was moved to professionals who handle child abuse. The professionals would decide what action was needed if any.

      The Micro manager still thought the question was odd when she came home. I do not find the question odd and I hope it discovers domestic abuse and that actions can be taken to prevent and resolve abuse situations.

     Have you ever been asked this question or have you been the one asking the question?