Vacation in The New York City Emergency Room

Friday, we decided to go to the Statue of Liberty.  We knew this would bevery touristy but felt like it was something everyone needs to knock off their list. I mean you only see it in the movies otherwise…  From there we walked towards the One World Trade Center, which to no surprise was an extremely emotional place to be. You would assume that, but it’s even heavier than you imagine.  It’s hard to have words to say when you’re in that location.

Our intention was to go into the museum, we even stood in line… but backed out.  I could see a super large photo of the buildings through the museum window & my heart dropped.  We were already so emotional walking around, going inside felt like an overwhelming task for the day.

We decided we would visit another time when we could “take the day off” after walking through. (Still gives me chills.)

We went back to the hotel, waited for friends to arrive, met up with them, went to another delicious Italian place for dinner, and then Wafiq and I decided to head back to the hotel.

Around midnight, (yes midnight – I was already in REM sleep) Wafiq woke me up saying he felt anxiety or weight on his chest.  I told him to watch New Girl on TV.  The ultimate cure to nighttime anxiety, trust me.  A few hours passed & he woke me up again w stomach pains that wouldn’t go away.  From there, they got worse… FAST.

By 8:00am we knew it wasn’t stomach flu, food poising, or drama.  We had a situation on our hands.  Being in New York, we obviously had no clue how to handle the situation.  I googled the nearest Urgent Care & assumed that was where we needed to be.

When we arrived at the Urgent Care, Wafiq was bent over in pain, not being able to pay attention to anything.  I knew the doctors wouldn’t be able to help us, they were too calm.  Unsurprised, they sent us straight to the Emergency Room.

So there we were, in the New York City Emergency Room, on Saturday morning.

We were lucky enough to get a medical bed, in the middle of the hallway. Which was fine… as Wafiq was continuously vomiting & dry heaving loud enough for the entire room to enjoy.  To say I was freaking out is an understatement.  I didn’t know how to help & we weren’t getting very much attention, so I was basically just watching… Ugh.

Unphased, a nurse came over & said he probably had the flu.  They gave him flu medicine (?) & anti-nausea medicine through an IV.

Wafiq got worse. WAY worse.

I thought I was panicking before, but I was really panicking now. His eyes were squirting out water, his body was rejecting his organs, or something similar.  And what was I supposed to do?  (Also, he’s very skinny. How can he throw up so much?  I mean my body has a lot to give away… but his?)

After the vomiting {violently} continued, a nurse came over & gave Wafiq morphine w a promised cat scan.  Apparently, they won’t give patients morphine unless you agree to a cat scan, or won’t feel the pain & could miss something major.  After the cat scan, we got some REAL attention. The doc kinda half ran to us saying Wafiq needed his appendix out. As we tried to plan a day in Austin to schedule the surgery, the doc said NO it’s happening today.

Doctors were panicking – trying to fit him in the surgeon’s schedule.  But for us, the stomach pains now made sense, & we had a solution. Much better than the unknown.

As you can imagine, being in the New York City Emergency Room for 12 hours allowed ample time to encounter people from all walks of life. We were on a bed in the hallway next to the ambulance drop off.  At one point, a person came in on a stretcher & all Wafiq calmly stated: “He’s dead”. (Good news, he wasn’t.)

When we checked into the ER at 9am, we were next to an extremely buff looking man.  He appeared to have wrapped his own hand, that was projecting blood.  We sat across from him. Dripping blood, through all his fingers, definitely sliced open in a few spots. The nurse asked “On a scale from 1 – 10 how much pain are you in”.  He responded, “I feel no pain” then followed with a small smirk.

I wanted to be his friend so badly. Obviously his friend in conditions where knives and weapons were far away, possibly while he was restrained, but none the less his friend.  THIS GUY had stories.  I couldn’t stop looking at him.  I think we made eye contact. His hand was falling off – and I was mesmerized.

Then there was this jackass who frequents the ER.  I left to get chips and coffee at about 4pm and when I came back The Grinch had all kinds of comments for me:

“Look at this lady, (laughing) eating a whole meal here in the ER”  “You gotta be kidding me”  “First she got ice cream”  “Then I saw her get another ice cream” “Now she’s eating a whole meal!”  “haha and look at that, she’s even drinking”.

First of all mother f-er, I didn’t get ice cream. I WISH I had ice cream. Second, we’ve been in this God damn emergency room since 9am with an actual emergency. I NEED coffee.  Third, do you see all the other people eating?!?!?! PICK ON THEM!  Later, when I went to the restroom I had to walk past his bed and he shouted “You going to get more food?! HA!”

When we first arrived there was an old couple in a room down the hallway from us. The very skinny, elder women was on the bed, obviously sick.  Her elder husband was sitting on a chair to her side – holding her hands, with his head down praying as she slept.  This went on for hours.  Hunched over, he held her hand the entire time.  Nervous & praying.

When she left for X-Rays he took his chair, pointed it towards the door, and didn’t take his eyes off the door until she came back through. When she emerged, she excitedly pointed to her husband and told the nurse “That’s my husband!”

I believe it was a scene out of The Notebook.  Really. My eyes water remembering.  We watched them most of the day. Imagining how difficult it must be to live your whole life with someone and see them older and sick.

Wafiq and I went through a ROLLAR COASTER of emotions while in the ER. Sad for people who can’t afford medical attention, grateful for our health and age, frustrated to be waiting so long… Up and down all day.

He ended up getting out of surgery at 9:00pm and we stayed in the hospital until about 11:00pm.  We met the most wonderful & comforting nurses with an excellent surgeon (as we called him at 3:00am to ask about one of the incisions and he patiently listened and responded to our questions).

As you can imagine, the rest of the trip was spent h o r i z o  n t a l.

New York didn’t go as planned.

We ultimately went for surgery and came back. I don’t get to share a ton of pictures and recommendations, which I was really looking forward to.  But we came back home smiling that we’re ok. We made it home. He’s healing. I’m feeding him excessive amounts of garlic.
And New York will always be there for us to go back to.Xx.

 

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