Since it was the beginning of the holiday weekend, I decided to go out and treat myself to a $15 massage. In little Saigon, there is a place I like to go to that gives you an hour massage for fifteen dollars in a room full of other people doing the same. You pretty much sit in a lazy boy chair with your clothes on and they give you a rub down for an hour. I had no idea what was in store for me on this particular day.
It started during the first five minutes of the massage. I was sitting on a stool and he was rubbing my neck and shoulders. I tend to like it more on the firm side, so I told him that the pressure was ok. Well, he dug into my neck. Hard. I didn't want to say "ouch" or "back off." I thought the pain would be a good thing in the end. I started to feel dizzy, nauseous and that is all I remember.
Next thing I see is several feet on the ground surrounding me. The lights were on, everyone in the room was gone and about 20 employees and a few customers were staring at me. All I remember saying is, "What's going on? What are you looking at? Where is everyone?" Less than a minute later a team of EMT's were around me asking all sorts of questions like, "What day is it? Where are you? How old are you? (I had to think about that one), etc." At this point, I am shocked and pretty embarrassed and started fighting back the tears.
After much debate with the EMT's on what I should do, I agreed to go in the ambulance to a hospital for some tests. One of the EMT's went to my car to get my phone so I thought it would be best to document my experience with some camera phone pictures as it was happening. Nevermind thinking if I was ok, I just thought that it could make a good blog. Sick, I know. It was all so surreal. It was as if I was in a dream.
I arrived at the hospital and answered more questions and told my story over and over. Oh what fun they had laughing at my expense. I suppose the story sounds pretty odd looking back. The nurse asked if I had something to eat. I thought about it and said, yes I had an ice cream a few hours ago. She said, "ohhh...an ice cream and a massage...it must be nice!" I said, "Oh yes, you too can have that luxury and end up here." She did make me laugh.
I couldn't stop thinking about how much it is going to cost me. I asked for the EMT's to give me a menu of prices for what they wanted to do (a tad sarcastic with a hint of hope) . Wouldn't that be nice? It's like a restaurant for treatment options with prices attached. The doctor ordered blood work and an EKG and my first reaction was, "how much will that cost?" Of course he didn't know. I asked for a water and when it came, I asked the worker if that was around five dollars. They didn't get it. They just dropped off about 50 papers to sign.
I would have denied treatment but I knew that my mother would be happier if I went and had the tests done. I did and everything came back normal. I have a slight problem asking for help, since I feel I can do everything on my own, so I left the hospital and walked about 4 miles back to my car and went home.
What an interesting day.
It's a good thing I am so thrifty and found a place that charges only fifteen dollars for a massage. It turns out that this is going to be the most expensive one yet.
Here's a slideshow of some pictures I took with my camera phone on my trip to the hospital:
