Hello crew! Cheryl Wyatt here. Hope you had a good week. Right now, I’m plotting the next book in my Eagle Point Emergency series (Love Inspired). For this post, I thought it would be fun to ask for your input on the plot.
I have my characters picked out, as well as the setting. Since the series features a rural trauma center, we need some medical/emergency scenes. As a nurse, I’ve witnessed many trauma-related situations. However, I’d love to have your input for some scenes as well. So, to that end, what are some things that have sent you, or a loved one or friend to the emergency room, trauma or urgent care center?
Or, simply throw some ideas out (in the comment section) as to things that could lead to an ER/ED visit.
This could be something serious, life-threatening, or even something silly (yes, it happens). It could be accident-related, crime-related, illness-related or anything that requires emergent medical care.
Ready, set…go!
Can’t wait to see what you come up with! Toss multiple ideas out if you like. If I use your idea, you’ll be listed in the acknowledgments of the book. :-)
Blessings,
Cheryl Wyatt
USA Today bestselling author and RN Cheryl Wyatt writes romance with virtue themed with rescue. She’s grateful to be a worshipper of Jesus, a mom, wife, orphan/troop advocate, plus wrangler of words and spoiled Yorkies. She loves readers and cherishes interaction at: https://www.facebook.com/CherylWyattAuthor. Join her newsletter via her website: www.cherylwyatt.com.
Ok I have had a few things one was collapsing due to blood loss on the floor at home and taking about 3 hours to get to a phone to get help. I was totally oblivious to the seriousness until way later lost around 3 litres of blood, 4 transfusions and one operation later I am doing great.
The less serious one was we have a cutting in town. the cutting is just that a road cut into a rock face and made into a road and there is a footpath/sidewalk. Its a little rough but I walk it most days not problems but I hadn’t been well. It isn’t very wide and saw some people coming up the cutting as I was going down so I sped up and next moment I felt myself falling and hit my chin, knee on the had surface. I tried to get up quick but was quite dizzy and unstable. 2 people rang the ambulance on me. I really only needed time to rest and sit but there wasn’t anywhere. My knee was quite sore and bruised and the chin was bruised and I did clench the jaw and jar the back. (I saved my bad wrist). I did get a ride in an ambulance and got to lie down at the ER but not for long as it was Football finals time and someone else was coming in and needed my bed!
I did go to the duty dr (which is like going to the ER here in Aust) one time. I had been doing some stuff in the garage and hadn’t opened the door all the way up and walked straight into it and almost knocked myself senseless. got 2 lovely black eyes and whiplash. (I do things well)
How fun:) I have only had to go to ER twice. The first time was because I had lost vision due to a migraine. The second time: my 3 year old son had somehow managed to take the o ring off of the bread machine pan and get it stuck on his little finger. The local doctor could not get it off with ice etc. so it was a trip to the ER and special cutters to cut it off his finger- amusing when I look back, but a bit scary for him and us as we waited.
Fortunately trips to the ER are few and far between for myself, family and friends. I did rupture a disc in my back a couple of days after I turned thirty. When I asked the doctor how this could happen, his response was, “As we age, our disc lose fluid.” Twenty-one years later, I still don’t feel like I’ve “aged.” :) Good luck with your story, Cheryl!
Hey, Cheryl!! Tim’s frequent trips to the ER for pancreatitis attacks. Unexpected, have to be admitted to be treated, and since they keep happening, keeps you wondering what the trigger is! The usual suspects are ruled out. Can’t wait to read this new story!
Hey, Cheryl! Tim’s frequent trips to the ER for pancreatitis attacks. Unexpected, have to be admitted to be treated, usual suspects are not the triggers. What is causing these attacks? Can’t wait to read your new story!
Last summer, my mom got bitten by a barn cat my family fed outside around 11 o’clock at night. My dad helped her clean it really good, but come to find out cats have some of the most infectious bites.
By the next morning her hand was really swollen. She went to the doctor’s office, and they gave her oral antibiotics and an antibiotic shot after cleaning the ire again. But, they didn’t work.
By nighttime, my mom’s hand was triple the size it normally is, so we took her to the emergency room. She almost had to stay the night…..but her white blood cell count was okay for her to go home for a few hours rest. For the next seven days or so, she had to go to the ER to be given IV antibiotics three times a day. (Our country hospital is small, so outpatient IV’s are given in the ER.)
I took my daughter to the Urgent care when she dropped a 40 pound vise grip on the top of her flip-flop clad foot. It swelled and looked horrible. We thought she broke it, but she just bruised it and was running on it two days later. My friend took her daughter in to the ER when she kicked the back of my daughters heel and broke her pinky toe. Good luck on finished your book!
Well, let’s see…let’s go with the last two. The first was a head-over-heels fall from a horse (rider error!) that left my neck stiff and extremely painful. The second, more recent episode was that I coughed so much because of bronchitis that I herniated a disc in my lower back. Getting old, did you say?
Our local community college is located on a old fruit farm with natural springs. Geese and ducks love hanging out at the moat that surrounds our college. One fall stormy rainy evening as I was hurrying to take care of some administrative duties, I slipped on juicy foul droppings and fell on my face and classes. Some nursing students helped me inside and assessed the damages. I had a nasty gash under my left eyebrow, which needed stitches and a trip to the emergency room. The following week on a muggy night with our classroom windows opened, as I began teaching my German class with a black and blue eye the geese answered my questions in German. The class chuckled when I told them I had seen the geese feasting on my brains and blood which I had left on the pavement.
In 1995 when my youngest son learned to ride his two wheeler, but forgot how to brake by peddling backwards, my foot got caught in the toe clap and I braced myself and fractured my elbow. At first it did not seem to bad, but by 4 am in the morning my hand was so swollen, the doctors had to cut off my engagement ring and wedding band. No cast for a fractured elbow, just a sling.
Presently I am mending a broken wrist. In April I stepped backwards and tripped on a hole and the whole weight of my body fell on my left wrist, requiring a trip to the emergency room. This time I immediately removed my wedding band and iced the wrist, took ibuprofen, before going to the emergency room. A cast for 5 weeks and 5 weeks with a brace and physical therapy. On Thursday I asked my physical therapist what injuries do they see most. In Michigan in the winter, slips and falls – due to black ice or icy / snowy conditions. In the spring, people overdue gardening, spring cleaning, etc. (here they often see repeat offenders). In the summer, sports injuries.
Also there were a few times when we took our sons to the emergency room. My husband has a pre-med bachelor degree. Trips to the emergency room were called spending “quality time with dad.”
Hope this helps your book. Happy Weekend.
My son was rushed to the ER from a surgical center when he experienced pulmonary edema. He ended up in PICU for three days. He had a torn ACL–we never expected there to be a problem with the breathing tube! He has very strong lungs.
My serious trip to the ER was for acute myocarditis, I had been diagnosed a couple days before with gastroenteritis. The infection ended up getting to my heart muscle so I woke up short if breath with chest pains. Now at the time I was 28 so kept telling myself it couldn’t be a heart attack but after trying to relax and taking aspirin and waiting an hour and it not even lessening I woke my roommate and had her take me to the ER. They were even worried it was a heart attack and gave me nitro and an EKG (I had a really cute EMS guy try to get the leads in but I had to ask for a female because last thing I wanted was a hit guy touching me when I thought I was dying) and packed me into an ambulance to take me to the next city over that was more equipped to handle heart problems. The EMT gave me another apart of birth in the way there. I ended up in that hospital for three days on IV antibiotics and had to go back a month later to see the cardiologist. Now four years later my doctor thinks it caused some long term damage as my heart is larger than it used to be.
I’ve been for a knee dislocation, a car accident while in a high risk pregnancy, and a broken wrist.
Our son went at 3 years old for stubbing his toe, it swelled pretty bad and looked broken, but wasn’t.
Our then baby girl went at a few months old for having a string inside her pajamas wrap around her toe and cut it (we were beside ourselves, she was fine, doc says it happens more than you think.) She also was prescribed the wrong meds and dose at 3 mos for croup, so we ended at a country hospital ER that admitted they didn’t know what to do and were waiting until the children’s hospital could get there 2 hours away. They couldn’t flight her because it took two teams to stabilize her. She went again around a year for flailing around while I was cutting her nails and I clipped too close and it bled for an hour. We walked in looking like a massacre, and by then her breathing issues were so frequent that our doctor gave us his cell and told me to call whenever we were on our way to the ER. We were back her first year for RSV and pneumonia.
Cheryl, this is a fun post. You should get a lot of good ideas. Just two weeks ago I was playing an away tennis match with my team. I hit a volley and as I stepped to balance myself, I felt something snap right where the thigh and hip meet. When I went to take another step I couldn’t put weight on the leg. I hobbled over to the bench and sat for a minute. It didn’t get better, so after getting help to my car, I drove to the emergency room where a valet met me, got me a wheelchair, then parked my car. So nice. I had an xray that showed nothing. I was sent home with instructions to ice the injured area a stay off the leg. Now I’m doing physical therapy. I can walk but the leg still feels weak.
Fortunately I haven’t had many trips to the ER, but I had pneumonia when I was a kid and I recall being so tired when we got to the ER that I asked mom to take me home because I was feeling more tired than sick. Of course she didn’t, and then I apparently decided to sleep beyond the effects of anesthesia the next morning and she was going crazy since it took me “forever” to wake up. It turned out no one really knew what I had for a few days and they had to call a few child specialists to take a look at my case. In the end the physician who turned out to be my boss’ husband (several years later, of course) ended up diagnosing the pneumonia.. (small world).
Fun portion: they told me (I don’t recall much, since I was really young) that I wasn’t eating and the doctors were all worried about my appetite. Mom knew better (of course) and sent dad out to buy me a burger. Guess who had her appetite back and asked for more “good” food?
We have 2 hospitals where I live as well as several walk-in care facilities. So while I was coming home from a church sponsored woman’s retreat, my husband was taking our son to the ED after having gone to walk-in care earlier. Once they determined what the issue was, he was transported to the other hospital’s ED because the 1st one doesn’t do surgery on children. His appendix was removed bright and early Sunday morning (around 2:30AM). The Dr. said it was a good thing it came out – our son almost had to be opened up because there was so much gunk (my wording, not his). I am thankful there won’t be a repeat performance.
Sinus infections, migraines, stomach virus, complications from having my tonsils taken out at age 39(which, by the way, I don’t recommend), strained back muscles, pencil top eraser in ear, broken ankle….. Those are just a few things that have sent me and/or my family to the e.r. :-)
Well, this sounds fun! ;)
I’ve never been to the ER or urgent care myself, but…
– My uncle went to the ER because he cut the tip of his finger off with a lawn mower blade– long story, but he was working on the mower & not being very safety conscious. :/
– We had to take my very young cousin to the ER a couple times because he was having seizures for some unknown reason. Never did figure out what was wrong…
– My mom took one of my brothers to urgent care when he got bit on his back by a spider and had a very bad allergic reaction to it.
– My oldest brother went to urgent care when he fractured a couple of ribs at a martial arts class fight night.
– My dad went to the ER when he broke his leg while working on the roof at our church.
Best of luck with your book! :)
My dad was helping at a church work day once and was attempting to use a chainsaw. It slipped and cut him right above the knee. Thankfully, it didn’t go too deep. Once my husband was helping chop celery for our dressing for Thanksgiving and sliced the tip of his thumb off. It would not stop bleeding so we had to take him to the ER to get the bleeding stopped. He had this big, very noticeable bandage on his thumb the next day at Thanksgiving and had to tell people that his injury came from cutting celery (not a very exciting or manly reason to have to go to the ER so he wasn’t exactly thrilled about that).
Two more I just thought of! We didn’t actually end up having to go to the ER for either of the following situations, but I thought we might before it was all said and done. One of my daughters decided to stick her allergy tablet up her nose when she was about 3 or 4. It took us a while, but we finally managed to get it out without having to go to the ER. While we were trying to get it out, she was blowing purple snot (the tablet was purple). Another time, my son stuck a rock up his nose during his children’s class at church. Thankfully, just when the teacher was about to come get me, my son said, “Hold on. I’ve got it.” Then proceeded to close the empty nostril and blow the rock out of the one it was in. Neither of these ended in a trip to the ER, but I can totally see that actually happening and having to go because it wouldn’t come out.
Jenny, I think we were twins separated at birth. I’ve had odd knock-myself-out accidents more than I care to admit. Lolol! Thanks for sharing those scenarios. I like them because they’re not typical.
Oh my goodness! This brings back memories from when I worked in Pediatrics. The objects kids will stick in their noses, ears and poke their fingers into can be quite interesting at times. Haha!
Thanks for the kind words, Jill. Back injuries are no fun. I hope yours is all better now. Hugs and thanks for stopping by!
Yes, cat bites and even scratches can cause terrible infections. Glad your mom’s responded to antibiotics. I love small town hospitals and all they provide to communities. Especially if the community does t have a home health system in place. Someone dropping in for IV antibiotics is a great idea and would fit well for Eagle Point. Thanks for sharing!
Ouch! But how funny that the heel caused the worst injury of the two. Lol!
Oh goodness Deb! None of those scenarios sound fun to endure but would make great scenes. :-) Hope your back is better now.
Rebate, those are great scenarios. I LOL about the goose one. There is a rebel goose that likes to chase park runners and walkers in this series, so that would be a wonderful and funny ED/ER visit especially since many of the trauma center employees run at the park on break. :-)
I love the quality time with Dad aspect too, as my hero has a teenaged son into sports. :-)
Glad you shared! Thank you!
Goodness Kim, that kind of thing does frighten families. Surgical complications are no fun.
Thanks for sharing!
Cassandra, I will pray for your heart muscle to be healthy and restored. I believe God can heal things like that . Great scenario. Thanks!
Sounds like your family is well acquainted with ER visits. :-) Yes, the strings wrapped around tiny toes is very common. Hair sometimes too, if mom or dad or siblings have longhair that somehow makes it into the crib. :-)
Ouch Merrillee! Thank you! Yes, I’ve gotten some fabulous ideas. Sounds like you may have torn your labrum. It’s an elastic band that runs around your hip, basically the equivalent of a shoulder rotator cuff and like the shoulder, they can tear. Lots of dancers have the injury. It can only be seen on MRI I think, and is extremely painful. I had one for over a year that went undiagnosed. Ask your doctor to order an MRI if PT makes it worse.
Lol on the cheeseburger. You showed them, huh? ? Pneumonia is not an easy thing to endure. Glad you pulled out of it okay. Hugs and thanks for coming by!
Hi Julianne! Yes, appies are common and thankfully easy to diagnose and treat if caught in time. My brother’s ruptured in a kids’ movie matinee theater and, my sister and I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation and we were just mad that we had to leave before the and of Bambi. Lol. He got well soon though and we of course felt bad for whining about having to leave. :-)
You had me at eraser in the ear. LOL.
Aerykah, I’m having fun too. I LOVE getting reader and writer input on scenes. I love your name! Is that your real name? It’s cool regardless. :-) Thank you for stopping by!
Julie, the celery scenario made me giggle. Not that he got hurt, just that it ate away at his ego. Haha. Thanks for stopping by!
I am cackling so hard about the purple snot! Hahaha! Only a nurse would find this funny. Or a mom, or a….hahaha! My sister stuck a redhot up her nose and had to have it surgically removed. Lol.
Thank you! No, it’s not my real name ( https://aerykah.wordpress.com/about-my-name/ ). When I started doing a lot of stuff online as a young teen, my parents didn’t want me using my real name so I chose this one. Now, so many people know my by this name that it would just be confusing to try to start using my real one. ;) But I did know a family who adopted a boy named Aeryk– that’s where I got the idea.
Kidney stones mostly! My husband, my daughter and myself. And if you’ve ever had one, you know an ER is definitely needed!!
Haven’t had one but have taken care of people who have. I’ve seen grown men crawling around on the floor wailing in agony with this condition, pour souls.
What if you had someone go into anaphylaxis for something really odd? Perhaps their cousin is unknowingly 2 rooms down for something unrelated like a head laceration from a minor fall? It happens! I even had a dr induce anaphylaxis once because of her lavender soap.
My personal fav was arriving because I had a seizure. I had recently been reading a book set in Ancient Rome. So I had seen the word “litter” a lot. I seized in the car (not driving) and right before I went unconscious I heard them call for a “litter.” When I finally came to I was very disappointed it was not some fancy golden litter with 4 hot Roman dudes carrying me. It was a gurney with 4 nurses. Two were men, old enough to be my dad.
Other weird one. Concussion when I was 15…was laughing before the start of a church service after scaring a friend with a fake mouse & hit my head against the wall. Landed in a neck brace for a week.
You need any more let me know. I’ve got dozens ?
My daughter was 16 when she had her first one. The ER was short staffed and a bad auto accident had happened. She was literally on the floor beating it with her fists. I couldn’t stand to watch her and had to leave the room. She had to have at least three of hers surgically removed.
Sorry, Renate, autocorr ft changed your name in transit. Apologies!
Ha! The litter is hilarious, Em!
I knew you’d like that one! I was so dissapointed!