The Emergency

Chapter one;

It was the month of January, maybe February, the year was obviously 2020. It was very early in the morning. I knew that it was Thursday, maybe Friday morning.  It was very dark outside. I was very dehydrated which made me very tired. Suddenly, I had diarrhea, which made me even more tired than before. I called my mom and she came and changed me. Then, she put me in the bathroom. Then, she left. I sat in the bathroom for a while. Then, I called my mom and she came and lifted me and put me on the bed and dressed me. As she dressed me, I said, “I feel like going to the emergency room.” She asked, “do you want to go to the emergency room? “ I replied,”Yes.” and just like that, mom put me in the chair and drove my chair in the car and she drove the car out of the garage and then out of the driveway. She started to drive me to the hospital where the emergency room was. 

Chapter two;

I was excited to go to the emergency room. At the same time, I was scared because I didn’t know what would happen when I finally got there. I wasn’t used to driving so early in the morning, so I felt very tired. As mom drove me to the Northshore hospital, I watched the sunrise from the window. When I finally got to the Northshore hospital, we drove straight down the driveway and about halfway down the driveway, we turned right and drove into the hospital grounds. Mom had to drive all the way around to the back of the building because that’s where the emergency room was. She pulled into the emergency parking lot, and I saw a building connecting to the hospital. The building was big and low. On the front of it, in large red letters, read the word; emergency. My eyes were fixed on the word, even as mom pulled into one of the parking spaces. She parked the car. She opened the door and the handicap ramp came out. Mom drove me backward out of the car. I waited outside as she closed the car and turned it off. Then, mom drove me inside the emergency room. 

Chapter three;

Once inside, mom signed me in, then we followed a nurse down a hallway with rooms that had curtains draped over them so that I couldn’t see inside. The curtains were very colorful and above each room was a number. Finally, we stopped at a room, and the nurse slid the curtain open. She gestured, and she waited for us to go inside the room,  and we did. Once inside the room, the nurse handed mom a plastic bag with hospital clothes inside. She left, sliding the curtains back closed behind her. In the room, I saw a bed with a pole attached to it and at the top of it hung a plastic bag halfway filled with IV fluid. Seeing this, I felt more nervous than I had ever felt in my entire life, but I was just too tired to react. So I just stared at the bag thinking, “I am nervous, I am nervous.” over and over. Mom put the bag with hospital clothes on the bed. She unstraped me from my chair and lifted me from it and carried me over to the bed. There, mom opened the bag and got out the hospital clothes and dressed me in them.  Then, we waited for a doctor to come. 

Chapter four;

After a while, I saw the curtains slide open and a doctor walked into the room. He said, “hi, how are you?” I replied, “I feel very tired and very dehydrated.” The doctor said,” you’re going to be hydrated right now, right after I put the IV in you.” He walked over to the bed. He stood over me. He said, ”but first, I have to give you a checkup.” Then he checked me up. He checked my eyes, ears and when the doctor got to my mouth, he said, “Say ah.” I opened my mouth while I said, “Ah.” Then the doctor peered into my mouth. He gazed at my tongue and said, “your tongue is dehydrated.” Then, he said, “ I am going to wipe your arm.” He reached over to a table that I hadn’t noticed before when I first entered the room. He grabbed a disinfectant alcohol wipe. He sat down in a chair right next to me. Then, he wiped the inside of my elbow. Then, he injected me with a needle. Next, he wrapped it with a bandage wrap to keep the needle from moving a lot. Finally, the doctor connected the part of the needle that was sticking out of the wrap to the bag with IV fluid. Then, he left, sliding the curtains closed once more, behind him. 

Chapter five;

The worst part was over, now I had to wait until I got hydrated again. While I waited, I took antibiotics, and as the hours ticked by, I got better and I grew less tired. The sun rose, filling the room with light and I felt more or less normal. That’s when I started to watch TV. My IV was hurting and I felt that the fluid was ice cold and wet and refreshing as it went into my body. I had to do a urine test. Many times, the doctor had to disconnect and connect the IV a few times to do an x-ray and a CT scan of my intestine. During the CT scan, I had a hard time keeping still so, I was very upset and I started to cry a lot. Mom said not to cry because then I would waste all the fluid that the bag had. So after a while, I stopped crying and more of the IV fluid replaced the fluid that I had lost in my tears. Later in the day, I was feeling tired, but this time, I was hydrated which was a good thing. Now I was ready to return home. So, I waited for the doctor to tell me and mom that it was OK to return home. 

Chapter six;

Late in the afternoon, the doctor entered the room and said, “ you’re going to stay at another hospital for the night, just in case you have diarrhea again. “ I was upset, I wanted to go home, but I had no choice. So I had to go to the hospital for the night. I asked, “ are we going to the hospital in the car?” Mom said, “ no, we’re going to the hospital in an ambulance. “ So, I waited for the ambulance people to come. When they finally arrived, they had a stretcher with them. The doctor disconnected the IV from the needle. The ambulance people lifted me and placed me on the stretcher and strapped me on it. Then, they put a machine in front of me. This is a machine that would read my heart rate. There were strings attached to it. The strings were the colors; Red, Blue, and Yellow. There were stickers attached to the end of them. The emergency people lifted my shirt up off my chest and put the stickers on my chest. This way, the machine could read my heart rate. Then, they put patches on my legs. These patches had switches on them that the emergency people turned on. These patches helped them keep an eye on me. Then the ambulance people moved me out of the room and down the hallway. Mom followed them. As we walked down the hallway, I said, “ bye, bye.” to everyone I saw down the hallway. When we got to the ambulance, the people put me in the ambulance and locked me inside the ambulance before they started to drive me to the Northshore hospital in Evanston. 

Chapter seven;

I was excited to ride in the ambulance. On the way to the hospital, I watched TV and talked a lot. Outside the ambulance window it was pitch black, but that didn’t matter. I was watching TV and having fun, and that’s all that mattered! When we finally got to the Northshore hospital in Evanston, the ambulance people got me out of the ambulance and into the hospital. Then, we all followed a nurse down a hallway and into an elevator. Then, we rode to the night room floor. The doors of the elevator opened and we came out. We followed the nurse down another hallway and into a hospital room. This was the room that I was going to stay in all night. The ambulance people took everything off of me except my clothes and they lifted me and placed me gently on a hospital bed. Then, they left. The nurse checked me up. Then she decided, “ you’re fully hydrated, we’re going to take the IV off of you because you don’t need it anymore.” And with that, the nurse unwrapped the bandage wrap around the needle. Next she took the needle out. After that, I thanked her a million times. I had another urine test. Then, the nurse left. Then my grandma and aunt visited me in my hospital room. They sat in two chairs and talked with my mom. Then, I asked my aunt to take one of the ambulance patches off and she did. Then she continued talking with my mom. Finally, they left and by that time, it was bedtime. So, I turned in for the night. 

Chapter eight;

For most of the night, I drifted in and out of sleep. The nurse kept checking me every four hours. At 4: 00, I finally fell asleep. I didn’t wake up until 8:00 in the morning. The sun was filling the room with light and I felt new and fresh. I was a bit tired, but that didn’t matter. I was fully hydrated and the IV was out. The nurse stood right next to me. She said, “ good morning.” Then she asked, “ how are you?” I replied, “ I feel tired, but at least I’m hydrated. The nurse smiled ” yes, at least you’re fully hydrated right now. “ she said. I asked, “Can I go home today? “ she replied,” yes, you can go home, right after I check you for the final time.” The nurse checked me up for the final time. Then mom put my clothes on and put me in my chair that my grandma brought the night before. She strapped me in and drove out of the room. My mom drove me down the hallway, into the elevator, and we rode the elevator down the first floor. Then, the doors of the elevator opened and we drove out. Mom drove me down the hallway, turning left and right a few times before bursting out of the hospital and into the parking lot. She drove my chair to my car that my grandma brought the night before and mom opened the car and the handicap ramp came out. Mom drove me inside, then drove home. We pulled into the driveway and back into the garage.  Mom parked the car and drove me backwards out of the car. She drove me inside the house and back into my bedroom. Mom parked my chair and put it in the charger. Then she unstrapped me and lifted me out of the chair and put me in the bed. Then, mom took the rest of the ambulance patches off and she left to give me privacy. Once she was gone, I relaxed, thinking about the previous events that had happened the day before, the night before, and part of that morning. Now, laying in my bed, everything that had happened before this moment all seemed like a bad dream, and so I thought, “ yesterday felt like a dream because I was so tired. I’m just glad to be home. “ And so I relaxed on my bed, happy and content in the coziness and warmth of my very own bed. So I lived happily ever after. 

The End!