kevin and jenna [dot] com

Trip to the ER

January 14th, 2008

What? Yeah, that’s what everyone else thought when they heard too. By the way, this is really long. The moral is: DON’T EVER GO TO THE ER.

So, you might remember that a few weeks ago, I thought I had a kidney stone. I endured the pain, thinking it would pass, but I also contracted a fever and chills on Christmas day. So I made a doctor’s appointment for the Friday after Christmas, the 28th, hoping he could tell me why I had had such extreme pain in my abdomen for 2 weeks straight. (And actually, when I called on Thursday the 27th, the receptionist told me my doctor could see me the following Monday, but I pleaded with her that I was in a lot of pain, and she worked me in. My doctor must have wanted to leave early that day because there was pretty much no one there in the office.)

Kevin dropped me off at the doctor’s office because the kids had to go take their naps. After the standard weight and height check (I haven’t grown taller since the 8th grade; I don’t know why they keep checking.), they asked me why I was there. I told a nurse I had been having severe abdominal pain for 2 weeks straight. So the doctor came in and asked me why I was there. I told him I had been having severe abdominal pain for 2 weeks straight. (Just wait, it gets better.) He told me to “hop up on the table” (yeah, right) so he could check me out. He pressed on my abdomen for awhile, I screamed and cried, and he told me we needed to have a CT scan run on me. He called over to radiology to have them set it up. I called Kevin to keep him updated on my progress.

So I wait for just a few minutes more when the doctor’s head nurse (??) comes in and asked me why I needed a CT scan. I said, “I have had severe abdominal pain for 2 weeks straight.” Come on, I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on tv. She said, “Well, the CT machine is not operating right now. They’re doing routine maintenance on it because it’s the holidays and they didn’t figure too many people would need it. So, we’re going to send you to the ER so you can have a CT scan.”

Exit head nurse, enter doctor. (By the way, I really do like this doctor.) The doctor tells me he wants to run the scan to check for either a kidney stone, appendicitis, or an ovarian cyst. He said if it doesn’t show any of those things, he would bet it was a bladder infection. (It wasn’t a bladder infection. I’ve had one of those and it hurts when you pee. I only had severe abdominal… you get the picture.)

So, Katrina came over while the kids finished napping, and I told Kevin to grab a book - we were going to the ER. We got there, signed in, another weight and height check, and they asked what my level of pain was and why I was there. I told them I wasn’t having too much pain at that moment but that I had been having severe abdominal pain for 2 weeks straight. The check-in nurse asked, “And you’re just now coming in?” Look, people, I gave birth to 2 babies WITHOUT DRUGS. I know what pain is, and I thought it was a kidney stone that would pass. Give me a break. We exit to the waiting room with 18 people in front of me. Oh, joy.

As we waited (and read our books), the pain started getting increasingly worse. I tell this to the nurse who checked me in, and she puts me in the “front of the line”. Sort of. Also in “the front” was a guy who had a cough so bad it sounded like a piece of his lung might just come barreling out of his throat at any time. We sat across from him. There were no other chairs. This guy told us he worked in this same ER before and that the doctors are not in any hurry to see many patients. Wonderful.

We wait, and my mind is eased for a bit, but the pain gets so bad that the room starts to spin. I don’t remember much, but I remember the Lung Hacking Guy got up and told the nurse that they better come get me quick. The check-in nurse told me to not eat or drink anything if I feel dizzy. (What?) So they finally call my name, and I get up to go follow them. But my brain must not have told all the rest of me to go, because the next thing I remember is holding on to the wall, trying not to fall on the ground. They grabbed a wheelchair and rushed me to a “room”/curtain area in the ER.

The nice ER nurses poke and prod me with needles to take a blood sample and to insert an IV. They asked me why I was here. “Ahem….” (I told them. Again, the response of “Why didn’t you come in before?” And after the fact, my response is, “I’m never coming here again.”) My doctor was Dr. Jerk. No, that’s not his real name, just his attitude. He told me the problem I was having was with my gallbladder. I doubted his opinion and he asked me a lot of unrelated questions but decided to do an ultrasound on my abdominal area to make sure it was the gallbladder. He said, “I could be wrong, but let’s go that route.”

Great. So, we wait. (Oh, and I know you’re asking, “Why didn’t they just run the CT scan like your other nice doctor wanted you to?” We called his office and he had already left for the day, and for some reason they couldn’t call in orders to the ER, that the ER doc would just have to order it. Again, great. We told Dr. Jerk that Dr. Nice wanted to have a CT scan run, but he doesn’t listen. More greatness.)

They end up making me wait a good bit and during this, my pain gets really bad, so they give me a pain killer in my arm. I kept making sure to anyone I talked to that whatever they did had to be safe for Kennedy because I’m still nursing. (Also, this is why I didn’t want to go to the doctor in the first place, in case the only option was something I wasn’t willing to do.) But, the medicine they gave me saved the night.

The radiology lady comes in and escorts me, via wheelchair, to the ultrasound room. (By this time, they have confirmed through my blood test that I’m NOT pregnant, nor do I have cancer.) She rubs on my abdomen for awhile but says nothing. They roll me back into my ER room and Dr. Jerk comes in and says, “Well, it’s not your gallbladder.” Big surprise. Gallbladder trouble runs in your family. I have no family history of it, nor do I have kidney stone history, ovarian cyst history, nor liver trouble history… Dr. Jerk then tells me, “I’m going to have a CT scan run on you.” Great. We could have done that 4 hours ago.

We wait some more. Somewhere in there, I have to take a urine test. Kevin watches and tells me I have great aim, especially while holding my own hospital gown. Thanks, babe. Also, Kevin is my go-between, asking things that I forget about while Dr. Jerk is in the room for 2.5 seconds each time. One of the things I ask for is FOOD; I’m still nursing and I’m always hungry. Dr. Jerk tells him he doesn’t want me to eat or drink in case they have to do surgery on me.  Great.  But Kevin was a prince; he didn’t have anything to eat or drink the entire time we were there.  He said if I couldn’t eat, he wouldn’t eat.

Oh, and also somewhere in there, my parents bring my breastpump.  Kevin goes to get it and finds Lung Hacking guy STILL WAITING.  This is after we’ve been in the room for almost 3 hours.  Good grief.  While I’m pumping, Dr. Jerk comes in and tells me he could fall asleep to that sound.  A little creepy, but his wife also is nursing and she pumps every night before bed.

SO!  The CT scan lady (finally) comes in, and she is a bit of a comedic relief.  I’ve never had a CT scan, and I was a little afraid of it, but she put my mind at ease.  Kevin got to view my insides.  He said they were cool.  I asked the lady if I had appendicitis, which was what I thought I had, and she said she wasn’t told to check for it, only for kidney stones.  (WHAT?)  Anyway, Dr. Jerk reviews my scan, my pain is much more bearable by now, and he comes in to say, “Basically, we don’t know what is wrong.  In addition to what you didn’t have already, we know you don’t have appendicitis, a kidney stone, an ovarian cyst, or a bladder infection.”

I think he expected me to throw a punch at him, but actually, I was pretty at ease about the “diagnosis”.  I didn’t have any of the things the doctors thought I had.  A wave of peace came over me and I told him, “Thank you for telling me what I don’t have.”  I sincerely meant it, too, because I then realized, after 7 hours in the ER, that there is only ONE Great Physician that really knows my ailments.  The medical profession is not about faith or about trust, it is about science and actual data.  When the actual data shows up void, they have no answers.  But I do.

The ER doc sent me home with a handshake and a couple of prescriptions, which I’ve been taking as the pain has hit. Usually I’ll have 2 really good days and then 1 day of pain.  This is INCREDIBLE, because before I had been having pain non-stop for 2 weeks, if you’ll remember.  I’m slowly recovering, but I know that in God’s time, He will make me well.

Dr. J told me that a lot of people come into the ER wanting answers and if they don’t get them, they’re pretty mad.  I’m not mad, in fact, I’m quite the opposite.  I am joyful that I get to share this long (and hopefully humorous) story with you.  I hope you all remember Who is in charge of this world and Who cares about each one of our needs, big or small.  I don’t need answers; I need faith and perseverance.

If you have read to the end of this story, thank you.  If you want to know how to help me, please pray that God would make me a better Wife and Mom through my pain.  If He doesn’t want to reveal to me the source of my pain, then I am okay with that, but I do need to know how to live with it and how to manage it better.  The hard part is at night when I need to do dinner and bath and bedtime with the kids. Please pray for Kevin, too, as the whole experience, I’m sure, has been hard on him.  It’s always hard to watch someone you love be in so much pain and not be able to help them.  Kevin was a rock especially when we delivered our babies because we both knew what the end result would be.  This time we don’t have such clear answers.  Again, I am grateful that He is allowing me some pain-free days, and I am praying that eventually this would be gone so that I don’t have any recollection of it.  What a day of rejoicing that will be!

So, if you’re wondering why we didn’t send out Christmas cards, there’s your answer.  We are hoping to send out Valentine’s cards or somesuch.  Thanks again for reading.

Entry Filed under: Faith, Family, Funny, Kennedy, Life