no.208 131124 Thank you for the safe trip to the emergency room

Emergency Room.

I went to the ER.

I was outside having lunch with friends after church, and my mom called me to get some bandaid and first aid tape. She got a pretty big cut while she was cooking and was bleeding a lot. I asked her how bad the cut is and she said it will be okay as long as she can make it stop bleeding. So I stopped by a drug market on my way home and picked up the first aid stuff I need. I come home and I helped her take off the bandaid she had used earlier to replace it with some gauze and tape to make it tighter. As soon as we took off the upper layer of the bandaid, blood gushed out everywhere. Literally everywhere. The bandaid was super adhesive and my mom was in pain, so we were struggling to remove it from her thumb. We tried to yank it out, but it wouldn't come off. Instead, her thumb bounced back to the opposite direction and the blood just splashed everywhere... on the table, on the chair, and even on the wall. As for me, I can't stand the sight of blood. I really wanted to help but I was freaking out.

I kept telling my mom we have to go to the hospital because it didn't look like it was gonna stop bleeding. She wouldn't listen to me for the longest time, and even my sister started to persuade her to go. After a long time, my sister and I convinced her to finally go to the ER.

I was worried about the wait time, but what I was more concerned about was seeing the real ER in front of my eyes. The image of the ER is just horrific scene to me - bloody, injured, scary, and life or death situation. I was so scared to go but I had to for my mom. It was my first experience there... thankfully it wasn't so bad. The wait time was pretty short - only about an hour. Most of all, I didn't see any bleeding people except for my mom. Pheww....! Her thumb was still bleeding when we opened the bandaid that was wrapped around her thumb. The doctor took a look at it, and the procedure was rather a simple one - he glued the skin that was falling off to the thumb. It was hard to see my mom going through the pain of the alcohol that the doc was pouring on the wound. He used the whole 500mL. Oh my gosh. I teared up a little bit because I could feel the pain my mom was feeling.

And... we were good to go. That was my first experience at the ER. I'm thankful that my mom's injury wasn't that bad, and it was fixable even after a long wait, I'm thankful that my sister and I were able to persuade her to go to the hospital, and I'm thankful for a friend of mine who helped me that I needed to take my mom to see the doctor. I'm thankful for the safe drive to the hospital and finding the parking spot (it's always a stress for me), I'm thankful for the not so long wait time, I'm thankful that I didn't have to see any scary scenes, I'm thankful my mom is feeling better after going to the hospital, and I'm thankful for the safe ride back home. Oh yes, I'm thankful that I didn't pass out after visiting the ER. It was totally out of my comfort zone, and I don't know how I even had the courage to step inside the hospital. Thank you God for protecting me and giving me the courage to overcome my fear. Hopefully, I'll never have to experience the ER again.