The Brad Hole

After some dabbing, we got the bleeding to stop, but after some cleansing, we got it to start again. ;-) This is when we made the executive decision to see about getting this looked at by a Medical Professional. Let me make an aside here to mention that it's been many years since I've been in a hospital in a way that didn't involve my own employment, so my knowledge of where exactly to go was pretty much non-existent. After a call to Beth's health care (Blue Cross/Blue Shield of AZ), we determined that there was an "Urgent Care" facility down the road that would fit the bill. I honestly didn't know how this was different from an emergency room. I assumed it was less, well, "urgent" than an emergency room visit. This turned out to be the case, which was fine since this wasn't a life-threatening injury, just a painful cut to the scalp.

My firsthand experience with medical care is very limited, and my dim memories told me that it was a slow, paperwork filled process. This was also not far from the truth. We arrived at the facility at 12:05 (that's when we signed in) and we were one of two people waiting. We were ushered into an examination room around 12:20 where a nurse briefly cleansed the wound and sat there cracking jokes about if the distant rumbling noises were Beth's belly or someone dragging heavy machinery outside. (It was roughly 50-50.) Around 1:05, we finally caught our first glimpse of the doctor, who breezed in, glued her wound shut (lucky break - she was fearing stitches) and blew out probably no more than 2 minutes later. Luckily the prognosis was good - she'll live! He told us to sit tight until the nurse came back to finish up our paperwork.

So then we sat waiting for the "check out" nurse to pay us a visit. 10-15 minutes, and considerably fewer jokes, later, she came in and ushered us back to the original waiting room. We watched around 10 minutes of a bad soap opera then finally paid our bill and left. Total time, start to finish - roughly 90 minutes, with approximately 5 of it involving actual medical care from either the doctor or the nurse. There's a rant in there somewhere, but I don't have the energy to bother with it.

After some lunch, we went to Target in search of bandanas for her to wear for the next several days. This is because she can't get the glue in her wound very wet, and as a result, washing her hair is going to be problematic for the next several days. Perhaps she could get one of the cats to help lick it clean. That seems like a fair trade, since they were indirectly responsible. Plus, I don't think they'd mind.

What a way to spend her day off, eh?