Monday night I went to bed with abdominal pain.
Severe abdominal pain. This was no "had a bad Mexican restaurant experience" abdominal pain situation. It was sharp all over and no position, sitting up or laying down or standing helped. I was having thoughts that there might be an alien inside of me ready to rip its way out to kill us all (you know the movie scene I'm talking about!).
Finally at 12:30 am, Danny took me to the ER because he was afraid it was appendicitis. After waiting almost 1.5 hrs, there was a room available. The Dr. checked me out and was not convinced I had appendicitis, but only a CT scan could determine this.
Then while waiting for the order for the CT to go thru, I was hooked to an IV by a grumpy male nurse who stabbed me without much empathy in the middle of my arm. I have some of the best veins around and never experience any pain when I get an IV, but this guy was not into being gentle. He had the bedside manner of a nurse who was tired, had been there all day and was about to finish he shift. Which turns out, he was.
Then he offered me indifferently a sorted round of "cocktails" as Danny put it. "There is blah-blah for anti-nausea, blah-blah for anti-acid, and morphine." MORPHINE?! I already felt like I was on morphine from lack of sleep at this point and I couldn't process anything he was saying to me. He might as well just have said, "Would you like mayonnaise and mustard with your burger?"
"Its a
pediatric dose of morphine," he said practically rolling his eyes like "Give me a break, you're not getting crack folks."
"
OH, pediatric dose of morphine." Because the thought of little kids being injected with morphine was going to make me feel better? I looked at Danny for help. Nothing was computing for me. In the end, we decided I'd have all 3 meds.
Now I was hooked up and still in pain and getting groggy and freezing. I had 5 blankets on me I was so cold. Despite a "fixed" husband and me just finishing my period, they needed a pee sample to ensure I was not pregnant before the CT scan.
Pee sample? Why can't they just give me a bed pan? They want me to get out from underneath my shelter of 5 blankets and drag the IV all the way to the bathroom down the hall to pee?! Did I mention I am in pain and having a hard time staying focused?
Fine. Let's get it over with, I thought. I better try it now before the morphine really kicks in, pediatric dose or not. Danny was hesitant, but I was insistant in getting it over with. So I fumbled my way out the room toward the bathroom in the main area, with Danny holding my IV and me. Suddenly I knew successful peeing was not happening.
"I can't make it to the bathroom. I feel dizzy ..... " And then I fell limp in his arms as the world around went fuzzy and static-y. Ah yes, a good fainting spell. A nurse came rushing over with a chair and then a load of other nurses came over with my hospital bed. I remember my head bobbing back and then down. They were talking to me, "Can you hear me?"
It was all sort of very exciting with so little effort on my part. They rolled me quickly back into my room and hooked up a heart monitor and took my blood pressure and the numbers, I must confess, were impressive. My heart rate got down to 38. A normal rate is 60-100. When it "settled" it was up to mid-40s. There was much discussion about my low heart rate.
At this point, blood had returned to my head and I was "back" and I mentioned to them that whenever I have my pulse checked, there is always a comment on my low resting heart rate.
"Do you run alot?" one nurse asked.
"Why yes, yes I do. I am an Olympic athlete." That must have been the morphine talking in my mind.
The next goal was to drink 1 and 1/2 bottles of water with CT "stuff" in it. Okay, wait. I couldn't make it to the bathroom to pee, and now you're going to make me drink 24 oz of liquid that I have to not pee out? Am I the only one on morphine?
With Danny's help, I drank that stuff down, and luckily it tasted just like water. Then I had to wait an hour and a half for it to filter through before the scan. All the while I am still in pain, desperate for sleep and feeling gross from drinking all that liquid.
Finally, it was time for my CT scan. The nurse that helped Danny with the chair when I fainted was the one to roll me out. He was trying to be nice and joke about my fainting and I said, "Yeah, I'll do anything for a little attention."
He responded with, "Well, I have certainly seen that, but there's no faking that pasty look you had."
"Pasty look? Oh, that. I'm just Asian." Again, the morphine talking in my head.
Well, CT scan showed no appendicitis. There is a cyst on my left ovary and the Dr. thinks I probably had a cyst that ruptured. I was feeling no pain by the time I was discharged at 7:15 am Tuesday morning. Danny and I got home, ate breakfast and slept until 2 pm!
Turns out cysts on ovaries are common and so are having them rupture. But I'm headed to see my gyno Dr. next week.
Yay for pediatric morphine and an excellent Danny who took such great care of me.
We (Danny and Jacqueline) are thrilled that Lauren received the "thick" packet in the mail from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) on Friday with an admissions offer. She was having a bad day and when she opened her acceptance letter she smiled and said, "I needed this right now." And we both thanked God for blessing of His timing.
