Oh, That is NOT A Good Sound
It wasn’t my fault.
I fell asleep. Well, that was my fault. But it was late. We got to the hospital about 11:00. My lovely wife was being seen for stomach pains. She’d had them before, but this time they were much worse.mthey sent her to one room after another for blood work, x-Rays, ultra sounds (she wasn’t pregnant, by the way.) and as the hours ticked by, I found a comfy chair. . .relatively. . .in a hallway, crossed my legs and leaned my head back. Like I said, it was late.
Mr Bliss? Mr. Bliss, you need to wake up now.
Huh?
We’ve concluded out tests. We’re getting ready to discharge your wife.
what time is it?
It’s just after 3:00 AM
I staggered up and shook the cobwebs out of my head. There was something wrong with my foot. I couldn’t feel it. It made it hard to walk. It had fallen asleep, of course. I laughed at the silly figure I cut trying to drag my foot down the hospital hallway.
I realized that I could walk, like a scuba diver with floppy fins if I just picked my foot up high enough. . .like thi…CRACK.
That was not a good sound. It sounded like breaking a whole handful of dry spaghetti, with a couple of yellow #2 pencils thrown in for good measure. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt…yet. I turned around and wisely drug my foot backwards down the hall to my lovely wife’s room.
I collapsed on a chair in the corner, and suddenly got very, very cold. Shivering cold. But, if I could just shiver hard enough, I’d be fine. (Did I mention it was 3:00 AM and I had just broken my foot? Not thinking the most clearly.) Finally, I climb into the bed next to hers and pull a blanket over me. It dawned on me that I was in shock.
The nurse finally comes in to discharge my lovely wife. She does a double take when she sees me in the other bed. My lovely wife starts to offer an explanation,
He’s . . .
I’m FINE. Let’s go.
And I meant it. We’d been in the hospital for hours and hours. Broken foot or not, I was ready to go home. I knew if we told them about my foot we’d be there there for even more hours.
For the next six months I wore a stiff brace on my foot. It still twinges every now and then. It took much longer to heal than if I had allowed a doctor to fix it that first night. Why didn’t I?
Stubbornness. . .impatience. . .embarrassment. . .dislike of hospitals.
The point wa that it my decisions kept it from getting better.
Here’s the tie-in to this week’s theme of viruses and computer security. In the past I’ve treated my computer the same way I treated my foot. Maybe you have too. I KNOW it’s not working as well as it should. I might even remember that il-advised email attachment that I opened that broke it. But, I don’t want to take the time to have it fixed properly. I go through and delete the problematic files. I close the extra pop ups. I live with the slowness.
And if you asked me, I KNOW what will make my computer whole. But, rather than get it actually fixed, I just buy an anti-virus program for $29.95 on the Internet and hope it’s good enough. Both of these events happened a long time ago. I’ve gotten better at protecting my computers and I’ve tried to make it a habit to not fall asleep in hospital hallways with my legs crossed. But, like I said, it really wasn’t my fault.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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