02-18-2019 Emergency Room on the way to Oleno State Park

Current Location: Oleno State Park, High Springs, Florida

Cloudy, dark and 71 Degrees F at 5AM

I have no photos to go with the words that follow.  As you read, you will understand why. Instead, I’ll just add a few random photos to let you know that all is almost well now, 6 days later.

When we went to bed on Sunday night, we were both happy that Mo’s knee injury had been just a momentary blip, and everything seemed to be fine.  It didn’t stay fine.  Sometime in the middle of the night, Mo turned in her sleep and somehow her knee was once again in horrible pain.  She couldn’t stand or walk and nothing seemed to help.  We waited, hoping that maybe it would go away as it had the previous day on the river, but no such luck.  Her knee began to swell, and was hot to the touch.

By morning, we knew we needed to get her to a doctor, but weren’t sure exactly how to go about doing that.  We were in a part of Florida with small towns, and they no doubt had Urgent Care facilities, but we were also just 18 miles from Ocala, where there was a trauma emergency care facility at the Ocala Regional Medical Center.

It was our day to move to Oleno State Park, and the night before we had laughed at our “big” move of just 70 miles northeast.  On this morning we were quite happy that the move was a short one because it gave us enough time to make a side trip to the emergency room in Ocala.

Now, when I tell this silly story, please don’t roll your eyes.  Yes, I realized later that I should have parked the rig in the lot and unhooked the car to take Mo to the hospital, but with the stress of doing everything and trying to get us there, I didn’t even think of that option. In fairness, unhooking the car with one person can be done, but I am not as good at that as Mo is, and Mo was basically incapacitated.

Instead, we navigated our way to Ocala and the emergency room.  This isn’t a small feat, since Ocala Regional is right near the center of town, and has small streets all around it.  I managed OK with my remembered visits to the hospital when my friend Bel was here in 2013, but what I hadn’t counted on was all the construction going on.  It was a huge mess, and I am driving the MoHo and the car, and as I try to get to the emergency door, I am waved off by men with flags telling me to back up.  I CAN”T BACK UP, PEOPLE, I AM PULLING A CAR!

The security cops wave me on, and then another guy tells me to go park in the parking garage.  WHAT?  I am 11 feet tall and I am pulling a car?!  I can’t do that.  Another guy comes up, a very nice guy, and tells me to just go around, make a u turn, and he will have a wheel chair waiting for Mo when I come back through.  By the time I get down to where I am supposed to make a u turn, another bunch of guys tells me I absolutely cannot return back up the one way street that the other guy told me to follow.  Another guy tells me to go in the parking garage.  Ok then.

I managed to find my way out of the orange netting maze to the street, and made my way back to the emergency entrance.  Here we go again!!!  But this time, the nice security guy and another security woman were ready for us, and they let me park long enough to get Mo into the wheelchair and whisk her away.

Then it was just a matter of parking.  I knew that about half a mile away was the Popeye Chicken with a nice big parking lot, so headed out of the maze and in that direction.  As I turned onto some of the more narrow streets near the hospital, I passed a large Catholic Church and a Knights of Columbus facility with a huge parking lot.  Seeing many open, unused double parking spaces, I quickly turned in and parked the rig!  Whew!

Turns out there was a pathway across the storm water drainage area and some stairs that led back to the hospital, and after getting Mattie settled in with all the fans running for the hot day, I headed back over to Emergency.

We were only there about 3 hours, and both of us were impressed with the intake procedure, the care Mo received, and the amount of time it took for us to get through the whole process.  Mo’s knee was X-rayed, and after some time we received the go ahead that there was no bone injury or break.  That didn’t help much, though, because the doctor said she would need an MRI to determine if there was any damage to cartilage, meniscus, or other knee parts. 

The problem with this, however, is that you need a primary care doctor to order the MRI!  What??  He suggested that we return home to get that taken care of.  Ok then, it is only about 3200 miles back to home, and we weren’t ready to give up on our winter plans just yet.

He said, in lieu of an MRI, we could just do a “wait and see” kind of thing, and he provided Mo with an immobilization device to keep her leg straight out and stiff.  Imagine for a moment if you can, trying to sit in an RV bathroom with a long straight immovable leg.  It would have been funny if Mo hadn’t been hurting so badly.

No pain meds were offered, and none were requested, but I did think it interesting that they didn’t even ask.  Lots of Advil, and after 24 hours, no more cold but heat was the recommendation.  Ok then.  Everyone at the hospital was really nice, and wonderfully helpful.

As I was walking mid visit back to the rig to check on the dog and be sure the fans were keeping her cool, the security captain asked where I was going.  I told him our story and he said, “Have them call the captain when your friend is ready to go.  I will take care of it.”  He did just that, and when Mo was released, we wheeled her out the door to the waiting shuttle cart driven by the captain, who then drove us all the way to the waiting MoHo.  Pretty darn good service, I would say.

Mo was still hurting and terribly uncomfortable, but for now we had done all that could be done and would just have to wait it out to see if her knee healed up on its own and if it would get better or worse.

The drive from Ocala was just a little bit over an hour to Oleno, and we settled into our site by late afternoon.  It had been a difficult day for both of us, mostly for Mo, but I was a bit of a mess myself to say the least. We had no idea what the following days would bring.  But one thing was pretty well settled when Mo said emphatically, “We aren’t going home!”

As the days have passed, Mo’s knee is still swollen and not working well, and the pain is moving around to muscles and tendons rather than the knee.  We have no idea what that means, and with getting an MRI requiring such complexity, aren’t exactly sure what to do next.  Mo is still taking Advil, and hobbling about as best she can, but of course there are no long walks, or even very many short walks on our agenda. 

The good news is that she managed to get into her kayak yesterday, (Saturday the 23rd), and was able to sit long enough to paddle both up and down the Ichetucknee River.  Sitting sometimes is the hardest, with strange muscle cramps that ensue if she sits too long.  Our week at Oleno State Park ends today and we will continue east toward Jacksonville and the Mayport Naval Station tomorrow morning.

Now that the knee explanation is taken care of, I can take a bit of time to write about some of the lovely parts of where we have been this week, including a beautiful wetland preserve in Gainesville, the trails and history here at Oleno, and of course, our kayak on the Ichetucknee River.