A Day in the ER

I have been here many times in the past couple of years…but always with someone else. This day it was my turn. Because I have no track record of any illness other than the common flu that strikes almost everyone in the wintertime, it came as a surprise even to me, that something was really wrong.



I have learned (from having numerous chats with a sister over the last few days), that pain in the abdomen and/or back that is severe and will not abate with extra strength Tylenol, is always considered an emergency. Who knew?? Least of all me who tried to ignore (or deny) the pain for 3 days and nights. Finally after this marathon of no sleep (with the exception of a few minutes sleeping while sitting straight up in a chair), I relented to go to a walk-in clinic on a Monday since my own doctor was on vacation. Thankfully there were no lineups. I explained my symptoms to the nurse at the registration counter. Without missing a beat she promptly diagnosed me with what she ‘thought’ was my problem. I said nothing. In my mind I was rolling my eyes. What she thought I had (and I am no Doctor), I knew for a fact I didn’t have! The doc finally strolls in, looks at the chem-strip sitting on the counter; listens to my recount of the past three days and tells me what he suspects it is. A kidney stone. Forms were filled out for an x-ray and a prescription for an anti-inflammatory to handle the pain in the meantime. He never asked me if I was on any other medication which I thought odd considering my obvious age. So off I go to the x-ray dept, x-ray completed in jig time and then to the pharmacy to get the precious drug that would allow me to sleep that night. It was not to be.

A Nightmare…Only I Was Awake

Not three hours after I ingested the ‘wonder drug’ (that had a full page of side effects attached to it) to take the pain away, my entire abdomen went into a complete spasm. I spent the evening and the entire night in the bathroom with a whole new set of pains. Explosive diarrhea; extreme cramping and the sensation that my body was going to fracture at the waistline continued. By 4am I was hemorrhaging and I was getting dehydrated and weaker by the minute. This continued until 8am and I managed to wobble to the phone to call my daughter to come and get me. (I must have passed out at some point from utter fatigue because my husband thought I was sleeping peacefully when he left at 7am. I didn’t hear him leave).

The time passed quickly and I do not have total recall of every minute. My daughter transported me to the ER and sat with me while they processed me. It didn’t take long. My pulse was ‘tacky’ (high) and my blood pressure, which is usually perfect was climbing and that was not normal for me. I was pale and sweaty and while sitting in the waiting area I noticed the board describing the different levels of emergency patients waiting. There was 1 person on the top line- 1 person that was considered critical. They called my name. Guess that one person was me. I was promptly shipped into a bed. Blood was extracted and an IV line started. A bag of fluid was pumping rapidly into my veins and a shot of morphine was driven into me for pain. Within an hour I was shuffled through a CT scan and then was told to relax and rest while they read the results. I was so tired. I was given two warm blankets and it felt like heaven. My daughter sat with me and during the lunch hour my husband came and sat with me as well. I drifted in and out. The IV pump was now on the second bag of fluid. The diagnosis came around 4pm. The CT scan showed a portion of my large intestine was badly inflamed. They weren’t sure if it was as a result of the nighttime trauma I went through or if it had been there causing the pain and the anti-inflammatory had compounded the problem. But the CT scan did show ‘pockets’ so for now it might be acute diverticulitis (but definitely not a kidney stone).  An antibiotic was prescribed and another prescription for pain. It will be 10 days before I will be done of the antibiotic and then I will see my family doctor for more followup tests and then later in the week I am booked to see a Surgeon. Fun.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Awhile back I blogged about losing weight. I talked about walking the trail and all sorts of things. It is now a week later since I have been to the ER and I have lost 10 pounds. But not the way I wanted. So when I closed my blog that day I spoke about being grateful. I am still grateful. It could be so much worse. I thought a lot about my dear sister who spent years and years in pain. How did she do it? She taught me a life’s lesson. This is a signal for me to take better care of myself. The coming weeks will be long if not interesting.