My history with Rexburg and its Hospital: Madison Memorial

Hello guys and dolls! And welcome to Idaho's very own, REXBURG! Yes, I am back and I am SO excited to be back too. Call me crazy, but I actually miss this place when I go home to GA. So after a 30 hr drive to Provo, and another 4 hr drive to Rexburg three days later, I am home again. :) I can't help but love this place.

At the same time, love does not come without it's thorns. Am I right? As my blog title suggests, I have a history with Madison Memorial hospital. My first visit to this place happened my freshman year. I had been in Idaho for 2 days and Monday morning I woke up to find that my eye was swollen and gooped shut. Hooray for pink eye. The student clinic was closed, and since eyesight is kind of a neccesity, my sister decided to take me to the hospital. Not too exciting, but a good story none the less to tell my mom. "Hey Mom! Guess what? You know how you left me 2 days ago? Well I went to the hospital today!" 48-72 hrs into college and I already had a medical history.

That history has continued. Before I left on my adventurous cross country trip to UT, I was already a little sick. My doctor said to take some allergy meds, use some kind nasal spray and I'd be fine. He also gave me some antibiotics "just in case." My mom made me pack them and said take these "just in case." When I reached Provo and woke up the next morning, sure enough, I needed those "just in case" antibiotics. Joy. I was feeling pretty good when I left Provo at 7 am Saturday morning, and arrived in the Burg at 11 am. I moved in, unpacked (mostly), went grocery shopping, all that jazz, and finally was able to sit down for more than 2 mins at around 8:30 that night. This is where it starts...

I was exhausted. I went to bed at around 9:30 and woke up several times in the night because it was so hot in my apt. I was burning up! And each time I woke up I felt more and more sick. I woke up at 6 am (an hour earlier than I had planned) and felt horrible! I had a headache, I wanted t throw up, I felt dizzy, and again I was burning up. So I decided to take a cold, COLD shower thinking it would help. No such luck. And I was still burning up afterwards. I brushed it off thinking I was just weird and got ready for church. Relief Society was first and I felt pretty ok. Then Sunday School started. I got up to get a drink and splash some water on my face because I was feeling hot again. On my way back I had to use the wall as a guide because I was feeling dizzy again too. What the heck?! I stayed in Sunday School for about another 2 mins then grabbed my stuff and left.

I got home, changed into jeans and a t-shirt and layed on the couch for a little bit thinking "this too shall come to pass." I didn't feel any better. In fact, I felt worse. Then the thought occured to me, "hospital." No, I don't want to go to the hospital. Too expensive. "Hospital." No....Fine. Hospital. "Thank you." I called every person I knew who would be in a 30 minute distance of me. And ofcourse seeing as it was Sunday, everyone was in church. Grrrr. But suddenly, some luck! My dear, wonderful, amazing friend Amanda called me back! I had left her a voicemail completely crying into the phone telling her to call me back asap, and it worked. Yay!
"Amanda?"
"What's wrong?"
"I need to go to the ER because..."
"I'll be there in 2 minutes." Click.

Oh. Ok! Amanda came, we got there, I was in. They asked me the standard questions like name, address, emergency contact, all that good stuff and then told me to wait for the doctor. Everytime the nurse or receptionst lady left the room, I fell asleep. The doctor came in, asked me more questions about symptoms and such, and then said that I had a very bad sinus infection and that I was also experiencing exhaustion and dehydration (to sum it all up in one sentence. He took a lot longer explaining it.). So for 2 hours I sat in the ER while they did blood tests, gave me a whole IV of sodium something or other, half an IV of antibiotics, and then a pain reliever and some nausea medicine. After about an hour they let Amanda come back and sit with me because she had been texting to to make sure I was ok. When she walked in I was half asleep, had two different IVs plugged into me, covered in a blanket and the nurse was taking a blood sample. "Wow girl! You're legit!" Totally made my day! :D

So after I had all the meds they wanted the doctor came in and told me I was good to go home. Before I left though I asked the nurse if I had a fever when she checked me and she said no. Little did I know, they had checked me for Swine Flu and pnemonia (or however you spell it). Along with some other things. So glad I don't have either of those!

So I came home and life was better. Whatever they gave me really worked! But then I felt a little bit sicker when the thought occured to me, "I've got to call mom. Crud."

"Hello?"
"Hey mom. How are you?"
"I'm feeling better. You?"
"Um, well, funny story."
"What?"
"Now before I say anything, I want you to know that I'm fine, everything's fine."
"What happened?"
"I made a little trip to the ER this morning....."
(Invision a rolling of eyes...) *Slight chuckle* "Oh my gosh, Elizabeth. What did you do?"


And that my friends, is the slightly long tale (sorry about that...) of my most current history with Madison Memorial Hospital. :)