WHAT'S YOUR EMERGENCY?
Coming to your from the Emergency Room Hospital in Croatia
As I stand, not sit, in the crowded ER clinic in my small town of Pore?, Croatia — who knew Sunday morning would be so busy — I am tempted to leave, but my mom convinces me not to.?
The hospital walls are a pale yellow and built of concrete. The concrete floor can be seen in the cracks beneath the cream and beige squeaky clean, porcelain tiles. Or are they marble? I don’t know.?I’m just happy I wore shoes with a grip.
The large ceiling to floor windows brings in the only light needed and it fills the room with sunshine and hope. There is one wall A/C unit for the large space that is set to 24 Celsius, that is 75 degrees Fahrenheit, assuring us that this is the healthy temperature albeit it being 32 Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) outside, today.?
The electrical wiring tightly wraps around the top of the walls from corner to corner. They are orange, yellow and grey.?
Children’s colorful art hangs crookedly on the walls in wooden frames and there are white paper signs each held up by a single piece of scotch tape, along the way to the check-in window, directing tourists where to go.?
At the front desk there are two nurses, wearing light blue scrubs and platform sandals, their toenails painted, one hot pink and the other fire engine red.?
The older woman has blonde and gray short hair that is teased like a helmet, and all of the makeup she is wearing tells me she must have a glamour photo shoot scheduled after her shift.?
She smells of aqua net hairspray and the red rouge that are on her cheeks, eyes and lips. Although rather slow on the computer, she is adorably beautiful and her personality matches.?
Gigantic potted plants decorate the space, their leaves dusty and limp, that I begin to wonder if they are a metaphor for what’s to come.
There are small children, ages infant to maybe 7 years old, not at all phased by whatever reason they are here waiting to see the doctor. Kids are funny that way, they can be sick with fevers and colds and ear aches, yet still want to play and laugh and climb onto chairs and tables in the waiting room.?
It’s been three hours and I’m still waiting. I call my mom again and say, “This is taking forever, I don’t want to wait anymore. I’m tired, hot and hungry.”
领英推荐
Then, right as I’m really beginning to lose my patience, I see a man in a wheelchair with his right leg cut off at his knee, and the person with him helping him to the bathroom…
…and it slaps me on the face so hard that I hope it leaves a mark for the rest of my life to remind me to be grateful.?
So, I wait. And I decide to write this blog. And I mentally make a list of the things I’m grateful for starting with my limbs, from head to toe.?
I’m sure you’re wondering why I was in the ER. My ear. It’s almost always my ear, as I’ve struggled with ear infections my entire life.?
They finally call my name and the nurse points to the room. I walk in and there he is, the doctor, dressed in all white scrubs. He’s frantically opening all the windows in the office, even with the small AC unit on. He orders me to sit down and asks me why I decided my visit today was an “emergency” compared to everyone else.
Once he takes a look at my ear, he realizes the extremity of my pain and infection and I tell him what I’ve been doing to “self-treat” myself, he turns into a mad professor disappointed in his pupil. “No! No!” He shouts. “You are doing everything wrong, stop talking!”
He rubs his temples and blood shot, blue eyes, then takes a breath, and begins to calmly explain my diagnosis and treatment.
The cure, today, is almost the same as the life lesson I needed… Ear drops with a dose of tough love, and an extra shot of gratitude. ?
I’ll be keeping my head above the water this week.