Ok, I know I'm posting this to a topic dedicated to Days of Our Lives and General Hospital, but I created the topic, so I'm gonna make it about ER, too, if I so choose to do so, which I do. (Man!, I have no idea where this defensive stuff is coming from, but I guess it's better to get it out on here than in a conversation and have it offend someone.) So yeah, ER was awesome tonight! Poor Abby! She is about the unluckiest person alive. I wouldn't have been able to last like she did, (yeah yeah, I know it's just a show . . . ). For those of you who watch this nbc show, you already know it's great and that they keep out-doing themselves with every episode (well, every now and then, there may be one that doesn't come close to some previous shows . . . they can't all be winners ) . . . tonight was no exception. I've been watching this show since the very first episode, thanks to my wonderful mother!  She got me hooked when I was ten . . . yup the show is in its 10th season! Anyways, for those who watch this show and haven't seen this episode ( "Skin" ) yet, then read no further 'cause I don't want to spoil it for you; I'm gonna do a brief summary of the plot and then my comments.

Ok, so we start out with Susan, the new COEM (Chief of Emergency Medicine), barking out orders and complaining about the residents and medical students lackadaisical (big word I know) obedience, for a lack of a better word. (And btw, I'm only concentrating on Abby's storyline because the other stuff wasn't that significant, at least not to me.) Susan confronts Abby about a chart, actually about all of her cases, and Abby gets offended (?) and declares herself "on break" and storms out of the ER to smoke a cigarrette in the ambulance bay. While "on break," this black SUV (? . . .  I don't know cars, so I'm not gonna to pretend that I do) pulls up and this kids jumps out, "We need help! Are you a doctor? My brother's been shot and he's bleeding real bad." And Abby replied that she was indeed a doctor and rushed over to the car, at which point she is shoved inside and the car speeds away. Abby immediately starts protesting and trying to get free until the driver turns around and points a gun at her head. "He's in the back. He's in the back, now MOVE!" So, she is forced to crawl into the back and take care of the guy that had been shot. She tells them it isn't going to work, nothing she can do will help him because he needs surgery. That doesn't matter to these two men and a boy. So, they make a stop at the drug store and get "supplies" for Abby to fix and sew up the wounded man. She does this to the best of her ability all the while trying to explain that the internal bleeding is too bad and that he needs surgery. So yeah, really intense situation, blah blah blah, fastforward a bit. Abby sees a gas station up ahead and says that she needs to use the bathroom. The guy drives past the gas station and instead heads into a wooded area. She thinks they're gonna kill her, but he tells her to get out with the gun pointed at her and he tells her that if she had to go she wasn't gonna go alone, and he tells her to "drop 'em and go." So she fumbles with her string on her scrubs and finally goes all the while with the guy (driver, not the wounded guy) and the boy watching her. When she finished the guy said, "I suppose you're afraid of big black men." "No, I'm afraid of big black guns." she replies back. Fastforward a little more and the wounded guy stops breathing and has no pulse. Abby immediately starts CPR but she eventually has to enlist the help of the driver guy and the boy, which was no easy task. The three of them continue CPR for a long time and the driver guy realizes wounded guy is dead and actually gives Abby a look to make her stop compressions. Then after a little crying session, driver guy forces Abby into the back seat and for her to lay down. As they drive, she promises not to tell anyone and that she just wants to go home. Finally driver stops and tell her to get out, they're across the street from the ambulance bay. Kid says, "Thanks anyway." and they drive off and leave her there. Then she starts to walk-run to the hospital. Show ends.

Now, Abby is one of those people who can handle lots of pressure. If that had been me, I don't know what I would have done. No one ever really knows until it happens to them, but let's pray it never does. But I can tell you one thing about myself, kinda related to this, kinda not, but here goes . . . In a crisis situation I stay pretty calm and level headed, until someone else comes in to help and has to take over. Prime example: My senior year of high school, my sister and I had to stay after school for a SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) meeting and then after that she was gonna hang out while I was in my math team practice. All of that goes according to plan, we go get in the car and head home. Now, I live out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of woods literally, so we live school and get closer and closer to home, less and less houses are found. So, anyway, on the way home my sister and I were talking and stuff and she was eating her lunch that she had skipped earlier in the day and I started harping about how that was such a BAD idea. But anyway, the next thing I know, I feel her leaning on my arm, I driving so not a good thing, and I thought she was trying to reach something in the back seat. "Kayla, what are you doing? Whatever it is can wait. Kayla get off of me." And then I just happened to look down and saw that she was having a seizure. Looking back, I'm amazed that I recognized what was happening. So I slammed on the brakes and stopped in the middle of the road, so if anyone decided to come down this road, they'd see something was wrong. So I sat there and let her finish the seizure just holding her head. She had bit her tongue and blood started to leak out in my hand, and I start getting even more worried. When the seizure stopped, I put the car in drive, still hold her head with one hand, and proceeded up the road. I knew that less than a block away (to put in terms most can understand, roughly less than one tenth of a mile if you wanna get technical) is where my dad's cousin lived. She was a principle at an elementary school on the other side of the county and usually she wouldn't have been home at that time of day. When I pulled into her driveway, I sat my sister up into the seat, laid the seat back, and unbuckled the belt. Then I got out and ran to the door and knocked, no answer, knocked again, and then realized "why am I knocking, this is an emergency" and turned the doorknob and found it was open. I ran in calling "hello! anyone home?!" and my dad's cousin ran out of the bathroom asking what was wrong. I explained that Kayla had just had a seizure, so she grabbed the phone and dialed 911. And then I broke down and cried, a lot. I was totally fine until I had help and then it was like my part was done, so I was free to break down. My mom is not good in those kind of situations, she has told me many times that she was glad it was me in the car and not her. But that's not really the end of this little memory. See, while we were waiting on the ambulance and the 911 operator had hung up, the cousin and I were trying to get in touch with my mom. We tried the home phone, the cell, both grandparents, mom's best friend Tami, everyone whose number was stored in my head, but we couldn't find her. When the ambulance arrived, I was premitted to ride with my sister to the hospital and still had to wait on mom and any family we could find. Come to find out, the phone company had messed up our phone line or something, so the phone at home wasn't working, but that was were mom and my other sister was--enjoying a quiet afternoon with a million phone calls. But something told mom that she needed to walk across the street to another cousin of our's house (they had just finished building the house and had moved in) and check the voicemail. The first message on the phone was, "This is the VA police department. We're trying to get in touch with Mr. or Mrs. R. It's about their daughter." Mom told me later that she just knew that we were dead. So she called the police back and they told her that Kayla had had a seizure and was at the hospital. And she rushed down there and the rest is history. But yeah, my sister is doing fine now, she is on meds and has only had two more seizures since. She has juvenile milechronic epilipsy (do not quote me on the spelling) and it's a type that she should eventually frow out of. The last seizure she had, the doctor called it a break through seizure and thinks that she has begun to grow out of it. Which is great, cause her meds are way expensive. $50/month with insurance . . .  around $300/month without insurance. Thank God we have insurance.

Alright . . . this is an extremely long post, but I hope you made it through, and look at it this way, happy ending, so not too bad of a bedtime story. I'm exhausted . . . I'm going to bed, right after I take my 600mg if ibuprofen (cramps suck . . . if you're a guy, be glad you're not female). G'night and sweet dreams ya'll.