Bad Luck or Fate?

Chapter 2

When I came to, it was to a sight I had seen before. Annoyingly bright fluorescent light bulbs. They made my eyes hurt. I groaned and tried to cover my eyes with my hand and that’s when I felt a familiar tug on my arm. I turned my head to left and saw that I was in fact in a hospital room with an IV attached to my arm. “What the hell?” I thought to myself.

I looked to the right and saw that my free arm was bandaged from mid forearm to just above my elbow. There was a little blood coming through the bandage. I brought my arm closer to inspect and that’s when the pain hit me.

“Ahhhh” I hissed quietly through my clenched teeth. There were two wristbands on this arm. The traditional plastic hospital band with all my information on it, and a paper Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon wristband directly under the other. Suddenly it all came flooding back to me. I’m in some New York hospital. I had just seen the Tonight Show taping and the last thing I remember is trying to get a high five from Jimmy and slipping. I must have fallen down the stairs. I pretty good tumble from I can gather from my bandages. I must have hit my head, I thought to myself, as I rubbed the back of my head. It was tender to the touch and had a huge bump on the back. “Hmmm, wonder who brought me here? Probably an assistant or something.”

Just then, I heard a knock at the door.

“Well, hello Ms. Jones. Good to see you are awake. That’s good. I’m Dr. Bourne. I am just going to check your vitals and change your dressings. I will make sure that your blood work and scan came back okay and then we can probably release you.”

“What happened?” I said as the doctor took his pen and made me follow the light with my eyes. It hurt but I was able to do it.

“Apparently, you took quite the fall at a studio taping. You’ve got a pretty large laceration on your right arm, but we were able to stitch it up for you and it should be good in no time. You will have to keep it clean at all times and I would leave it wrapped for at least three days to help with any oozing that may occur. Have you ever had stitches before or should I send you home with a care guide?”  He took my blood pressure and then started to remove the gauze from my arm.

“No I’m good. I have had stitches, dissolvable stitches, staples and everything in between. I’m a pro at this by now.” I look at his suture work on my arm, not bad. It probably wouldn’t leave a bad scar. Although, I was used to scars by now.

“Well everything looks good to go here, I will go grab your labwork and if that comes back clear, we should be good to go. Your fluid bag is done, would you like me to unhook you from that?” He pointed at the IV. “We only gave you fluids because you were unconscious when you came in. I suspect the loss of blood is to blame for that but I will know in a few short minutes if that’s the culprit.”

“Yes, please, I’m okay now.”

The doctor buzzed the nurses station and asked for them to get my discharge papers ready and to take out my IV. While waiting for them, I looked up at the clock. “12:25 AM, wow, I must have been out for a while. Might as well see how big of an ass I made myself look on television.” I flipped on the tv that sat directly in front of my bed. I turned it to NBC just in time to see Justin Timberlake start his song. I remember this, he performed it great. During the song, a young nurse, around my age came into my room and put my paperwork on the tray beside me. She began to fiddle with my IV.  I looked up at her and I could tell she was distracted. She was looking past me, to the other side of the room. I had been in and out of hospitals a lot in my 30 years and have seen a lot of young nurses. She was either new to this or had something else on her mind. She stopped looking away when she heard me hiss under my breath. “Sorry hon, Im having a hard time with this today.” I told her it was fine, it wasn’t my first time and that I just get queasy when I have to deal with an IV. She finally got me unhooked.