Like many other little girls, when I was younger, I had dreams of being a prima ballerina. I loved the stage and I loved to dance. My accomodating mother signed me up for jazz, tap and ballet classes, and I loved them. Despite these moments of grace and elegant movement, I am, at heart, rather klutzy. Growing up, I remember at least one time that I fell over the banister of the front stoop and landed in the thorny bushes. I think I was trying to do gymnastics.
Not much has changed in my older years. I have moments of grace followed by moments of sheer humiliation. So it was on Saturday afternoon.
Many of you read my story about the pole dancing classes in Joliet - how many calories they burn and how quickly you shed the pounds. There was a free intro class on Saturday, so I went. As we were learning to spin, and I had not even really left the ground yet, I lost my footing and my grip on the pole and ... boom, right to the floor. I can't say that it was even graceful, more like The People's Elbow for wrestling fans.
Now in pain, I put a cold compress on my arm and go about my day. Driving home is kind of torture, because I have a manual transmission. By around 9 p.m. that night, I decide I really ought to get an X-ray, because it really hurts.
Now, it's a Saturday night. I am not bleeding, have not been stabbed, am not losing consciousness nor have I been in a fight with a firearm. I know if I go to a Joliet hospital, my minor injury will not be seen until all the other much more serious injuries have been seen. My doctor is out of Rush-Copley Medical Center and while I love the place, it seems kind of far to drive for an X-ray. Knowing that a new hospital has opened in our coverage area, I ask my husband to drive me to Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital. First, we found a parking space right near the entrance, which was good, because it was raining. We walked to the entrance under a covered sidewalk, walked in, registered right away and was brought right back into a room to be seen.
The emergency room was great. Each of the rooms near the front has a theme; Lincoln Park Zoo, a barnyard, an aquarium.
But it is not just for aesthetics.
Sue Smith, director of outpatient nursing services said planners had the interests of children when they planned the emergency room.
"We came from the (Bolingbrook) medical center where we saw 25,000 patients there and one third were kids," she said. "We knew we would see alot of kids."
Having rooms decorated in themes -- the police station room is actually the office for hospital security -- helps kids to relax, at least a little, when they are in an otherwise scary situation.
"We're trying to be overly sensitive to the pediatric patient," Smith said.
Murals, like those in the ER, are on site at a number of Adventist Hospitals. In fact, the muralist who worked at Bolingbrook came from Florida Hospital Celebration Health, in Orlando.
"We're trying to create a better patient experience," Smith said.
As for my elbow, it is not broken. After a follow-up with my own physician, the verdict is I bruised the joint and probably the bone of my elbow. And my doctor warned me that if I continue to reinjure my elbow, I could end up with cacium deposits that would need to be surgically removed. See, this is not the first time I have fallen and landed on that elbow. The last time was more than a decade ago when I was trying to learn to do tricks on roller blades. Tricks on roller skates are fine, but roller blades are just asking for trouble. I have weak ankles. It's an old dance injury. I told you I was klutzy.
Dawn Aulet is a woman, a writer, a wife and a mother. Often, the lens
through which she sees the world is colored by these roles, but not
always. Sometimes, her experiences have less to do with her roles and
more with the frustration of being a consumer, the need to put gas in
her car or the realization that the world does not have any obligation
to deliver what she expects.
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