Electrocuted

I'd only had my vending job a few weeks at the Hospital (I'd trained at a factory, actually the same factory that became my account and where I was working 27 years later when I did have to quit.) when I electrocuted myself on a bare wire in the sandwich machine. Later we discovered our maintenance man had worked on the machine earlier and forgot to replace a cover over a wire connection with it's guard. I was wiping down dust with a damp rag and hit the bare wire. I remember the "snapcrackle" and turning to the nearest cafeteria table in the same room where some hospital workers were sitting with their coffee. They'd heard the noise too and jumped to help me. That's all I remember. I guess if you have to electrocute yourself, a hospital is the best place to do it. It knocked me out cold. But, they caught me before I hit the floor. I know that because they told me later what a scare I gave them.

When I regained consciousness, I gave a nurse a real scare too. But, not half the scare I got myself. Coming to is confusing. You don't remember immediately what happened or where you are or how you got there. In fact the first thing that registered for me was that I couldn't feel my head. I'd never known that feeling in my life. My head always hurt, sometimes worse than others, but the pain is always there. So before I was fully aware of my suroundings, all I knew was that I couldn't feel my head, like it was no longer a part of me. I started screaming, "Where's my head? I can't feel my head." The nurse had been taking my pulse and was holding my hand and the other hand was tangled in blankets, so I couldn't reach to feel my head. This panicked me and I started thrashing around and still yelling, "Where's my head? I can't feel my head." That poor nurse had been worried about my erratic heart and I'm fighting her to feel my head. She was afraid I'd fall off the gurney. The more she held me down, the more I was convinced I'd lost my head. I bet she was convinced I'd lost my head too, or at least fried my brain. Can you imagine the scene?

She'd yelled for help with the crazy lady and then she finally said something that got through to me. I remember her telling me, "You're using your mouth, so your head is right where it should be! Now settle down!" That got through and I stopped to think about it.

By now I was more conscious and since the fear of not feeling my head had eased, I was aware of a burning sting-tingle throughout my body. No headache, but I was quickly realizing the sting-tingle was a lot more unpleasant. Especially in my heart area. I'd never noticed my heart before. And there were some kind of spasms jumping around in my body too. Now I remembered the shock and knew where I was and the poor nurse didn't have to hold me down anymore. But, I did have to explain to her what it had all been about. The aneurysm had been several months before, but I'd not been in this local hospital.

They kept me for a couple hours till my vitals were normal again. My Suprevisor had been called and stayed with me till they released me. The nurse told my Supervisor, and anyone else who would listen, about her crazy shock patient screaming about losing her head. That's how my boss found out about my omission. I hadn't mentioned the aneurysm to them. The question had been, did I have a medical condition that would effect my work. Since I was determined it wouldn't, I didn't say anything. Thank goodness I'd been working long enough they decided to keep me. Part of that might have had something to do with a fear of a law suit because the shock had been their fault after all. Afterwards my Suprevisor wanted to take me home, but I talked her into going back to work with me and we finished my account together. I was always too stubborn to let anything interfer with a job I was being paid to do. If I could help it. Back then we were raised that way.

By the time that awful spasm sting-tingle went away, my usual headache was back. There would never be any shock treatment for me. I'd rather have my familiar headache then the feelings that shock caused. But, I still grin when I remember that poor emergency room Nurse who had no idea why her shock patient was screaming, "Where's my head? I can't feel my head."