My Hospital Adventure

Two weeks ago I had a terrible headache. I went to the doctor, who gave me antibiotics for a sinus infection and a stong headache pill. I spent the week at home recuperating, and in spite of the sinus headache, felt well enough to go back to school to teach.

This past Sunday, my chest began to hurt, and I thought that my sinuses had drained into my chest and aggravated my asthma. I took my inhalers, and they kind of worked, so I went to bed that night and went to school the next day. My chest was still hurting, however, and the inhalers didn't seem to work as well as they should, so I decided to stay home the next day and see my doctor for a nebulizer treatment and a cortisone shot(both of which have happened in the past, and I was okay.)

I called the doctor the next morning(Tuesday), and the nurse I spoke to looked at the schedule, and told me that they couldn't see me until 2:00 that afternoon. She heard the distress and pain in my voice, and suggested that I get someone to take me to the emergency room at the hospital. I called my mother-in-law, who immediately came over(I love my mother-in-law!) and took me to the hospital. We got to the ER around 11 a.m.

Because I said that I was in respiratory distress, the triage nurse took me in immediately. When she tested my oxygen level, however, it was at 100%. I was brought to a room in the ER, and the doctor I saw started checking me all over(you know, pressing everything). She said, "no, it's not your lungs, it's your abdomen. You may have gall stones." She ordered an x-ray and a sonogram, both of which I had to wait for, because I had eaten breakfast that morning. So we waited longer. Eventually I was brought to the x-ray room to check my lungs. The girl took the x-ray, and then left the room. I waited for a long time for her to come back. I had been given morphine for the pain, and wasn't supposed to walk, and had no way of paging anyone. So I did what anyone else in my position might do - I took a nap. An hour and a half later another girl peeked in and asked, "what's your name?" I told her, and she said that she had been looking for me for the sonogram, and couldn't find me anywhere!

Well, throughout the rest of the day, I was taken for a sonogram, waited longer, had the sonogram, waited more, brought back to my room in the ER, and waited even more. Finally, the doctor came and told me that I did have an inflamed gall bladder, and they were going to have to take it out. This was around 7:00 p.m. I was going to be admitted, but they had to wait for a room to be ready for me. I told Tony(who left early from work and took over for his mother) to go home and I'd call him when I got to the room. The surgeon came in then, and told me that he wanted me to have a CAT scan to make sure it was only my gall bladder that was giving me pain.

Apparently, the classic symptoms for an inflamed gall bladder are four F's - female, forty, fair, and fat intolerance. I fit the female, forty, and fair, but I have never(I thought) felt sick when I ate fatty foods.(apparently I have and didn't know it)

So after I was given a pint of what looked like orange Tang to drink, I waited for two more hours for the CAT scan. Finally, by 11:00 p.m., I was brought up to a room in the hospital.

The nurse announced to the three other residents in the room that they were getting a roomie, and their response was "we hope she's not a screamer!" I was too tired to respond. We have nicknamed them "the Golden Girls". One was chatty, another was mouthy, and the other just lay there. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night, but I did my best to be nice about it.

My gall bladder operation was scheduled for 3:30 the next day. Tony and I spent the next day getting acquainted with my roommates and laughing at their antics. It was just like being in a Golden Girls episode! Two of them kept moving and setting off their bed alarms, and "Chatty Cathy" never stopped talking. There were constant problems with their IV's, and they kept our poor nurse on his toes the whole day. It was quite humorous.

The nurses felt so bad for me being woken up so much the night before that they made arrangements to move me to a quieter room after my surgery so I could sleep that night. I was sooo thankful! After my surgery, all I wanted was to sleep.

Well, it is now Thursday, and I was discharged from the hospital this morning at 11 a.m. I am still not allowed to go to work until maybe Monday if I feel up to it, and I have at least three doctors to see next week.

I definitely did not go to the emergency room expecting any of this, which is why I can laugh at it. It was quite an adventure!