Day Twenty-eight (0 miles): Sick on The Road - a trip to the ER - Part 3

Ella crawls up on my face like its a pillow. Gah! Mouth full of hair! RING! RING! I shove my phone under the pillow and roll over. Ella starts pawing my face. Get up human! Bob is up and packing his gear on his bike. Bill and Celia are leaving around 6:30AM. I feel like I can barely walk across the room. I call my parents and let them know I can't ride. After some deliberating, I make the decision it would be best to go to the hospital. Bob decides he is going to leave late tonight instead of this morning. He heads out to have breakfast with everyone else before they leave. I crash back on the bed and fall asleep for a couple more hours. My mom sends me a text and I jolt back up. Bob stays in the room with Ella while I head on out.

As luck would have it, the emergency room is just one mile from the hotel. A short but exhausting ride later, I'm sitting in the emergency room waiting area. Of course in a town this small, there is no one else waiting. About ten minutes later, I'm led back to a scale then into a private room. A nurse walks in and asks me what's been going on and how I am feeling. She takes my blood pressure and such then tells me the doctor will be right in. No more than 8 minutes later, the doctor walks in and starts talking with me. She is super friendly and also turns out to be a cyclist who recently did Bike Across Kansas.

As she is talking, a nurse walks in and my face turns white as a sheet. The plump little nurse was carrying a tray full of needles and vials for my blood. There a few things I have a fear in this world, needles just happen to be one of them. I've taped the tip of my finger back on, I've been dragged by a car, I've gashed myself on too many things to count, but I always fix the problem myself! I have always refused stitches and will do anything in my power to avoid needles. Pain isn't the problem, I have a high pain tolerance and an unusual habit of laughing when in serious pain. It's those damn little metallic medical javelins. There is just something about the thought of a needle entering my blood stream that really bothers me down to the core. I'd rather have a knife in my leg, you may think I'm kidding but I'm not. A knife in the leg!

I turn my head and continue talking to the doctor as the nurse pricks my arm and draws vial after vial of blood. Of course it's only a little pinch you can barely feel, but it's still a needle. The doctor informs me I'm going to need an IV and I get ready for the grand finale. A third nurse walks in with yet another tray of needles, tubes, tape, cotton, and juicy clear bag of fluid. Oh joy! The nurse keeps commenting on how great my veins are and how they hardly ever see such great veins. Whatever that means! She goes for the biggest vein bulging out of my arm and ends up hitting a valve blocking the vein. It doesn't hurt, but watching her pull the needle out was definitely an interesting experience. The second vein takes and I can feel the long skewer just under my arm. The sensation of a needle moving around in your arm as the nurse tries to hook on the IV isn't one I would like to experience again to say the least.

All of the sudden, I'm pouring sweat and the room feels like a sauna. The doctor quickly leads me to the bathroom where I end up spending the next 15 minutes. I had never been hit with a wave of nausea quite like that before. 150 degrees and the room was spinning, my head felt like is was full of helium and my muscles felt like the consistency of jello. The doctor add some sort of relaxant and pain killer into my IV as I lay like a corpse on the white hospital sheets. Before long, my eyes flutter shut and I'm fast asleep. An hour later, my eyes barely flicker open as the doctor comes into to check on me. It was a minute or two of conversation, but I couldn't remember a word of it as I kept drifting off to sleep.

It was about 1:30-2:00PM by the time I was fully awake and ready to be sent off. The doctors and nurses help me out to my bike and I insist that I'm able to ride back on my own. A good bye, a few words of luck, and I'm off on my own again. I feel much better but I'm still completely exhausted. On my way back to the hotel, I pick up some Gatorade, a few bananas, and stop at subway to pick up some food. Finally back to the room, I take Ella out and talk to my parents for awhile. I succumb to the air conditioning, and exhaustion hits me like a brick wall. I slept like a baby until about 6:00-7:00PM. Bob leaves to catch up with the rest of the group around 10:30PM. Crazy guy is going to ride all night and all tomorrow too!

I look at my maps one last time, let my dad know what my plan is and finish packing my gear. It's been a long few days for me and I have a long ride tomorrow so I'm going hit the hay! Thanks for keeping up with our adventures and we hope you continue to follow us as we finish the long haul across Kansas!