Many of you already know that something happened Friday, but here's the (mostly) full story of events.

How the Day Started
I've been dealing with a bit of depression which has brought on some insomnia. I had been up until after 5am Thursday night/Friday morning, and had just crashed in bed. I was asleep when things happened at around 1:45pm.

Mary was coming up the stairs and in a rush of activity had lost her balance and fallen down about 3 or 4 steps. She hit her head on the wall and was slumped in the corner, knocked out cold. Our friends saw Mary and they called out for me.

Mary was unconscious for just under a minute, but was lucid and aware after a couple minutes. I gave her two options: let the EMTs transport her to the hospital, or I could transport her to the hospital. She chose the EMTs.

Hospital #1
We went to a hospital that was in the same network as her primary care team. They took some x-rays and discovered a fracture. Cervical spine compression fracture in C7. They wanted her to get an MRI and referred her to another hospital.

The rest of this story is a bit of a bad dream, but ultimately we're safe.

Hospital #2
I watched the ambulance leave the first hospital with her. I headed back home to grab a mobile battery, some food, cash for fuel (cheaper with cash), and fuel. I then went to the county hospital.

I think, because we are on state healthcare insurance, we were sent to the county hospital for MRI. Yes, the same hospital where the homeless are sent, the same hospital where inmates are sent. While we were there, there were three orange suits accompanied by two armed sheriff's deputies each.

The transport should have taken about 30 minutes. I had been gone for 2 hours. When I arrived at county, they did not have a record of her arrival and did not have her listed as in transit. The person helping me said that it sometimes takes a while and to check back in 20 minutes.

I checked back in 20 minutes, and still nothing. I had someone check in the back to see if there was anyone there that wasn't in the system yet. Nothing. I called the first hospital. Their paperwork says she left there at 6:10pm with county as the destination.

It ended up taking over an hour, but I finally found out that she was sent as a trauma patient. Trauma patients at county are entered with assumed names and fake DOB for security purposes. In case a gunshot wound patient was being hunted or something similar. She was listed as Bushel Trauma with a DOB of 7-22-22.

By this time, I also found out that she was having her MRI done right then, so it was going to be another half hour or more before I could see her.

Waiting
She arrived at county at 6:40pm. I finally saw her at 11:30pm. We had not eaten all day and the doctor said I could not give her food or water until MRI results had come back. 2 hours later, the radiologist texted the doctor with results and, a half hour later, recommendations.

The fracture, according to the radiologist, was not new. (We will be getting a second opinion on this.) We were free to leave, to follow up in a month, and to take over the counter pain meds as needed. Another half hour before paperwork arrived and all the connected devices were removed. It was now nearly 2:30am, and we were finally exiting the hospital.

Home, Alfred!
We grabbed some fancy Jack in the Box, ate in the parking lot, and dragged ourselves back home. By the time I unpacked our junk (charger cables, paperwork, dirty clothes) it was 4am. It was time to sleep.