Gary was just crawling into the guest bed where I was for a little cuddle when his Blackberry rang in the other room. It took so long to extract himself, crawl over me, avoid the picture frames and the dog steps that he missed the actual initial call.
“It was Saint Luke’s Hospital.” he said grimly, after the call-back.
“That is Not Good.”
“Just a recording that said it was the hospital, leave a message. I’m calling my parents.” He was standing at the foot of the bed. I got up and stood close.
“Mom? Dad?” (The in-laws screen their calls.) “Is anyone there?” He looked grim. “No one’s – Ah! There you are! Are you okay? We just got a call from Saint Luke’s.”
I hugged him and sat down.
“You’re right. I’ll call Karen.”
I stood up. I didn’t even think about Karen or her husband, who just had surgery last week. More hugging. More dialing.
“Karen? Are you and Gary okay?”
They were fine.
“Wrong number,” Gary finally decided. There should be something that makes it so you CAN’T CALL A WRONG NUMBER FROM A HOSPITAL. Like, you have to enter the number twice or something. We went to the other bed to cuddle. We were there for five minutes, actually cuddling, I’m not being euphemistic or coy. It was Shades of Mom, when you get a phone call that turns life utterly upside down.
Suddenly Gary sat up. “It could have been a Saint Luke’s in Kansas City,” where his other sister and her family lives. Happily, no, it was a 314 number.
I suggested his boss might be calling him to alert him their office, which is in West County, might have exploded and he was in the hospital and would need Gary to man the Disaster Aftermath, which seriously? Gary would be so good at that. He dismissed my fears, but when we’re out today I’m going to make him swing by work. Just to see.
8 responses to “The Phone Call”
It never dawned on him to check on me? Hmph. Of course, our new preferred insurance network no longer covers St. Luke’s urgent care centers, so never mind.Seriously, turn on channel 2. If anything happened to Gary’s work, they’ll have a reporter standing there in the dark to tell you about it.
Caroline – would you call Garys Blackberry? And huh, thanks for the info about St. Lukes.
I was staying with a friend in New Orleans who was married to a police officer at the time. At 2 am, Charity Hospital called. Freaked me out. Charity’s the hospital where cops get taken for gun shot wounds.Wrong number.
Hot Mom – Was Charity the best hospital, or the cheapest or the most discreet, or in the worst neighborhood? And I wonder what the St. Louis shot-cop hospital is.
Gotta be Barnes.
Caroline – they did film an episode of Trauma:Life in the ER there.
Part of my job is to call people who had a procedure and ask if they received excellent care. I am not allowed to leave a message because of HIPAA. Needless to say, after I make my attempts there are several hours of upset people calling back to ask if something is wrong. I hate it.
Wendy – Oh, Wendy, that’s awful! Can you block your number? Of course, then no one would pick up. I never thought of the HiPAA policies. My psychiatrist is at St. Lukes. Maybe he was calling to see if I ever got back to my car when I lost it in the parking garage.