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I think I got too little sleep every night from Wednesday (before I left) through last night, despite asking ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rysmiel and papersky to send me to bed by 11 Saturday night, which they did.
I was going to leave Sunday evening, but changed my plans at the last minute to make up for missing Saturday afternoon of the con providing moral support to a fan I knew casually, and had been planning to lunch with, at Hennepin County Medical Center:
Heather and I knew each other, vaguely, through rassef, and she didn't know a lot of other people at the con, since this was her first trip to North America. We agreed to get lunch at a local inexpensive Vietnamese place, and were taking it back to the con suite to eat. (The place is mostly take-out and has negative ambience.) We were walking and talking, and Heather tripped, fell, landed on her front, and couldn't really move one arm. After various harmless back-and-forthing, an ambulance arrived. By then I'd asked her, if they wanted to take her to the hospital, would she like me to come along. She said yes.
The paramedics asked a few questions, helped her stand, and said she needed to go to an emergency room. (They asked which one she wanted; we asked the two con-member paramedics who Orange Mike had found for her; we settled on Hennepin County MC.) I said I wanted to go with her, and admitted to not being a relative, "But I'm a good friend and her family are all in Australia". The first half was an exaggeration, the second an honest error--I'd forgotten her daughter was traveling with her. So they let me come along, and the afternoon was an alternation of waiting and medical stuff--talking to nurses and doctors, her going for X-rays, trying not to yell at the person in the next screened-off piece of the Orthopedics Emergency Room who complained about how loud we were talking in between shouting at staff and, I think, at the empty air, and such. Overall, not at all bad--we didn't have to sit around in a general ER admitting area, and everyone seemed both professional and helpful.
The conclusion was that her arm was broken in two places. They gave her a sling, and a prescription for painkillers, which I'm fairly sure she won't use, and told her to come back on Wednesday. (Apparently casts and splints are No Longer Used in most cases.) She may have slightly dislocated her shoulder; if so, it re-located while they were lifting her elbow for X-rays.
We got back to the con hotel about 5:40; I saw her to her room, then basically collapsed on Papersky and Rysmiel and added myself to their already large party for all-you-can-eat sushi. After some edamame and cucumber salad, and a couple of pieces of shrimp sushi, I was feeling human again, but very glad to have Rysmiel on one side of me andzorinth on the other. Much more sushi was eaten--I can eat a lot of sushi in an hour when I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast except a handful of cherry tomatoes. Fortunately, I'd had a good solid bowl of soup for breakfast, not just pastry or cereal.
After supper, I stopped by Heather's room with some chocolate, since I'd mentioned it during the afternoon. At closing ceremonies, I found a thank-you in the Bozo Bus Tribune (as part of a paragraph about the incident), and Heather gave me a small box carved out of Tasmanian pine.
(More on Minicon later, probably.)
rysmiel and papersky to send me to bed by 11 Saturday night, which they did.I was going to leave Sunday evening, but changed my plans at the last minute to make up for missing Saturday afternoon of the con providing moral support to a fan I knew casually, and had been planning to lunch with, at Hennepin County Medical Center:
Heather and I knew each other, vaguely, through rassef, and she didn't know a lot of other people at the con, since this was her first trip to North America. We agreed to get lunch at a local inexpensive Vietnamese place, and were taking it back to the con suite to eat. (The place is mostly take-out and has negative ambience.) We were walking and talking, and Heather tripped, fell, landed on her front, and couldn't really move one arm. After various harmless back-and-forthing, an ambulance arrived. By then I'd asked her, if they wanted to take her to the hospital, would she like me to come along. She said yes.
The paramedics asked a few questions, helped her stand, and said she needed to go to an emergency room. (They asked which one she wanted; we asked the two con-member paramedics who Orange Mike had found for her; we settled on Hennepin County MC.) I said I wanted to go with her, and admitted to not being a relative, "But I'm a good friend and her family are all in Australia". The first half was an exaggeration, the second an honest error--I'd forgotten her daughter was traveling with her. So they let me come along, and the afternoon was an alternation of waiting and medical stuff--talking to nurses and doctors, her going for X-rays, trying not to yell at the person in the next screened-off piece of the Orthopedics Emergency Room who complained about how loud we were talking in between shouting at staff and, I think, at the empty air, and such. Overall, not at all bad--we didn't have to sit around in a general ER admitting area, and everyone seemed both professional and helpful.
The conclusion was that her arm was broken in two places. They gave her a sling, and a prescription for painkillers, which I'm fairly sure she won't use, and told her to come back on Wednesday. (Apparently casts and splints are No Longer Used in most cases.) She may have slightly dislocated her shoulder; if so, it re-located while they were lifting her elbow for X-rays.
We got back to the con hotel about 5:40; I saw her to her room, then basically collapsed on Papersky and Rysmiel and added myself to their already large party for all-you-can-eat sushi. After some edamame and cucumber salad, and a couple of pieces of shrimp sushi, I was feeling human again, but very glad to have Rysmiel on one side of me and
zorinth on the other. Much more sushi was eaten--I can eat a lot of sushi in an hour when I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast except a handful of cherry tomatoes. Fortunately, I'd had a good solid bowl of soup for breakfast, not just pastry or cereal.After supper, I stopped by Heather's room with some chocolate, since I'd mentioned it during the afternoon. At closing ceremonies, I found a thank-you in the Bozo Bus Tribune (as part of a paragraph about the incident), and Heather gave me a small box carved out of Tasmanian pine.
(More on Minicon later, probably.)
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Glad you (and Orange Mike, a buddy of mine from the Stumpers list) were there to help. And I hope Heather's arm heals OK. The part about no splints or casts is news, but it's been 19 years since the last time I broke my arm, and that time required surgery.
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I'm glad you had a fun con, Green Room and all.
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I am not a doctor either--but at least three doctors (including two orthopedists) looked at this, and considered the possibility of surgery.