Monday afternoon/eve at the ER

I woke up around 4am this morning with a pain.  A pain that wouldn't go away.  I was reminded of the gallbladder pain from 2005.  Same place (about) and similar intensity.  And it wouldn't subside, move, or stop.

Fast forward to 2:20pm.  I've left a message with my doc asking what to do.  Still have the pain.  Am in the middle of a staff meeting and instead of being my usual attentive self, moving things forward, I have this instinct to say, "just stop.  your lips are moving but I'm not really here.  just stop.  leave me alone."

While I have to confess there are a few meetings where I have those thoughts, the short sessions with my staff do not fall into that category.  We usually have a good session, cover a lot of ground, and plan the next steps for whatever needs to be tackled.

My docs office called (we're at 2:20pm today) and urged me to go to the ER.  So I packed up and did just that. 

I don't always bring my knitting to work, but today I did.  Good thing.  I drove to the hospital covered by my insurance (an 8 minute drive), made a wrong turn, and backtracked.  Yeah, I don't usually have a problem with finding places I've been before, either.  Got there and parked, went in and checked in.

I found a seat and targeted a location where i thought I'd be a-out of the way, and b-unobtrusive.  ER waiting rooms often have lots of family drama, and I was having my own drama keeping back tears and trying to keep my teeth from being ground to dust.

After I brought out my knitting, I realized the man on the other side of the coffee table was still talking.  Talking on the phone.  Loudly.  Calling one person, then another.  Then he had a color commentary regarding the "Judge Joe" (or similarly titled) show displayed on the waiting room TV.  My knitting caught his attention, and he had to ask about that (after a woman across the way had asked too).  As if that wasn't enough, he inquired about how I entered the ER, and if I knew of other ways to get in.  (I had no clue, I entered from the garage). 

My name was called, and I nearly jumped with joy.  Ouch.

I'll spare you the rest of the details, except to say that I got to the ER and checked in around 2:50pm and left around 9:30pm.  I was poked, prodded, gave up blood and urine for tests and had a CT scan done of my abdomen.  Joel offered to come to the hospital, but I told him to stay at work, go home when he was ready and I would call him if there was a reason for him to come to the hospital.

When I left the ER, I was still in pain, and the bloody tests showed not a daggone thing wrong.  I'm still in pain.

But I got the better part of a hat knitted and major progress on a Starmore wrap.   Wasn't exactly what I had planned for today, though.

Comments

[PlazaJen]

Aw hon, that's terrible. I hope you are feeling better this morning!

[melanie]

How frightening! I'm glad you had your knitting to steady you, but you must be so frustrated to leave without knowing what has gone wrong.

Let's hope it's *really* nothing to worry about!

[Kirstin]

No fun! I hope you are feeling better soon and that they can figure out what's going on.

[May]

This is just terrible that you're still in pain. I hope you feel better soon!