I’ve only been subjected to three emergency room visits in my lifetime and the first one happened before I was 2 years old and I don’t remember it.  The second one happened a very long time ago and the details are a bit hazy but the reasons for going there were more about pain that couldn’t wait until the clinic opened the following day and less about me losing the beat in my heart.  The third trip, however, is quite fresh in my mind, as it happened just the other night and as I sat waiting patiently for my name to be called I managed to gather some rather interesting material for my blog.

When I entered the premises I scared the living day lights out of the receptionist that was busy dozing off while trying to make it look like she was reading a book.  She nervously slid a form under the open area between the glass and the counter separating her from me and then asked me to take a seat once the pertinent information had been disclosed.  Apparently things had been a little slow up until I arrived and I was only there because of a reaction I was experiencing from my doctor’s third attempt to medicate my slightly elevated blood pressure.  This particular pill has several typical side effects but the one I landed was at the very bottom of the side effects list in the “rare but severe” section.  My lips turned into something that resembled two of those long balloons clowns use to concoct animals for children at birthday parties.  Eventually my cheeks joined in and over the course of the day my face began to resemble one of those puzzles where the wrong top and wrong bottom were put together.  From the nose up I looked pretty normal but from below the nose down it looked like I was attempting to hide the Goodyear Blimp inside my mouth!

Prior to my arrival there was a considerable amount of deliberation that included nudges from Don via phone as he was hundreds of miles away for work, the doctor’s office nurse that decided not to wait until the following day to return my call, my brother and my sister so I finally caved and took myself in.  It was feared that the swelling that had been wreaking havoc with my face all day might eventually decide to inhabit a space inside my tongue and possibly my throat.  I did a short imaginary video of how things might play out if this happened while I was sleeping and I decided I wasn’t incredibly happy with the end result.  I can’t say I’ll be happy when the bill arrives but the experience was not boring.

Shortly after I arrived a woman came running in the door and pleaded with the slightly frazzled receptionist I had freaked out earlier by saying, “I have to get in there to be with my sister!  She’s alone and she’s not having a seizure!  She took an overdose of Valium!  Oh, please let me go back there with her so I can tell the doctor what’s wrong!”  The receptionist was completely awake at this point and sitting rather straight in her chair and you could almost tell she was wondering if the woman on the other side of the counter was going to try and cram herself through the small slot I had slipped the paper with my pertinent information through earlier.  It would have been one of those thrilling popcorn crunching moments you sometimes find yourself completely engulfed in at the movies but this wasn’t a movie, it was reality and once the woman calmed down they took her back to be with her sister.

The sequel arrived moments later.  She was a very tall, raw boned woman with short white hair.  She was cussing when she walked in the door.  She was cussing when she sat down two rows of chairs away from me and she cussed out that damn husband of hers the whole time she told me how clumsy he can be.  I learned that the klutz was a man she had been married to for 65 years.  I learned that he was on blood thinners and that his sense of balance leaves a lot to be desired and that the old fool should know better than to kick a door stop out of the way.  She said,  “He knows he falls every time he attempts to stand on one foot.  The old fool.  Now he has a big horn sticking out of his forehead and he’s bleeding all over the damn place.  I could just kill him right now.”

After the frantic sister was taken back to be with her sister and the elderly woman was taken back to be with her “old fool” I couldn’t help but think about all the ways love is portrayed.  Sometimes it’s hugs and kisses and tons of romance.  Sometimes it’s flowers when they’re least expected, but sometimes it’s making an attempt to be with someone you dearly love even if it means yelling and screaming at a powerless receptionist and sometimes it disguises itself by appearing to be angry and frustrated with the one person that means the world to you.

Love isn’t always patient and kind.  Sometimes it’s packed with fear of losing someone near and dear to your heart.  Sometimes it says things it doesn’t mean but  the one thing about love I do know for sure is….Love Never Fails.