Well, THAT was fun....

So I'm spending a fun post-swim afternoon, finished coloring my hair, got it blown dry, the curling iron is heating up, when my husband's "ranger" scanner goes off.... "Medic 9-1, Deep Creek State Park, Campsite #11, for seizures." We are site #25. #11 is just right across the loop from us.

My husband the paramedic was at the dentist, but Nurse Ellie hops on her bike and rolls on over there. Lady, 49 yrs old, diabetic, sick stomach since yesterday, hasn't eaten since yesterday afternoon, can't hold anything down, lying on the sofa trembling violently and sweating profusely. She's alert and oriented but agitated. Sure looks like low blood sugar to me.... gave her some sugar to dissolve under her tongue. Checked her pulse. Weak and a little fast, like with low blood suger. Her husband got out her blood sugar meter and she was able to check her own sugar. It wasn't low, actually it was high, but she sure looked hypoglycemic to me. We waited for the ambulance. Talked to her calmly. A first-responder came and as soon as he and I saw each other... "Oh, no," I said. "Oh, Gawd," he said. We had worked together long ago before he was a medic or I was a nurse. "It's okay, he's safe, you can trust him," I told the family. We got her blood pressure with his equipment. Sky high. I mean, maybe she's having a stroke, too. Ambulance with medics came. They had a chair stretcher (couldn't get a regular stretcher into the camper.) When she sat up she got a severe headache. Hmmm.... that could be low blood sugar OR a stroke. She started barfing. Ick.

Anyway, they trundled her into the ambulance and carted her to the hospital. I guess I'll check with the family later to find out what the scoop is.

I told them I was a nurse but I didn't tell them I've maintained my license on inactive-only basis for 2 years.

I told Mike, the first-responder, if I'd known he was coming, I'd have finished styling my hair before I came. He said I looked gorgeous. I didn't.

Good thing I didn't still have the dye in it. I'd have had to wrap a towel around my head and go like that, with my hair disintegrating under it for however-longer than you're supposed to leave it that I was there. That would have looked cute. Woman shows up on a bike with a towel on her head, rivulets of dye dripping down her face from under it, says, "I heard an ambulance call for someone here, I'm a nurse, can I help?"

It is so fun around here.....