You'll make it, Shir.

the most common phrase uttered by ER patients is, "I knew it was stupid when I was doing it."

Second most common phrase: "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

I bet "I don't know how that got up there" is also a contender.

Humm. I thought more in the direction of: "What's the big deal? It could have not ended this way, too, and then it would have been fun".

eeek Shir! That's a nightmare.

I've only been to the emergency room twice: when I was around 5, I fell onto the corner of a wooden toy chest while jumping rope and cut my forehead bad enough to need stitches, and then when I was in 8th grade, I sprained my ankle in gym class, but thought I might have broken it (I heard a "pop" when it happened), so Mom took me in to have it x-rayed.

Since then, I've only had to go to the doctor's office for any unscheduled medical situations (tetanus shot, sinus infections, etc.).

I've obviously been to the emergency room more times than can practically be counted. The last bleeder was the faint where I pitched forward onto furniture and split my face open. I still feel that one when I wriggle my face. Which I do a lot more now.

The luckiest I was was the time my sister yanked me into the pool by my foot and I came smashing down, chin onto the edge of the pool. Second time I split my chin open--I have a double row of stitches down there.

At 2 I dove off a table, was not caught, and split my chin open.

At 4 I fell out a window and broke my arm.

At 6 I beat a poor-sport eight year old in a sledding race and got whacked in the head and fell on a big boulder and split that chin again.

At 8 it was pneumonia.

At 10 there were a couple of bad sprains.

At 12 I lulled my Mother into a false sense of security.

At 14 I got smacked in the hand by a sledge hammer while building a log cabin with my youth group.

At 16 my Mother, yet again, let her guard down.

At 17 and 11 months my throat closed up in the middle of the night and I was nearly trached... but we held out until morning when they lanced it after getting a couple of hours of anti-biotics in me.

Once I was an Adult I was pretty good except for having to get rabies shots in the ER. That sucked.

Oh - hah. Asthma. I have life-threatening asthma, that's only struck *once* - when I was 6, and I spent 3 days in hospital that I don't remember (and, except for that and about 3 seconds in the middle of the dog bite that I also don't remember, my memory is unbroken back to learning how to walk...which is part of what I remember). I've had several less-dangerous bouts with asthma, but nothing severe.

however, it's left my lungs weak and trembly, and I get pneumonia and bronchitis so often that I stopped even going to the DOCTOR anymore. I get the symptoms, I know what the progression is, I know how to treat the symptoms, I know how to not let it get worse, I know when to rush (the now 3 blocks) to the hospital, I know when to call someone and say, "I shouldn't walk - can you buy me some more orange juice?"

It's a non-issue. I cough, I get very sick, I get over it. Rinse, repeat about 5 times a year.

I hope you won't find me crazier than usual, but Trudy's childhood ER re-cap really made me wanna meet you all guys to listen to your childhood stories.

Even if there's blood in them.

Asthma

I had severe asthma as a kid. They put me on steroids, horrible side effects. My parents then started looking into alternative medicine. 6 months later I was asthma free.

I only have now, sometimes, shortness of breath in the rare cases I run. But that's mostly because I never learned how to breathe right.

I should really practice that. That sounds stupid - one doesn't know how to breath right - but I don't.