Something Creative
As my faithful readers know I have been battling some pretty intense pain & trouble with my gallbladder. On Monday (August 3rd) I woke up after having a very tough weekend and decided it was time to make a trip to the ER. So I called in to work & then Abe loaded me into the truck to drive me to St. Luke’s in Duluth.
Upon arriving at St. Luke’s we made our way to the UrgentCare/ER portion of the hospital. After filling out some paperwork & having my vitals checked I was given a cursory exam where it was determined that the emergency room was more suitable for my complaint. I was given a gown (way too small to tie), told to strip & climb into bed.
One of the on-call doctors came in, asked me a bunch of questions & probed my very tender, sore right side. I posited the idea that my gallbladder was the culprit (which I in fact believe it is). The doctor then placed orders for a pelvic exam, a CT scan & an abdominal ultrasound. I spent the next several hours lying in a hospital bed waiting for each new test & occasionally begging for pain medication.
I must say that the pain medication was given generously & I have no complaints that the staff did it’s very best to make me comfortable. Accompanying the pain meds (Dilaudid) was an anti-nausea medication which was awesome because few things are worse than that nagging feeling you may just vomit in your mouth.
I should point out that I was put on IV saline almost immediately. I hate needles, blood etc. as I am quite squeamish. The nurse that placed the needle did a great job in spite of the fact I have extremely tiny veins (made smaller by the fact that I was cold, anxious, in pain & slightly dehydrated). She placed the IV port on the first try & it was a relief to have it done with.
Now the doctor decided to do a pelvic exam as I was complaining of pain from my rib cage to my lower abdomen near the navel. Now nobody truly enjoys a pelvic exam…they are awkward & if the person giving the exam is rushed they can be downright uncomfortable. I don’t mind them too much as I know it’s a necessary part of being a healthy woman so I just let my mind drift off to something more pleasant (a vacation, a new book, a favorite song) & soon it’s over in no time at all.
I would like to mention that in setting up for the pelvic exam a nursing assistant was trying to find all the necessary tools so that when the doctor came in he could just go right to the exam without wasting time. Everything was in the cart except for one small item—the flashlight. Well the nurse who placed the IV needle (such an angel she was) seemed to know where it was & off she went to find it. Being the ER she got sidetracked helping someone else (totally understandable) and so another lady came in to finish setting up the exam tray. Upon finding that the flashlight was MIA this person proceeded to open and close ever drawer in the cart….and then she repeated opening, closing, opening, closing, opening, closing….well you get the idea. Then she muttered to herself & wandered out. Within five minutes she was back—-opening, closing, opening, closing, opening, closing…the same 4 drawers over & over. She wasn’t quiet about it either. Now keep in mind that I’m lying in a bed, curled up in a ball becasue of the intense pain in my right side. When she had started the first round of drawer banging my lovely husband told her that another nurse had looked in all the drawers, discovered the flashlight wasn’t present & had gone to look for it elsewhere. The drawerbanger had acknowledged this statement & then proceeded to completely ignore it. The more the drawers (full of metal equipment like speculums) rattled the more irritated I got. My head started to pound & my stomach started to heave. I asked her to be more quiet, Abe asked her to be more quiet…I finally demanded she be quiet…all to no avail. I began to wonder aloud if maybe she thought if she opened & closed the drawers in the right order at a fast enough pace that a flashlight would magically appear. Once I started to mutter about magic tricks sotto voce she got the hint & went elsewhere…I can only hope she didn’t decide to torture another patient with her magically disappearing medical instruments.
Well you can see that this is part one of my hospital adventures series. There is much, much more to come as I’ve not even made it through the first day. Please stay tuned for more— same bat time, same bat channel….until then be well & may you find Dilaudid in your cup when you need it most.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
