Tuesday 7 August 2012

My Friday evening entertainment

Or... not.

I'm sure most of you will remember the Man of Steel, whom I dated for seven months until he decided to end that relationship in January.

Well, despite the hurt that resulted from that, we have evolved into very good friends and socialize on a fairly regular basis.

And I'm okay with that. We get along so well and have fun together so why ditch a perfectly good friendship when the romantic part fell through? And it's all very good, in actual fact.

So, his one and only daughter got married on Friday in a province far to the west of here. He was unable to go for health reasons and, despite not liking the guy she was marrying (this is her second marriage), he wanted to be there for her.

Because he wasn't able to be with her, he decided to get drunk instead. He called me up at about 7:30 Friday evening, already half in the bag, and we chatted and I listened to him lament about his daughter's situation and how much he loved her.

But then he commented on his foot being swollen, beet red and really painful to walk on.

That set off my nursey alarms bells big time! I asked him a few more questions about it, but given his state of inebriation and the fact that he's a man, he poo-poo'd the seriousness of the state of his foot.

I told him I was coming out to assess his foot myself and if it looked like what I thought it was, I was dragging him to the local hospital ER whether he liked it or not.

Of course he didn't want me to come do that but I didn't listen to him. I jumped in my car and made a bee line for his place.

And just as I suspected, he had a pretty good cellulitis brewing in his foot and the back of his lower leg. So I bundled him into his truck (easier to get into that than my weeny little car) and we took the 5 minute drive to the local hospital.

(taken in the waiting room in the ER)

Of course, we waited like everyone else, chitchatted with some of the other folks waiting, and watched as a couple of ambulances brought people in for various things. The MoS started saying we needed to order pizza and beer to liven things up! He was bored. Can you blame him?

In the end, blood was draw, and an IV inserted and antibiotics administered. We were back at his place by 3:00 a.m. Saturday. I spent the weekend at his place, keeping his foot elevated on pillows, with a large gel-filled cold pack on it for the pain and swelling, and feeding him ibuprofen for the pain.

Each day, in the early evening, it was back to the hospital for his IV antibiotics. At least for those visits, it was a minimal wait as he just had to see the nurse and was then back home in no time. By Sunday, his foot had improved significantly. The redness had diminished and the swelling was greatly reduced. He was walking better, although it still hurt to put pressure on his toes. Time for me to head home as he could get around pretty well by then.

He did thank me over and over, once he was sobered up, for coming out and looking after him. Despite his protestations (it's a sore foot! so what!?!), he did actually understand the seriousness when I explained the damage cellulitis could do if left untreated.

And I was pretty sure he didn't want to become a one-legged Man of Steel!

13 comments:

  1. Man of Steel...meet Wonder Woman! If ever anybody was heroic and wearing a cape to save the day, I'd say it was you.

    Standing ovation!

    ReplyDelete
  2. And THAT's why you became a nurse. Will you move out west in case I need someone responsible, smart and caring in my sea of males?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good on you for your kind care! That is a wicked looking swollen foot. Hope he makes a speedy recovery.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good stuff my friend. More people like you and this would be a much better world! :¬)

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hope: I'll leave the cape to someone who isn't a klutz (it would trip me up for sure!) but I think I like the idea of Wonder Woman's bustier! hehe!!

    Andrea: I DID live out there! After 3 1/2 years of freezing because of the dampness, I moved back to the land of dry winters and plenty of sunshine. If you'll pay the airfare, I'll gladly make house calls! ;-)

    LX: A very wicked sore and swollen foot, but he is well on the mend now.

    Map: Just doin' what a good (nursey) friend would do. I'd do the same for any of you! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  6. You'll never lose your ministering angel persona. Isn't he the lucky one?
    So glad you have remained friends - sometimes more precious thtn lovers.
    One of these days I must learn how to put a post on Bloggers FB.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pat: I was this way long before I got into nursing... so it must be in my genes!

    To post on Bloggers FB, go to your blog, click on the title of your post, then highlight it in the address bar at the top. Copy it (right click and "copy"), go to FB, go to Bloggers, and then in the box where you type your comments, right click and "paste".

    Hope that makes sense!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow! Good job, Ponita. We should all have nurses in our corners...

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
  9. If a relationship starts with friendship there's a hope it will continue with friendship. But ew, that foot looks nasty. Good job he called you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. xoxoxox for you, sugar! the MoS is a very lucky guy to count you as a friend! *hugs*

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good on you, Ponita!
    I'm also pleased that you've remained friends - and it sounds like you're a bloody good friend to have.
    Sx

    ReplyDelete
  12. Pah - one can not get drunk and loose a leg around you!

    Whatever celludings may be, good that you know it. I#d thought about some case of Gicht, gout may be the translation.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I am really curious about what was the cause of his foot swelling up and looking like that. For both of my lower legs look similar, and they are usually way too painful to even touch.

    ReplyDelete

So you have something to say about all this, do you?
Well, let's hear it, then!