A view from a bed in the Emergency Room at W.J. Mangold Memorial Hospital in Lockney (Ryan Crowe/FCR)
WASHINGTON/DALLAS/FLOYDADA/LOCKNEY – Regular readers of the Floyd County Record have probably noticed a dip in service over the past week. I have a great explanation and an even greater thank you to the Floyd County medical community.
As mentioned in the article From Pumpkin Capital to nation’s capital I was in Washington, D.C. last week as part of the National Hemophilia Foundation’s advocacy training. I attend trips like these pretty regularly, so I am able to work around meeting times to get stories published and newscasts recorded.
Until I can’t move after suffering an internal bleed.
On Wednesday night I was walking back to my Capitol Hill-area hotel when I slipped on a sidewalk grate. It was raining, and I had on the kind of shoes you’d wear to church on Sunday. I took a hard fall on my left hip and elbow, and struggled to stand up.
Thankfully, I was set to leave the next day, but getting home proved to be quite the journey, including having to be wheeled through Dallas Love Field. When I finally arrived at my house in Floydada around 2:00 a.m. Friday I passed out from exhaustion. When I woke up the next morning I knew I had to get myself to a doctor.
I drove to W.J. Mangold’s Emergency Room, where the nurses and Dr. Augustyniak took fantastic care of me. A CT scan showed, embarrassingly, I had muscle bleed in my gultes. Make your own joke if you understand where that is. I thank everyone at the hospital for dealing with me, and am grateful for the pain medication they called into Payne Pharmacy.
Because the bleed is where it is, I’ve had to use a cane to move around and a pillow to sit, and cannot sit for very long. I also treated myself with a second round of clotting factor on Sunday, and was able to accomplish that with the help of South Plains resident (and nurse) Helen Teeple, whom I am also incredibly grateful for.
All of this is to say we will be back to full production soon, as I have stories piling up that I promise I will get to. My commitment is to telling the news and events of this entire Floyd County community, as long as I can move.
Before I moved to Floydada, a concerned friend who knew about my hemophilia asked if living in a rural community would be detrimental to my health. The events of the past week, and the work of the staff at Mangold and of Mrs. Teeple have proven those fears unwarranted.
