Hey, so Tim has a completely collapsed right lung. Urgent care sent us over to University of Cincy hospital ER. It's a level 1 trauma center, so they see a lot of gunshot wounds, etc (this will be relevant in a minute).

I went back in the ER with Tim, but took his phone outside to call his primary care doctor. When I came back in only 5 minutes later and started to go back to the ER, an attendant guy started yelling at me and told me I had no business back there. I told him I was just in there with my husband, and he said I shouldn't have been back there because they were on a lockdown and I needed to calm down and sit down. Because apparently the waiting room isn't on lockdown?

So I kind of lost my shit and he told me to calm down and sit down again, and I just stood there sobbing and he finally said "I'm getting a social worker. DO NOT MOVE."

The social worker, who was much nicer, repeated that they were on lockdown because of an incident with a patient, and she would check on Tim for me. She came back out and said he was sitting up and comfortable and just waiting for some tests, and she would get me as soon as the lockdown was lifted.

So I'm sitting in the waiting room trying to stop freaking out and waiting to be allowed to go back.

The way to uncollapse a lung is to apparently put a chest tube in the chest cavity (not the lung) that removes the air around the collapsed lung, so it can inflate.

He has no idea how this happened. Did I already say this? The Urgent Care doctor said lungs usually collapse from trauma, but it can just happen spontaneously. Now I feel bad about my bubonic plague joke.

Holy crap, Steph!

Now I feel bad about my bubonic plague joke.

Nope nope nope. You assessed that Tim would only take off sick for something major and you were spot-on CORRECT. Gallows humor is acceptable under these circumstances. Not that this helps you with freaking out, but hair pats and no blame here.

Oh, Steph, how scary. I'm glad he's getting help.

Please don't beat yourself up over this, Steph. You're doing everything right. You are a good wife, and a good person.

When he got home from work, he said he was short of breath and coughing and just felt crappy, and I guessed respiratory virus. I expected the Urgent Care doctor to say it was allergies, until she listened to his lungs and said "There's not much movement on the right side; let's get an x-ray." So then I thought pneumonia. Sheesh. Totally collapsed.

Holy crap, Tim! Also, eek, lockdown! Poor Teppy--nobody needs EXTRA stress like that! :( I hope the reinflation goes easily.

Which screws up the scheduling of AP exams, since students in places with August-May schedules get an extra month to prepare for the exams, and students in places with September-June schedules have less time to prepare, but then an extra month or month and a half at the end of the school year when the teachers need to figure out something for them to do that will keep them interested, since the students know that they won't be tested or graded on that material.

Hah--we still had finals, in June. So we had to be ready for the AP and then the teachers would come up with something else to do for a month, that they could test us on.

I think I threatened to punch someone who tried to keep me out of an ER. That was quite a while ago, and the ER wasn't in lockdown at the time, but I know your feelings, Teppy. Thank deity for a straightforward fix, but I know you're going to mounting vigil over Tim's thoracic cavity for a while.

Oh, man! Poor Tim -- good thing you guys went to the hospital, and good thing you were able to go with him, even if you aren't able to be with him right this minute.

The way to uncollapse a lung is to apparently put a chest tube in the chest cavity (not the lung) that removes the air around the collapsed lung, so it can inflate.

I'm kind of excited that I totally knew that because of [recent pop culture spoiler]: Mad Max!

Hah--we still had finals, in June. So we had to be ready for the AP and then the teachers would come up with something else to do for a month, that they could test us on.

Oh yeah, we had that, too.

Teppy, how scary, and I'm sorry you're having to deal with the extra stress of the lock down on top of everything. Don't feel bad about the joke; it just proves you really know Tim well.