Back in town

We are back in town now. We left Springfield this morning and got back to Sand Springs this afternoon.

While there my mother got to feeling so bad that we had to take her to the ER at St. John's. We arrived at the ER around 3 pm and left around 11 pm. Most of that time was spent just waiting. There were many sick people in the waiting room. Two were throwing up. One lady asked me to find her a blanket. They keep it cold in there. I guess that helps to hold down the spread of disease. They do provide blankets in the ER. Ever so often, someone would bring in a stack of blankets. I later asked the lady if she had anybody with her. She said no. Imagine being alone in the ER with no one there to help you, and throwing up.

The ER was full. People kept coming in at all hours. You wonder what their story is. There were a multitude of people -- all ages, all races, mostly poor.

Mother suffered a fall toward the end of June. It is a wonder she did not break a bone. (She might have broken a toe and her nose. They did not e-ray her entire body.) She had two black eyes, a gash on her forehead, plus an assortment of other bruises in other places on her body. She was just starting to heal when we arrived. Bruises were turning from black/blue to yellow.

It may have been the gash on her forehead which was responsible for her headache. I don't know. It took a few stitches to sew up. It may have been that the medicine she had been prescribed was too strong for her small size. She had the look of someone who had been beaten up.

We had planned to return to Oklahoma on Wednesday but decided to stay another night following my mother's trip to the ER.

The trip to the St. John ER left me with the feeling that here is a place where "good samaritans" could do some useful work.

Tomorrow I need to bury myself in my page proofs and see how much work I can get done on the index I'm working on. The page proofs arrived on Tuesday, and tomorrow will be my first chance to start working on the index.