Wanderung 34

Linda Injured!

The Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote, "The best laid plans o' mice and men gang oft aglay" , and so it turned out for our plans for today. Instead of spending the day wending our way through the scenic byways of Connemara, we spent the day in the Emergency Room of Castlebar's Mayo General Hospital.

It came about this way. Linda wasn't feeling well at breakfast, and had been coughing a bit just like Jerry had the previous weekend, so we all just thought that Linda had caught Jerry's cold or intestinal bug or something. She was queasy enough to beg off of breakfast and returned to their room to rest a bit while the rest of us had breakfast.

But after breakfast we found out that she had somehow fainted and unfortunately hit her head on the edge of the sink or bathtub, briefly knocking herself out and giving herself a small scalp wound. But like all scalp wounds, this one bled copiously, so Jerry supervised putting an ice pack and towel-bandage on Linda's sore head with Monika's help, and then I drove us all as quickly as possible to the Emergency Room at the Mayo General Hospital in the small city of Castlebar, about 1/2 hour down the N5 from us. Fortunately, having just been there yesterday to get the official birth records of Linda's grandmother, I really knew the way already and could drive there without futzing around and taking wrong turns.

Once in the ER, the Irish hospital system worked well in terms of admitting Linda to the triage area of the ER fairly quickly. They tried to staunch the bleeding by gluing the edges of the scalp wound together, but that didn't completely stop the bleeding and Linda really was still in pain. The ER doctor wanted to give her additional tests such as a CAT scan and a chest X-Ray, and that's when things started going VERY slowly.

Jerry and Monika were in with Linda at the back of the ER most of the day. That area was very crowded with beds all along the hallway, so I ended up waiting in the seating out front. Although the tests were slow, Linda was ultimately seen by the ER Doctor, the surgeon, and the hospital admitting doctor before a final decision was made to admit her overnight for ongoing observation. Personally, I thought that was a wise decision because I was worried that Linda might have gotten a slight concussion, and a concussion sometimes has delayed effects. So I was personally relieved that she would stay overnight in the safest place possible, the hospital, if any aftereffects of her injury were to pop up.

She was wheeled up to a bed in a surgery ward about 6:30 that evening, and we got her the essentials--fruit to eat and a charger for her iPhone!--before taking our leave and driving back to our hotel for the night. Jerry, Monika, and I had a quick dinner at a hole-in-the-wall cafe just down the street from our hotel, and the soup, meatballs, and chips were delicious, but it just wasn't the same without Linda. We were all somewhat tired from worrying all day, so shortly after dinner we turned in for the night as we wanted to be up early to drive back to the hospital the next morning. We also asked the woman at the front desk if we could stay another night, and she immediately arranged that for us (and in the end, the hotel did not even charge us for that extra night's stay!).