ER for reals

I am never sick. Seriously, never. So when I got a little pain in my upper right hand abdomen Monday afternoon I figured it was just aches and pains from being an old hag. It ended up increasing (the pain), not dramatically but increasing never the less. By Monday night, I ended up, after talking to Kathy, calling the advice nurse at St. Vincent's. She talked to me for a while, and though she didn't want to rule out appendicitis (it was too high but you never know), she thought it best that I visit the ER. Oh joy.

I called my sister Barbie and she came and got me at around 10:30. My pain level (I hate that. How the hell do I know what my pain level is at on a scale of 1-10? Having never been gut-shot I couldn't possibly tell you what the most severe pain might feel like) was around a "5" (whatever), but I wasn't nauseous and nothing else really hurt. Just this one spot where my gall bladder is.

The ER after hours is a nightmare. I was given the beeper after signing in but there were more people in there than you can imagine. I waited an hour but you know, I am just not that person, so Barbie and I discussed the possibility of it being gas and I decided to just get out of there. I signed out and promised the girl at the desk that I would make an appointment with my doctor in the morning. We stopped at Albertson's and got some Alka Seltzer and some Gas-X and I went home.

Could only "sleep" on my right side (the side that hurt). It sucked. Throughout the night the pain did not get better, only worse. I got up at 6:30 and hung out and then called the doctor's office and left a message for them to call me back when they got in around 8. Then I called in sick. When the doctor's office called me back I was in more pain, but I agreed to a 2:15 appointment. She told me that if it got worse to call her back.

By 9 I was in agony and was starting to kind of panic thinking my appendix was bursting (even though it was so high) or that I was going to rupture something. Having never had anything like this, I had no idea what to expect. I called Barbie after the doctor's office told me to go to their Urgi-Center right away, and she came in about 20 minutes (while I dressed and then vomitted for a little while). The Urgi-Center told me to go back to the ER because for what I was dealing with they didn't have the proper equipment. So off we went.

The ER in the day time is nothing compared to night, so I got in right away and they hooked me up to an IV and gave me some pain medication. They took blood to test and then took me up for an ultrasound. After a few hours, and while the pain med was wearing off, they came in to tell me there was NOTHING WRONG. Mind you, I am still in pretty bad pain. They only thing they could think of was that the colon takes a 90 degree bend right about the same area and maybe I was blocked. They told me to eat raw vegetables. That was it.

I left, and Barbie stopped at the pharmacy for some colon-blow (or anything like it) and I got a couple of things to help move the product along. Of course after taking it not much happened, but I went to sleep for the rest of the day and all night, and this morning the pain was back to about a 4 and now as I type this, probably a 2. I think I will have no problem sleeping, and I had some soup earlier. I will go to work tomorrow because in this business you just can't NOT go to work.

I just wish it would go away, whatever "it" is. If it is just that I am full of shit in a bad place, it's time to move on. I wish there was a kind of Dran-o for that.

So that's my Tuesday/Wednesday.