Fortunately I wasn't the patient! After announcing to my coworkers that I had gotten an agent, one of them offered to buy me lunch if she could pick my brain about being a novelist. I was in the office today so we decided to go out.
Halfway through lunch, I ask her a pretty basic question and she looks at me like she can't figure out how to answer. She's like, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I haven't slept in four days." I thought she was about to break down crying and I'm thinking, oh man, is she having some personal problems?
Well, it just gets stranger. She gets more disoriented and finally says she is really sick and needs to go. She wanted to pay for lunch but she couldn't even coordinate enough to get her wallet out of her purse. Finally I said, "You stay here, I'll pay, and I'm taking you to the ER." Then suddenly she can barely walk so I had to sprint four blocks and park the car in the red. At this point I'm thinking, she's having a stroke.
On the way, I asked her all sorts of questions to make sure I knew what was going on, and it was a good thing I did because by the time we got to the ER, she was completely out of it and unable to answer questions. I had to tell like 3 doctors the whole story. She was crying and sobbing and then suddenly would be laughing at something stupid.
So yeah, six hours of tests later (including a CT scan, which was cool), it turns out she is seriously dehydrated, has a severe urinary tract infection, and some sort of bizarre blood infection.
At this point she's well enough that they let me drive her home, and so she's giving me directions. Finally we get to her house and she gets out. I wait to make sure she gets inside... but she stands in front of the door for a minute and then comes back to the car and says, "This is not my house."
I feel really bad for her. Something is seriously wrong and I hope the doctors figured it all out. Anyways. This has been a really bizarre day!!
Halfway through lunch, I ask her a pretty basic question and she looks at me like she can't figure out how to answer. She's like, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I haven't slept in four days." I thought she was about to break down crying and I'm thinking, oh man, is she having some personal problems?
Well, it just gets stranger. She gets more disoriented and finally says she is really sick and needs to go. She wanted to pay for lunch but she couldn't even coordinate enough to get her wallet out of her purse. Finally I said, "You stay here, I'll pay, and I'm taking you to the ER." Then suddenly she can barely walk so I had to sprint four blocks and park the car in the red. At this point I'm thinking, she's having a stroke.
On the way, I asked her all sorts of questions to make sure I knew what was going on, and it was a good thing I did because by the time we got to the ER, she was completely out of it and unable to answer questions. I had to tell like 3 doctors the whole story. She was crying and sobbing and then suddenly would be laughing at something stupid.
So yeah, six hours of tests later (including a CT scan, which was cool), it turns out she is seriously dehydrated, has a severe urinary tract infection, and some sort of bizarre blood infection.
At this point she's well enough that they let me drive her home, and so she's giving me directions. Finally we get to her house and she gets out. I wait to make sure she gets inside... but she stands in front of the door for a minute and then comes back to the car and says, "This is not my house."
I feel really bad for her. Something is seriously wrong and I hope the doctors figured it all out. Anyways. This has been a really bizarre day!!
I'm not even kidding. I have very few close friends, but I always end up being there whenever someone I know is having a crisis. Or someone I don't know. In the past, oh, 5 years, I have:
