It's been a few days since I've been on the internet. On Friday morning, I woke up with a sore thumb at 5:30am. I told my wife I must have hurt it in our mad rush to finish the Strange Bird the night before (Casey and I worked on it until 3am) I got up, put on my duds, and drove to the shop to meet casey and load up the car.
We got the car all loaded and drove back home to pick up my wife.....everything seemed fine but my sore thumb. I drove for about 5 hours until I started to feel REALLY tired. I just figured I was feeling that way because I had just worked 18 hours straight with only 2 hours sleep.
I handed the driving duties over to Casey and took a nap in the back seat. About 10 minutes later, I woke up shaking uncontrollably and barely able to move...I told Casey and my wife Julie that I needed a hospital RIGHT NOW. They took me to an ER in Bakersfield that treated me like a second class citizen.
Now, before I rant about how I was treated, I do thank the final ER doc that treated me, he was awesome...and a bike guy to boot!
I was "checked in" by four different "nurses" who asked the same 6589 questions, and typed it in to a slow computer system "hunt and peck" style. This took about an HOUR! By the time they were done "checking me in" I was in complete muscle failure, and could barely breathe or talk. My wife and I pleaded for a doctor, and I was then placed in a wheelchair and rolled out into the hallway where there were several nurses gossiping and chatting on the phone with their friends laughing and having a good time.
The nurse that pushed me into the hallway then told me to get up and get into the bed....that would be cool if I could actually move!! I asked for help, and she proceeded to cheer me on. Wonderful. I asked the nurses that were standing around for help, and they stood there and stared for a bit. Finally....two male nurses came over, one was talking on his phone laughing while he was "helping" with one hand, and the other actually tried to help.
At this point, I snapped and started saying not so nice things which I later apologized for.
Finally I was on the bed, and another half hour or so passes before I get an antibiotic drip and some pain meds. From what my wife tells me I was out cold for the next 45 minutes to an hour. During that time, I was given a tetanus shot, and a blood sample was taken. My wife, at this time was scared to death that she might be widowed soon. She gave the nurses her two cents worth as well.
The whole time this was happening Casey is out in the truck waiting patiently, and getting texts from my wife on my progress. He's the man.
I woke up soon after, and could not comprehend who I was, where I was, or what the bloody heck was going on. It took my wife talking to me and feeding me countless apple juice pouches to get back to my senses. She is awesome.
Finally, 3.5 hours after my arrival, the doctor gets there and Immediately determines that the wound is necrotic, and removes all the affected tissue. Tests pointed toward a Brown Recluse spider, which the doctor confirmed with me. He worked on cleaning it a while, and somehow we started chatting about motorcycles, this was soothing to me. He was a cool dude. He then told us that if I had waited an hour longer to come get help, that I would probably be a dead man because the poison had entered into my body so badly. That's really nice to hear when you just spent 3.5 hours laying in a hallway!!!
Anyways.....on to the good stuff!
If it wasn't for my wife's amazing cell phone navigation skills and Casey's help driving/lifting/pushing/waiting/etc... I would be in a world of hurt. I thank the Lord for them, and for the doc that fixed me up.
Although I was almost a corpse a bit earlier, I decided to tough it out and push on to Vegas.....Julie was looking forward to it for weeks, and Casey and I had put way too many late nights and hours into getting the car ready not to go. I felt like crap the whole time, but we made it! Heres some pics..
Nic......Thanks for letting me mooch the trailer again!!!!
Loaded up and ready for the trip:
