Sunday, June 03, 2007
The ER
Well Wednesday I had a recurrence of abdominal pain that was pretty much the same as I experienced about a month ago.
It was a fairly sharp, localized pain in the vicinity of my stomach at the edge of my right ribcage. After a few hours of the sharp pain the discomfort seemed to spread throughout my belly, working its way downward. Although this second time the localized pain did tend to stay in one place longer. I also had chills and a brief vomiting session. I was still feeling pretty bad on Thursday morning but I recovered mostly by the afternoon. On Friday, my whole abdomen felt like it was bruised.
On both occasions it happened after I had consumed a large quantity of milk so I figured that it was probably a developing lactose intolerance. Both my daughter and my brother have L-I which became more significant for them over time, so it wouldn't be unexpected.
Friday and Saturday things were pretty much back to normal although my tummy still didn't feel "right". I figured I would see the doctor next week if it was still bothering me. Then Saturday afternoon I noticed that I had the rash that I get when my immune system is active. This scared me. I started to wonder if there was a connection between the abdominal pain and the immune response. I decided to call the Kaiser advice nurse just to be sure.
I was surprised when the nurse said that I should go to the ER to be checked out within the next 2 hours. He even said that if I didn't have someone to drive me I should consider an ambulance! Talk about overreacting! I kept saying that I was feeling so much better today than I had on Wednesday, my main concern was the rash.
We drove to the ER, arriving about 4:00pm. They are very slow there. I waited over an hour before the triage nurse interviewed me. Then it was another hour before they called me to be examined. It was a good thing we brought thick books to read! When I was finally put in the exam room I waited yet another hour before the doctor came. I guess I must have been low on the triage priority list.
When the doctor did see me he took my symptoms very seriously but it was clear that he did not think it was lactose intolerance. He did suggest that I try Lactase but he wanted to do all the blood tests to rule out gallstones. They drew 5 vials of blood and inserted the valve in my arm. He said it was "just in case they needed more blood after they got the results from the first 5."
Then I had to wait for the results to come back from the lab. Obviously the doctor thought it was possible that I might need to be admitted! It was 10:00 pm before the lab results came back. When he saw them he said that he wanted to have me get an ultrasound of my gallbladder. By now it was pretty clear that that was his primary diagnosis.
The ER nurse scheduled me for the ultrasound at 8:00 am on Sunday morning. The nurse also said that the results of the ultrasound would be sent to my primary doctor and that I should make an appointment with her to have them read ASAP.
We finally got home at midnight. I woke up early this morning to go back for the ultrasound. Unfortunately in the ER they hadn't told me that I had to fast. I ate breakfast before I left so when I got there they sent me home again to wait for 8 hours.
I finally had the ultrasound at 2:00 today. The procedure was quite interesting. Not only did he look at my gallbladder. He also looked at my pancreas, kidneys, liver, and aorta. He said they can see quite a lot including cholesterol buildup in the aorta if it is present. He must have seen something because he asked if this was the second time I had been there. I suspect that it looked bad enough that he would have expected it to bother me before now. Because he is a technician he would not tell me much about what he saw and he was careful not to give me a diagnosis. He said that I had to get the official diagnosis from my doctor. He did say that I had one big gallstone though. Now I have to get my mind around the idea of having gallbladder surgery!
All of that waiting around in the ER was rather interesting. Although I couldn't see what was going on I did overhear some very interesting stories. There was an 11 year old girl who had been sexually assaulted--they had to call the police to interview her and her mom; someone collapsed in the parking lot and had to be retrieved on a stretcher; one patient came in not breathing--this one got everyone's attention. Suddenly the hallways were empty because most of the staff were working on him. There was one person who had multiple lacerations from a knife fight; the were several wailing babies, one with a broken arm--I felt so sorry for them. Their cries were so heart-rending. All in all a fascinating peek into real ER operations while I was a patient. At the time I didn't think that I was very sick so I almost felt out of place but now that I have had the ultrasound I am taking it all much more seriously too. I'm definitely glad that I went in.
The good news is that most gallbladder surgery these days is laproscopic rather than major surgery. From what I have read it usually involves an overnight hospital stay and the recovery is in as few as 2-3 days. That would certainly be nice. For once I seem to have lucked out as far as my schedule is concerned. I do not have any immediate obligations. I am finished with my teaching for the semester and our vacation is not until July. I was just thinking about how much worse it would be if I had a gall bladder attack while we hiking somewhere. It is certainly much better than when I dislocated my should in the Galapagos Islands. I guess if I must have surgery now is a good a time as ever.
I just have to keep telling myself that!
It was a fairly sharp, localized pain in the vicinity of my stomach at the edge of my right ribcage. After a few hours of the sharp pain the discomfort seemed to spread throughout my belly, working its way downward. Although this second time the localized pain did tend to stay in one place longer. I also had chills and a brief vomiting session. I was still feeling pretty bad on Thursday morning but I recovered mostly by the afternoon. On Friday, my whole abdomen felt like it was bruised.
On both occasions it happened after I had consumed a large quantity of milk so I figured that it was probably a developing lactose intolerance. Both my daughter and my brother have L-I which became more significant for them over time, so it wouldn't be unexpected.
Friday and Saturday things were pretty much back to normal although my tummy still didn't feel "right". I figured I would see the doctor next week if it was still bothering me. Then Saturday afternoon I noticed that I had the rash that I get when my immune system is active. This scared me. I started to wonder if there was a connection between the abdominal pain and the immune response. I decided to call the Kaiser advice nurse just to be sure.
I was surprised when the nurse said that I should go to the ER to be checked out within the next 2 hours. He even said that if I didn't have someone to drive me I should consider an ambulance! Talk about overreacting! I kept saying that I was feeling so much better today than I had on Wednesday, my main concern was the rash.
We drove to the ER, arriving about 4:00pm. They are very slow there. I waited over an hour before the triage nurse interviewed me. Then it was another hour before they called me to be examined. It was a good thing we brought thick books to read! When I was finally put in the exam room I waited yet another hour before the doctor came. I guess I must have been low on the triage priority list.
When the doctor did see me he took my symptoms very seriously but it was clear that he did not think it was lactose intolerance. He did suggest that I try Lactase but he wanted to do all the blood tests to rule out gallstones. They drew 5 vials of blood and inserted the valve in my arm. He said it was "just in case they needed more blood after they got the results from the first 5."
Then I had to wait for the results to come back from the lab. Obviously the doctor thought it was possible that I might need to be admitted! It was 10:00 pm before the lab results came back. When he saw them he said that he wanted to have me get an ultrasound of my gallbladder. By now it was pretty clear that that was his primary diagnosis.
The ER nurse scheduled me for the ultrasound at 8:00 am on Sunday morning. The nurse also said that the results of the ultrasound would be sent to my primary doctor and that I should make an appointment with her to have them read ASAP.
We finally got home at midnight. I woke up early this morning to go back for the ultrasound. Unfortunately in the ER they hadn't told me that I had to fast. I ate breakfast before I left so when I got there they sent me home again to wait for 8 hours.
I finally had the ultrasound at 2:00 today. The procedure was quite interesting. Not only did he look at my gallbladder. He also looked at my pancreas, kidneys, liver, and aorta. He said they can see quite a lot including cholesterol buildup in the aorta if it is present. He must have seen something because he asked if this was the second time I had been there. I suspect that it looked bad enough that he would have expected it to bother me before now. Because he is a technician he would not tell me much about what he saw and he was careful not to give me a diagnosis. He said that I had to get the official diagnosis from my doctor. He did say that I had one big gallstone though. Now I have to get my mind around the idea of having gallbladder surgery!
All of that waiting around in the ER was rather interesting. Although I couldn't see what was going on I did overhear some very interesting stories. There was an 11 year old girl who had been sexually assaulted--they had to call the police to interview her and her mom; someone collapsed in the parking lot and had to be retrieved on a stretcher; one patient came in not breathing--this one got everyone's attention. Suddenly the hallways were empty because most of the staff were working on him. There was one person who had multiple lacerations from a knife fight; the were several wailing babies, one with a broken arm--I felt so sorry for them. Their cries were so heart-rending. All in all a fascinating peek into real ER operations while I was a patient. At the time I didn't think that I was very sick so I almost felt out of place but now that I have had the ultrasound I am taking it all much more seriously too. I'm definitely glad that I went in.
The good news is that most gallbladder surgery these days is laproscopic rather than major surgery. From what I have read it usually involves an overnight hospital stay and the recovery is in as few as 2-3 days. That would certainly be nice. For once I seem to have lucked out as far as my schedule is concerned. I do not have any immediate obligations. I am finished with my teaching for the semester and our vacation is not until July. I was just thinking about how much worse it would be if I had a gall bladder attack while we hiking somewhere. It is certainly much better than when I dislocated my should in the Galapagos Islands. I guess if I must have surgery now is a good a time as ever.
I just have to keep telling myself that!
# posted by blue-foot Sue @ 3:24 PM 
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