We had been at the ballpark all day for an invitational tournament that my son was playing in. I felt totally fine all day. David , and our friend Chris, both were working late so my friend Lee (Chris's better half ) and I decided to hang out at her house and let the kids play. Mimi and Bud were going to be spending the night with her two youngin's anyway so we thought we'd get a few pizza's and chill out. Chris eventually got off work and picked up the pizza's for us......all the while being delayed because he just *haaaad* to try their chicken wings......;) LOL!
Anyway, I ate two pieces.....1 BBQ piece and 1 meat lover's. Now before you go all yuck on me about the BBQ pizza, don't knock it until you try it! I made the comment to Chris that I couldn't believe how full I was after only eating two pieces. Gimme a break people, I hadn't eaten anything all day except for a small turkey roll up, so I figured I might could scarf down another piece, but couldn't. About 20 minutes later while sitting on their couch, I noticed that the top part of my stomach started to hurt a little. It was getting late anyway and I knew that I needed to go home and put Boogs and Pudgie to bed so I said my thanks and goodbye's and drove all the way home (a mere 30 second ride home by the way.....literally). When I got inside, I immediately went to the bathroom. SORRY for those who might have not wanted to know that, but I'm putting it all out here.
Sooo, that didn't seem to help. The pain intensified and on top of that, a pain started in the same spot but in my back. It was weird. Felt like someone was twisting a knife through my stomach and it was coming out of my back. It also felt like my back was contracting like when you are having back labor and believe me, I KNOW what that feels like, but it wouldn't let up. It was like a constant high peaking contraction. I called my sister and asked her if she had any peptobismal. I figured it might be indigestion. I called David and asked if he could pick it up on his way home from work and he was ok with that. BUT, the pain got worse so I called my sister back and asked if she could just bring it to me. Because she is THE BESTEST sister in the world, she did. I took the peptobismal and waited. It didn't phase the pain at all. I was in so much pain that I was bent over and breathing funny to try to get the pain to diminish. At this point I was wondering if it was the meat lover's pizza I ate. I wondered if my friends were doubled over at their house too? What was going on? Puuuuhhlease dear Lord, take the pain away!!
By the time David got home, I was laying in the bed in the fetal position doing Lamaze breathing. My sister actually thought that I might be pregnant and not know it and in labor because of my breathing. Seriously? Really??? Sheesh, thanks Dee-deed! I was doing the Lamaze breathing because I thought it might help to diminish the pain. That's what they say when your in labor right? I tried getting in all different positions. I tried laying on the floor, in my daughter's bed (because her room is always cooler), in my bed, stretched out or curled up. I tried walking around, bent over of course, moving my legs up and down, pacing, sitting, standing.....whatever I tried to do wasn't helping. AND the pain was getting worse.
My sister and I have a friend who is a nurse. We'll call her nurse Lori. :) Allison asked nurse Lori to call me and sweetly, she did. I know I must have sounded completely crazy because of the way I was breathing and moaning, but I was in a lot of pain. I described to her what was going on and she said that it sounded like my gall bladder. By this time the pain had been non stop for over an hour and she advised me that I might want to go to the ER. Really? The ER? I thought about it and thought about how it would affect our pocketbook considering we now have a huge family deductible to meet but I had to put those thoughts aside and decided to go. I called my sister back and asked if she could come watch the kids while David took me to the ER. Bless her heart, she had to cancel her plans with her boyfriend to come watch my babies. But, because she is THE BESTEST, she did gladly.
We contemplated driving to the same great hospital that my babies were born in, but there was no way I could stand to sit in the car that long so we went to a smaller local hospital about 12 miles away. I thought we would never get there. You know, behind slow drivers and hitting every red light. We finally got to the ER and David dropped me off at the door while he went and parked the van. It was around 9:30p. I walked right up to the front desk, still breathing heavily and Lamaze like AND bent over at the waist. Of course it was a guy at the desk and in a non chalant way, he asked how he could help me. Couldn't he see the pain I was in. Why wasn't he screaming....."Get this lady a wheelchair and a room stat!". Only in my mind huh? I filled out this silly little half sheet of paper and he asked me to sit down and wait. OHH GREAT! The waiting game. I couldn't wait. I needed help asap! I needed something and quick!
Thank the Lord, I didn't have to wait that long.....maybe 45 minutes but that 45 minutes was the longest of my life. Of course I kept up the breathing and moaning......it was helping me to keep my mind off of the horrific pain I was in.
Finally, my name was called to go into a triage room. I explained to that sweet guy what was going on and he could tell I was in a lot of pain. He told his helper friend to find me a room. Of course, there wasn't one. But that sweet fella hurried up and got someone discharged so that I could have a room. After getting some info, they started an IV and gave me some Dulotta (sp)......let's just say that it's a miiiighty fine pain medicine! I literally felt that yummy goodness go through my veins and down to my feet and then I suddenly felt very relaxed. Didn't have a care in the world. I won't lie.....it was niiiiiice!
I didn't care much about anything at that point until the medicine started to wear off. My sweet nurse gladly gave me another shot of the lala medicine and even though I could literally feel it going down to my feet, this time it wasn't taking the pain away. I tried to bare with it though. Someone wheeled my bed up a few floors and I was stuck under a florescent light waiting to be seen by the ultrasound tech. I waited there for a little bit but didn't mind that much because my pain wasn't too bad. She finally navigated my bed into the room and she started on the ultrasound. I saw lots of nothing. It's not like when you go for a baby ultrasound and are looking for your little peanut shaped bambino. This was just nothing. Black and white was all I saw. Of course I tried to look as if I knew what I was looking at. Wonder if she was impressed? ;)
She spent a few minutes on my stomach and then told me that I indeed had gall stones and that my gall bladder looked as if it hadn't been working in a while? Really?? I hadn't had any symptoms of anything weird going on down there. It was a sudden attack. She wheeled my bed back out of the room, definitely hitting the door on the way out and stuck me back in my original position by the wall under the florescent light and told me that someone would be up to take me back downstairs in a few minutes. I waited......and waited.....and waited. No one. Still staring up at the florescent lights. She came out and said that if no one showed up in a few minutes then she would wheel me back down herself. Ummmm, ok? I can't go anywhere so I really have no choice. As I was laying there , the pain medicine had definitely started to wear off again. My stomach and back were starting to hurt again as if I had never had any pain medicine. I was laying there thinking......Ladyyyyy, come on! She finally came back out of her
Our sweet nurse came back in and finally gave me some more of that happy juice and this time I think she gave me a *tad* bit more than the last time because I felt it go through my veins again and I was good to go. No more pain for a long while! By this time it was well after midnight and the Dr. came in after a little while and told me that I was going to need emergency surgery so they were going to admit me. Ok...la, la, la, la, laaaaaa, sure. I didn't care. I felt niiiiice. He said that I was going to have surgery on Sunday, probably in the morning time. They brought a wheelchair for me to sit in and they took me upstairs and admitted me. I was in a very nice room.....quite surprised , but I was just thankful at that point that I wasn't in pain.
I was severley thirsty however. I hadn't been allowed to have anything to drink except a few sips of water right before midnight and I had the most cottony mouth you could ever think of. I mentioned that to the nurse and she of course told me that I wasn't allowed anything to drink but that she did have some glycerin sticks that I could have. Ummm, a what??? I was desperate so I said "Ok, sure." Boy was I ever disappointed. Picture an oversized Q-tip with the cotton tip on just one end. It is moist on that cotton end but with a weird taste of something I hadn't ever had before. Some sort of "citrus" something er other. I was supposed to "swab" my mouth and tongue with it to give me some relief. Yeah, ok. I swabbed and nothing. My cheeks and tongue were a tad bit moist but nothing like what I was wanting. I then decided to suck on the end of the swab. Ick. But it made my mouth salivate just a bit so that it made me think I was actually sucking on something worth while. It was so gross. Guess, what? I had two more of those wonder sticks in my pouch. Let's just say they were still there when I checked out.
Time went on and the pain that I was having and having to ask for pain medicine every once in a while eventually subsided at 4:30a that Sunday morning. I was exhausted. It seemed like I would doze off and then would wake up only to find that it was only 5 or 10 minutes from the last time I had looked at the clock. Needless to say, I didn't get hardly any sleep at all. I did take comfort in knowing that my love, David, was asleep on the not so comfy looking hard couch with his crack hanging out. :-P
The morning went on and on and we waited and waited for the surgeon to come in. I had even gotten up and brushed my teeth (with the provided hospital necessities.) By the way, may I suggest that they spend the few extra coins to invest in some decent tooth brushes? I could have cleaned a grill with the one they gave me to use. Anyway, I brushed my hair and washed my face etc. And then waited. And waited. And waited. It was about 12:30p when he came in and said that I did indeed need surgery , but that he wasn't going to perform it that day. WHAT??? I've been sitting here thirsty (& now kinda hungry) all this time and you weren't going to do surgery today. Hold me back people! I know I need to lose weight but starving me ain't gonna get it!
He told me that I could stay and he would do the surgery the next morning or I could go home. He was fine with whatever I decided. Insurance wise, I probably should have stayed, but I really just wanted to go home. To get something to drink and get in my own bed. By the time I left ,it was around 2:30p.
Sooo, there's my ER story. I'll post another story about the actual surgery later. It won't be this long, I promise! ;)
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