The Emergency Room

Last Sunday, after a nice family breakfast out at a restaurant, my husband took off on his bike from the restaurant with the intention of riding home.  About 10 minutes after my daughter and I left the restaurant we got a call that he had crashed and we needed to come pick him up.  We quickly turned around and raced to where he was.  When we got there he was a bit shaken up and he couldn’t lower (that’s right, lower) his right arm because it hurt too much.  We weren’t sure if something was broken or dislocated in his shoulder and I’m not one to take many chances, so I loaded his bike into the car and drove him to the emergency room.

Hard to believe, but I had never been in an emergency room before.  Sure I have seen them on ER and Grey’s Anatomy, but I had never been taken to one or needed to take anyone else there.  Unlike the picture in my head, it was fairly low key: no team of Dr.’s and nurses racing around pumping chests and inserting tubes.  After my husband was checked in at the reception desk, we were calmly led to a bed a few steps behind a glass door and we propped up his arm with a stack of pillows. 10 minutes later they inserted an IV into his hand, gave him some saline and a pain reliever.  15 minutes later an ER Dr. came by to ask him what happened, explaining he wanted to x-ray his shoulder.  Nothing was broken was broken or dislocated. So after 2 1/2 hours they basically sent him home with a sling, a prescription for a pain reliever, directions to ice it and see an orthopedist if it didn’t improve.

Now I give you this background, because while I had never been in an actual emergency room, I have served as an emergency room for many a desperate client, who has been bleeding out, having trouble breathing or whose job search was almost DOA.  Doing first what I have been trained to do and what I know works, I first stop the bleeding, get the patient (client) breathing and stabilized.

In my ER, the worst cases are those who have let their condition deteriorate to the point where stabilization is going to take much longer than it should.  It’s not impossible to recover, but it sure takes a long time and the lingering, maybe permanent, effects won’t easily heal.  How does this manifest itself in my ER?  The job seeker:

• keeps self-diagnosing and self-medicating even though their symptoms aren’t improving.
• has gotten used to the pain to the point where they barely notice it, even though something is desperately wrong.
• is in complete denial about how unhealthy they are.
• doesn’t believe things can improve.
• is insane: taking the same actions or inaction, hoping for a different result.

Any of this sound familiar?  If so, please ask for a ride to my ER (www.Career3D.com).  I’ll even come pick you up.

So back to my husband’s story, you may have wondered how the crash happened.  Well, it was quite simple: he looked back…yes simply looked behind him while riding his bike forward – he thought he had missed a turn.  That simple, quick action of looking behind him caused him to swerve and go off the bike path which took him down to the pavement.  Lesson learned: to avoid a trip to my ER, stop looking back, keep facing forward, don’t lose concentration on what you’re doing, for even a moment.  And if you’re concerned about the direction you’re going or that you may be ignoring more serious health signs, then I’m here to support you.  Just like an ER, my doors are always here to help get you stabilized.

Brenda