The ER. Xray and introducing Builder Bob

In walks the ER doctor, “hey, what did you do, where are you from?” I crashed my bike, I probably broke my hip, I whacked my head but never lost consciousness ma’am. She, of course looked at my helmet - a few scratches, small dent but otherwise intact. Yay Giro for making good stuff and yay for a hard head. No headache so that was good. She checked other parts, nope nothing else just hip pain, some road rash on the same, both knees scraped a bit and a scrape on left elbow.

During our meeting the doctor shared with me that she was a graduate of VCOM (the DO school in Blacksburg) and that she had done a brief rotation at CRMH where I worked for many years. Her name was familiar but we saw so many residents and students it would be impossible to remember them all unless they stood out for good reasons or bad. My old ER friends may remember her - Jessica Flinchum. She was super nice and friendly.

Soon I was whisked away to X-ray by my ER nurse. I expressed to the nurse that I was not looking forward to being moved again. (I think they had given me more morphine). She was like “yea they try to be heroes.” I asked if they had a slider board, “yes tell them to use it and get help.”

So she left me briefly in the hall in X-ray then along came Bitchy Betty, RT(R). Let me pause for a moment to say yes I am very critical of the tech because I know what she was trying to do and yes I’ve lived her life. Working weekends and dealing with hip fracture patients. For that alone, I was trying my best to be a good patient and be friendly despite my trauma. I greeted Her Bitchiness and expressed that I was in a lot of pain and asked that they please use a slider. To which I got something along the lines of “oh we got this.” No lady you really don’t. Two more frowny faces appeared and assisted in sliding me to the table. OMFG, I found myself hoping that for all the patients I ever moved with similar injuries that I treated them with kindness and carefully moved them. This sucked, but I wasn’t complaining out loud. I’m sure my expressive face was talking for me. I tried my best just to be cooperative. Next thing I know they yank me back to the stretcher and over the to upright Bucky for the OR LAT view. WTF are we doing? Honestly in my 20+ year X-ray career I never did an OR LAT at an upright Bucky. Just doesn’t give a good product (part to receptor distance, angles, grid ratios). As I’ve seen since. It didn’t work and looks like a trans-pelvis image (they burned my ovaries up for that worthless shot, sigh). One shitty looking image especially with someone my size who could stick their right leg straight up and out of the way. I just shake my head now thinking her shitty attitude reflected perfectly in her work. She was definitely a lowlight if my experience at BMH.

Back to the safe confines of my ER room where I was now battling fatigue, sleepiness and nausea - thank you morphine. I’d dose off and the bradycardia alarm would go off. The nurse would come in and see what was wrong. Nothing people I ride a bike for miles and hours at a time. My resting HR is low.

Dr. Flinchum popped into say, “yea you busted it up pretty bad. Let me have your phone I’ll got get a picture of it for you.” When she came back I had confirmation of what I knew laying in that lush, green field chatting with Julie (hey by the way Julie, next time we chat let’s try over burgers and fries or cruising a safe bike path?) So Dr. F says “I’ve put in a call to the ortho surgeon on call today. He’s already been here 2x for other hip fractures so he will be in in a bit. Meanwhile can I do anything for you?” (These are my best recollections - she really was this nice though!)

Photo Credit: my phone and the ER MD

 At some time later Builder Bob arrived. “Can we fix it? Yes we can!” Builder Bob is a nice guy, honestly seemed to be very compassionate and not an arrogant turd like many orthosurgeons I’ve encountered over the years. He said he was a cyclist and was familiar with the TdB. He also knew where I was from as he did a year of residency training at CRMH. These things all were comforting. Builder Bob said he had two other hips to fix this day, but would get mine done too. I reckon I signed a surgical consent somewhere in the time in the ER and pre-op I can’t remember which honestly. I remember being comforted knowing this guy understood wanting to get fixed and starting the recovery. He knew what it was like to want to ride a bike. I trusted him; I trusted the system and their processes.

Soon I would be whisked off to pre-op.