Our Halloween ER Visit

On Saturday (10/30), Kurt woke up with a stiff neck - like he slept on it wrong. I spent most of the morning trying to rub the knot out. By that evening he was stiff but moving so we went to our church Harvest Party.

The next morning he woke up a little more stiff. I rubbed it some more and he got in the shower and got ready for church. We were driving out of our neighborhood and he said "turn around, I can't go". His neck was really starting to bother him. So I took him home and me and the kids went to church.

I was sitting in church and I kept hearing this buzzing noise. I finally figured out what it was - my phone - thank goodness I had put it on vibrate! He was calling me and texting me that he needed muscle relaxers. I text him back "right now?" He responded "YES". Ok - I got up and started to leave with the kids. I stopped to tell a friend that I had to get Kurt medicine and that I would be late for my class so could she tell my team-teacher. Her and her husband offered to keep the kids at church and so I left the kids there. On the way home I called Kurt. At this point he was almost to a full panic - "you got to take me to the ER!" What? "Are you sure?" I asked. "YES". So I turned around to get the kids because obviously I wouldn't be right back. My friend offered to go home and watch the kids for me while I took Kurt to the ER.

I get home and Kurt is in a ton of pain. If he moved wrong, the muscle would spasm and he would scream. And I mean SCREAM! There was a "discussion" as to what hospital I would take him to because we switched insurances last January and now the hospital 5 minutes from our house isn't on our insurance. Our new hospital is 20-30 minutes away. He refused to go that far so we went to the one 5 minutes away (we will just have to see what the insurance does). Every bump I hit on the way sent him into a screaming frenzy so by the time we got to the hospital I knew there was no way he would make it 20 minutes to the other hospital; nor would my nerves have taken it.

We walked in and thank goodness there was not a lot of people. The nurse behind the counter could tell he was in a lot of pain and they got us in pretty quick. They put us in a triage area that just had curtains between the beds. The doctor came in and asked his questions and then grabbed Kurt's head and said "I think we need to stretch it out" and proceeded to pull his head. BAD IDEA! Kurt started screaming in pain which echoed through the whole ER. Things moved pretty quick after that. They moved him to a room that had a door that shut (nice!) and got an IV in him and loaded him with muscle relaxers and pain relievers. We had an awesome nurse! She was great. We sat there for probably 4 hours and by the time they discharged us, Kurt was no longer screaming and had much more mobility in his neck. They sent him home with Valume (sp??) and Vicodin. Let's just say he was knocked out for two days!

By the time I got him home, got his prescriptions filled, picked up the kids and fed them (thanks to our friends who not only watched the kids all day but also had a dinner ready for me - awesome!), it was time to Trick-or-Treat. I was exhausted! But the kids got a ton of candy so they were happy.

Kurt is still stiff and sore and worries that it is going to spasm on him again but for the most part he is okay.

It was a very enteresting Halloween this year. I am glad it's over!