A week behind but Labor Day post
I started out Saturday, at 5am, to head back to Scottsdale. Being it was labor day I figured it would be an easy 21 hour drive split into 3 days. The first day I planned on making the heaviest driving day, making the final two easy 4-5 hour days. So, the plan was day one drive 13 hours to a little town called Alamo. Alamo isn't large (around 3000 I think) but it has a small motel right off the road and the time seemed to match my plans. The day started out well, got out at 5am and great weather. I finally hit Alamo sometime around 6:30pm. My first thought was great there's only one car in the parking lot. However, when I went in the lady at the front counter said no vacancy. I didn't even get out "but there's only" when she said again "no vacancy". Since Alamo was a bust my choices were limited, the next town was Las Vegas about 3.5 hours away. I got on the phone with Kathryn and she found me a hotel. Around 10:00pm I pulled into the Vegas hotel. The parking lot looked super sketchy with people wobbling around shirtless, loitering on the curb, etc. I didn't feel real comfortable staying there since i was carrying 6 guns with me so I decided to push on. The next option was the Hoover damn. Around 11:30pm I made it to the hotel. Score, they had a room.
The nice thing about putting in the 17+ hours in was I only had 4 to go in the morning. I ended up pulling in Scottsdale around 10AM and was pretty excited to arrive early. Since I was in early I decided to call Cade (son) and see if we could get together for dinner. As is the usual boy planning he let me know he needed to get a suit for his frat rush event, and needed it by Tuesday. I agreed that I'd pick him up, but wanted it to be by 11 so I could get some pool time in the afternoon.
With that I showed up at his dorms the next morning at 11. Gave him a phone call that was met with "dad I have a minor emergency can I call you right back". I said yes, but I'm not good with waiting, so I called him back after 5 minutes. That's when he explained he'd put a plastic bowl in the microwave, with water in it, and heated it first for 3 minutes (didn't boil) then for 8 minutes. He then pulled the bowl out and spilled the water on both knees and the top of his right foot. I told him to come down and I'd take him to the urgent care clinic.
The urgent care clinic was only about an 8 minute drive, but was the longest of my life (and his too I bet). He's pretty good with pain and once played out a lacrosse game with a fractured leg, but this was something else he was to the point of shaking. We finally got the the urgent care clinic and they got us immediately back to a room but nobody came for 30 minutes. He was in a lot of pain so I went out and the Dr saw him and immediately apologized and said her staff didn't tell her that he had 3rd degree burns. We spent about an hour there with cold rags but the pain didn't go down, so they said you need to go to the ER.
The ER took about another hour to get someone to see him. Just when the Dr. was getting ready to give him pain meds, through the IV, the lady in the bed beside us started having a seizure. I was really proud of him in this moment. Remember he'd been in real pain for hours now. He asked what was happening and I told him I think the lady is having a seizure, they have her on her side and she's convulsing. Only thing he said "make sure they take care of her first".
With all her stable they came back over and gave him the pain medication, fentanyl. It was within seconds and he felt fine. We were there another hour dressing the wounds and they released us, forgetting to take out the IV. We caught it as we were walking out the door so that was a pretty easy fix. I then took him to the CVS, but the prescription was called into a pharmacy that was closed for Labor day. I went back and forth with the urgent care clinic but they wouldn't call in a new prescription. Finally I had to take him back to the ER who told me I'd have to be readmitted and repay if I wanted to see the dr. Luckily, finally, the Dr. walked by and said she'd just right it. An hour later we had the prescription. I got home around 9:30 so much for pool time. I'm very happy I was here and that is a blessing in itself.
Not my best Labor day!
