A medical emergency while traveling
Yes, on my October 2024 trip to Utah and the Navajo Nation I encountered a medical emergency so serious that I might have died if I hadn’t made it to a hospital emergency room in time. But what I want to emphasize here is the very serious registry implications arising from this medical emergency that you should be aware of if anything similar ever happens to you while traveling.
If you are a man – and let’s face it, most registrants are – as you age you will likely begin to have prostate problems – enlargement, difficulty peeing etc. Like me, you may take a medication like Flomax to reduce the swelling. But also like me, you may not realize your prostate can suddenly swell up and cause what doctors call “retention,” i.e. you cannot go even as your bladder gets ready to explode.
Upon returning to my “bunkhouse” after my second day at Zion National Park (see my blog post “Utah’s National Parks & Monuments”) late that night I suddenly began to experience “retention” but I didn’t know what was going on. At first it was very very difficult and painful to pee but not impossible.
I was unable to sleep much of that night but told myself surely this is temporary and would go away in time. The next morning was my Day 7 in Utah of the 9 days allowed per 12 month period (not the 10 days specified by statute because as I always say, you have to assume that the 10th day would trigger an obligation to register and that all partial days will be counted). If you look at my Utah blog post you’ll see that I was planning to leave Utah to enter the Navajo Nation but re-enter to visit Bears Ears National Monument for two partial Days 8 & 9, so I was using up every Utah day I was allowed in 2024.
It so happened that my plans for that day were simple – drive from La Verkin, UT to Page, AZ about 175 miles away, which was to be my gateway to the Navajo Nation. I took the more southerly route (U.S. 89A) so I could at least pass by Vermillion Cliffs Nat. Mon. which, yes, is spectacular. In doing so I entered Arizona at about 11:00 on a Monday morning.
Arizona’ SOR law includes a visitors grace period of 72 hours not including weekends and holidays. Since I was planning to re-enter Utah to camp in Bears Ears the following afternoon, that would be about 32 hours in Arizona on that first leg of my journey. The next morning (Wednesday) I would return to the Navajo Nation, where I would be in Arizona until the following afternoon before exiting at Window Rock, so that’s another 32 hours or so. As you can see, this neatly split AZ into two equal pieces so I’d never get anywhere close to the 72 hour limit, while making use of the last two partial days available to me in Utah.
By the time I arrived in Page AZ my “retention” was worse than ever. I knew Page was a big enough town to have a hospital, but instead of plugging it into my GPS and heading for the emergency room I did the stupidest thing imaginable. I continued to wish it would go away and actually showed up at the Antelope Canyon tour place and signed up for a canyon tour the following morning. Then I headed off for a nearby campground.
It’s a darned good thing I stayed nearby because by midnight I was heading for the Page Hospital Emergency Room driving in great pain. And then I ran into another medical emergency when the hospital staff – in my opinion – botched the catheter insertion that drained my bladder. So by about 2:00 am I left the hospital with a painful catheter in me to try and sleep in my minivan (which as always had a comfortable bed in the back) in their parking lot. I even went back in when I woke the next morning (Tuesday) to discuss everything before deciding how to proceed.
What were the registry implications of what had happened so far? For one thing, if either (a) I had been much stupider than I actually was that night, or (b) if the hospital staff had botched my catheter much worse than they did, I could have ended up hospitalized in a state that only allows me 72 hours of which I had already consumed about 13 when I arrived at the hospital. The clock was ticking.
As an out-of-stater I don’t know Arizona’s procedure, but I can only assume that initial registration must be in person and must happen before the end of the 72 hour grace period. And where would I have to go to do this?
Now you see the urgency of all this. If I was laid up in a hospital for more than 2 days I could be committing a registry violation, which, if Arizona is anything like Florida or Iowa, could mean prison time! I am so fortunate that this didn’t happen.
Then there are the Iowa registry travel reporting considerations. If my itinerary changes enough to make a difference to them I can call in that change. I believe they’d care about a 2-3 day hospital stay because it would delay my previously reported return date. And making this change would necessarily document my time in Arizona.
Taking all this into account, including the fact that in the hours and days that followed I really did feel better as the hospital staff had promised, and considering how disappointed I was to have my Navajo Nation tour totally ruined, I decided on a truncated version of my original route through the Navajo Nation wherein I camped in Utah as originally planned. From there I drove straight south to Window Rock and Gallup, NM where I got on I-40 as originally planned.
By the time I got home to Iowa the Page Hospital had sent all my records to my urologist and I had an appointment with her. But the most important message of this story is – DO NOT be stupid like I was. We’re all getting older and some kind of medical emergency is coming. When it does, recognize it and don’t try to wish it away. Get help.
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