ER

I had an exciting night last night at the emergency room. The camp nurse called our home at about 8:30 to tell us that Kylie had been injured at the pool. A kick to the throat. She was breathing. She appeared to be okay, but was having trouble talking. The nurse recommended that we take her to the hospital to make sure nothing was damaged.

The nearest hospital to camp? Our own here in Newnan.

The nurse, a counselor, and Keri Lynn met us at the hospital. I had Kylie signed in and ready to be seen by the time she got there.

It felt good to get my arms around her and assure her and myself that she was fine. Her throat did hurt some and she didn't want to talk for the first half hour or so after I saw her, but then she found that she could talk easier and easier, so that by the time we were finally done with the visit, she had talked like a chatterbox for three hours straight and my eyes were starting to glaze over.

She got a CT scan, just to make sure that her larynx had not been damaged. Everything came out just fine.

I said to her, after the CT, "Wow, you were on Star Trek, or something!"

She replied, "More like Star Trap!" since she was strapped in and covered with radiation protection and inserted into a huge spinning wheel.

We both agreed that the CT machine looked like the front of our washing machine. We were both in some awe over it. I wonder if it leaks?

I knew she was feeling okay when I asked if she wanted to go home and get a rest or go right back to camp, and her answer was to go back to camp. And we would have done that if the ER wasn't suddenly inundated with emergencies. So we sat, and sat, and sat. We finally decided that it would be better if Kylie got a rest at home that night and that the ladies that had brought her to the ER could go back to camp, taking Keri Lynn back with them. We should have decided that hours before, because not 10 seconds after they left, the doctor came in to discharge us.

The doctor was very nice, but didn't look like he was quite old enough to have graduated from college, let alone medical school. I asked him how old he was, but he just laughed and walked away to see another patient, thereby insuring the fact that he was even YOUNGER than I thought! ACK!

Unless Kylie has trouble with her vocal chords in the next week, she ought to do just fine. She told me, as I drove her back to camp this morning, that she'd just stick to fishing today and avoid the pool. We'll have to see if she sticks to that, since she's part fish herself.