27th December 2023
Kelli plucked up the courage to have the staples out of her arm.
We drove to the hospital, parked the truck, and walked into the Emergency room.
We passed security, that place is loaded with security, you couldn’t steal a plaster in that place.
She signed in and then took a seat, there were a few souls in front of us. One by one they were called. We played the game of “guess what they’re in for”. One by one they were called in. One big guy shuffled to the door, we decided he had a staple in his scrote. The next one was in a wheelchair pushed by his wife or mother, he was holding a towel to his ear, we thought he was trying to pierce his ear with a staple gun. Of course we never knew the result even though I tried to read what was on a large monitor screen inside the room.
Then it was our turn, they led us into a side room where Kelli had to put on a gown. A few minutes later two kids, entered, one looked fifteen, the other twelve. The fifteen year old had the staple removal tool. She explained the twelve year old was shadowing her, just our luck, the trainee was training another trainee.
The procedure to remove staples began. The first one made Kelli whence, it dropped into the tray, then one by one they followed. There was stage when the twelve year old was going to remove the last couple, but Kelli was not having it. It was bad enough having a kid doing the job, but to let her little brother have a go, was not happening.
It didn’t give us much confidence because he was struggling to put gloves on.
The wound looked good, but there was a bit of blood where the staples were, which was not surprising. She was advised to let the wound breathe, but the thought that it might catch on some clothes, well, maybe not yet. We saw a drawer labelled with “Band aid” so I pulled it open and took out the largest one and placed it over the staple less wound, then we left by a side door, fortunately the drawer was not alarmed, so we didn’t get accosted by security.
Another Lifetime to go 