The Emergency Room
A new year, full of hope has just begun. 7:00 am- I am having a cup of coffee, checking the weather in all of the places I love, picking up the wine glasses from last night's night caps, and thinking about all of the possibilities a sunny, winter day might bring. Cleaning out the attic was first on my list.
By 9:00 am- Gene was on his way to jury duty and I am vomiting my cappuccino into the toilet. The cream must be bad, I think. I hate how small they print the expiration date, I can't read them. I crawl back into bed as the first pains begin to throb on my right side.
10:00 am- Gene has been dismissed from jury duty and he is on his way home. Natalie has received my panic text and is preparing to come by, I am crumpled on the bed, looking up appendicitis symptoms and so glad that I have identified my diagnosis. Acute appendicitis- sudden onset, severe lower right abdominal pain, vomiting. That's it!
10:10- Gene pours me into the car and we are heading to the closest hospital, the sidewalks are wet from last nights rain and the wheelchairs look welcoming. I am hoping they have a surgeon on call.
10:30- I am in, I have a student nurse poking at my, typically easy veins. She blew three of them. She is so new, she used phrases like, "this one looks strange" rather than, "sorry, I blew that one". I invited her to use the language of the experienced nurse by saying "that one is blown, you will have to try again". To be "blown" means that the blood and fluid is running freely under the skin, making a big bruise. If you keep pushing more fluid it just makes a bigger bruise.
I tolerated her blowing three veins, before asking for someone more experienced. My tolerance for student nurses runs deep. Everyone begins as "the student" and being the daughter of a nurse, parent of two nurses, and a nurse who trained thousands, I love student nurses and hope they will love nursing. We need them.
The regimen of testing begins about 11:30am. First the CT scan, then the ultrasound. I'm still thinking that I have appendicitis and will be heading to surgery soon. My pain remains at about a 7 which is tolerable with pain meds on board.
By 1:00 in the afternoon, nothing has changed, except there is lots of discussion about the results. There are suspicious masses on the CT. The ultrasound shows torsion of the ovary. That is the source of my pain, not the appendix. There is something magical about looking inside your body, without surgery. They could see a mass on my lung, one on my liver, several around my uterus and ovary. Magical and terrifying. The news sinks in that this isn't an appendix, isn't simple, and that I am taking the first step into a dark tunnel that may or may not have a brightly lit exit door.
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