Part 1
I made my way back to the room and eventually was wheeled down the hall in a wheelchair for my first of what would eventually be 4 cat scans.
Eventually we ended up in a really big, cold room. They layered blankets on me and told me that I had to sign something about a dye they were about to put into my system. Doctors were nearby if I were to have a reaction to it. Umm...scary...and not really reassuring.
I am put on an IV and eventually the dye is inserted. They had told me that most people feel a metallic taste in their mouth and warm all over with the urge to pee. Great! Peeing on the cat scan table sounds like fun.
My eyes move up and I see the ceiling which has 4 separate light boxes with a blue sky and big puffy clouds. Focusing on that, I feel the dye enter my body. I say my first prayer while trying to focus on the cloud formations.
The doctors and tech leave the room and I am inserted into the cat scan about 8 different times. Each time, the machine tells you to take a breath, hold it and eventually tells you when to breathe again. Pain, discomfort, chills, loneliness all consume me. Again, I focus on the clouds and my prayers.
Eventually I am taken back to the gurney in the lonely room which will eventually become my home for in total 9 hours. A doctor comes in telling me that they are waiting on Australia to read my scans. I hear them mention the scans for the next 4 hours.
Eventually I beg a doctor passing by to help me get to a phone and call my house. They wheel me out to a phone, the once busy ER is now just me and a guy who came in with a problem on his foot. He pleaded for mercy many times. I have no idea what they were doing to him but, he cried out like a woman many times. Poor thing.
They dialed my number and I hear "daddy's" voice. Ahhhh....finally my husband, the person who is going to tell me everything is going to be OK. I ask him if he got my messages he says no. I told him about my phone signal problem and that we are waiting for scans to be read overseas. The doctor is paged and I hear them say Australia's on the phone. I asked my husband to hold. I relay what the doctor is saying. Acute Diverticulitis with an abscess. I will be admitted. The doctor hangs up and I ask him to tell my husband on the phone what is happening. Mostly so I can hear it and not have to relay it and because I didn't feel very in control and needed someone to be.
They tell him they are admitting me. My husband tells me that Handsome had just fallen asleep and that he will put Goddess to bed (they thought they were going to pick me up eventually). It is late and the kids have school tomorrow. He says he will call me in the morning to see what I need him to bring.
I am wheeled back to my gurney and told that they are waiting on a nurse to assign me a bed. The wait is over 2 hours. I am severely dehydrated, starving (my last meal was at 7:00 a.m. and it is after 11:00), I am in severe pain (refusing medication thinking I was going home and didn't want the kids to see me) and confused. Now that I knew I was staying I wanted pain medication. They gave me morphine which I threw up 15 minutes later.
Begging for a room and a bed I was finally wheeled up it is after 12:45. My roommate is still awake and not happy that she is getting a roommate. I beg for water and I am told that nothing will be given to me but that they will bring me a sponge so I can swab out my mouth.
They do, an hour later. the water on the sponge is horrible and I try to sleep. My roommate has her light and TV on. She is 24, a junkie and pregnant. A nurse comes in and tells her at 2:00 a.m. that she has a roommate and should let me sleep. The girl carries on about her not wanting to turn the TV off, that they should have checked into her sleep history before giving her a roommate. I put my sock over my eyes and try to sleep. I do, until a nurse comes in to draw blood at 4:30. Great!
In the morning I am still in severe pain, hungry and have a severe headache because, well, I am a caffeine addict. It will take 5 days before my head doesn't hurt from not having coffee.
The morning is long, the afternoon longer and the night horrific. I have to unplug my IV every time I have to go to the bathroom.
My roommate comes over and offers a magazine. I say thanks but never read it. I refuse to turn the TV on because that means more money and that I am not leaving. I want to go home.
Clary visits and I am so excited to see her. A friendly face to spend some time with. She offers to pay for the TV, I refuse.
Eventually, my husband brings the kids and I am so happy to see them. It is my first night away from them ever! They leave 20 minutes later. There really isn't much for kids to do at a hospital.
Another night of pain, medication not working. My IV's keep blowing and I my arms look like a junkies.
On the 26th, I am given a swab for my mouth again. My first bit of water in 2 days.
On the 27th, I am given my first potassium drip. It feels like my arm is on fire and I am not happy! I can't take much more pain. The morphine doesn't help and the IV makes me have to pee all the time.
Lauri and Clary come up and wash my hair. I feel like a human for a moment.
They remove my IV and give me oral antibiotics. I am doing hall laps because I am told that I will be leaving tomorrow. Hooray!
I am given broth, tea and apple juice (my first meal in 3 days).
2 hours later, yogurt, ice cream and apple juice.
2 hours later (dinner time) the nurse walks me over to the food cart and shows me two choices (chicken salad on cucumbers which I am told I shouldn't eat because of the seeds and roast beef on white bread with lettuce.
I turned to the nurse and say "I can eat this?!" She says, yes..don't eat the tomatoes because of the seeds. Going back to my room, I take the tomatoes off the sandwich and dive in. It tastes great. I am concerned but figure they are getting me ready for a low-reside diet so I can leave.
In the morning, I am brought cereal (rice crispies), a kaiser roll with butter and jam and coffee. I eat, so happy to have food. Everything seems great but I suddenly feel a white-hot-sharp pain. It blinds me. I ask the nurse if she thought it was just a digestive, gas thing. She says probably, you have a lot of gastric sounds coming from your belly (which she and everyone else has been listening to with their stethoscope).
Suddenly the pains are so bad I have to stand, stretching my arms over my bed I try to breath through them. My back hurts, my stomach hurts, my butt hurts, my vagina hurts. An aid calls the nurse over who is at this time talking pain meds with my roommate who lives around her next pain med. The aid is concerned. She is young and hasn't seen me do anything like this in 3 days. The nurse comes over and asks what is wrong. I can barely speak and say the pain is soooooooooooo bad, I can't see, I can't breathe. She tells me to try to go to the bathroom. She walks me over, I need all her support. I tell her that I am going to pass out (I see the darkness coming and hear buzzing in my head, I know when it will happen). She tells me to calm down and breath. She just keeps saying, "this is very bizarre." She is no more than 26 and I want to scream at her but can't talk. I am scared! She has no words of comfort and keeps telling me to calm down. I can't. My roommate is saying, she IS not like this, something is wrong. I ask, "Please, someone help me, make it stop!" The pain is unbearable. The nurse lies me down in my bed.
It feels like my intestines are going to explode. I spend the next 6 hours in the worst pain I have ever or will ever experience in my life! Crying and sobbing I try to relax, praying that someone will help me. Pleading with God to send angels of mercy and take away my pain.
Ahhhh...Part 3 coming
