How NOT to Move to the Front of the Line

FINALLY! Mom has been here the required 30 days, and we had all of her paperwork in place to get her Texas ID. She's been waiting for this day, because she couldn't even open a bank account without ID, and she had let her NM drivers license expire before she moved.

The DPS opens at 8:00 a.m., so I suggested that we get there by 7:30 so we could be in the front of the line. Silly me! We did, indeed, get there by 7:30 - maybe a little before 7:30, actually - but there were between 40 and 45 people ahead of us, waiting for the doors to open. By the time they opened, there were another 25 people behind us in line.

Mom waited in the car and I held her place in line. When I was near the door, she came and joined me. Once inside we took our number and looked for a place to sit down. A nice lady offered to let Mom have her chair. As Mom started to navigate the row, another woman tried to move out of her way, but, instead, ended up accidentally tripping her, and Mom fell down. A young man jumped up and helped break her fall. I was so grateful to him, because she could have hit her head, but didn't. She was wearing a bracelet, which got shoved up her arm and peeled a large patch of skin back, but she didn't break or sprain anything. Since she takes coumadin, we knew we needed to control the bleeding. An off-duty fireman/EMT quickly came to her aid. The DPS provided a small first aid kit, which had some bandage material in it. Someone else had some tape. Besides the EMT, there was a doctor from Scott and White (I think someone said she was a surgeon) and a phlebotomist there. So we had lots of attention and help from several good Samaritans.

Once she was bandaged up, we sat down to get our breath - and to wait for our number to come up. But one of the clerks came and took all of Mom's paperwork while we stayed in our seats, did most of the processing, and then came to get her for her picture. That's one way to move to the front of a long line, but not a way that I'd suggest!

Our Good Samaritan - an off-duty fireman and EMT - who came to Mom's aid. 

We ended up going to the Urgent Care clinic. The doctor there repositioned the skin over the spot and used an adhesive glue to seal the edges, then re-bandaged it. Poor Mom. She was really shaken up (and so was I), but was relieved to finally have a Texas ID in her possession. Mom will be seeing Stoney Brook's house doctor tomorrow to follow up, but as of this evening she tells me she's doing fine.