Friday, August 05, 2005

Spent The Night In The ER

It was such a lovely night. Not. After having abdominal pains on and off all day yesterday, I developed a sudden fever (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) at about 9PM and decided it was time to go to the ER. I was lightheaded, nauseous, and still had sharp pains from time to time in my upper abdomen (some were so bad I had to do my breathing to get through them). I had Brian bring me up to the ER and had him stay home with Maggie. After waiting FOREVER to get into a room, they decided to do blood tests and a urinalysis. By this time, the pain was mostly gone (just a dull ache) but the fever was plaguing me. I waited on the very uncomfy bed (more like a table with a minimal cushion on top) across from the noisy nurses' station. I missed Maggie terribly, too - even though she would have been asleep by then anyway. The doctor came in at one point to say that what they got back so far from my labs was fine but it sounded like it could be the gallbladder so he wanted me to have an ultrasound done. Since it was now about 2AM I had to wait it out until the ultrasound techs came in in the morning. I tried my best to sleep but it was horrible sleeping conditions. When I awoke at 5:15AM, I asked if I could call Brian. As I expected, he was awake feeding Maggie. He was concerned but I had no further news at that time. They took my temp again and it was back up from 37 degrees Celsius (about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to 38.7 degrees Celsius (101.66 degrees Fahrenheit). More Tylenol. Then I went off for my abdominal ultrasound. It was nowhere near as exciting as ultrasounds when you're pregnant, that's for sure! Then back to my room to wait for them to rediscover me hours later. I was getting pretty cranky at this point. Last night, a little kid had been screaming in the halls that he wanted to go home...I was on the verge of that. Eventually, the new shift doctor came in and we re-hashed everything. Apparently, they didn't find anything abnormal in the bloodwork, urinalysis, or ultrasound. He felt my belly and said it felt normal. So I was discharged... No idea why it happened, and no real instructions other than to call or return if it got worse. I hate our local hospital.

I'm relieved that it's nothing serious. Because they would have found *something* if it was, right? I'll just have to take it easy and hope for the best... I certainly don't want to end up back there, after all!

4 comments:

Kether said...

I was reading and thinking, "Hmm..this sounds like my gallbladder before I had it out.." and then you said your doc thought that. I don't want to scare you, but I suggest an appointment with your regular doctor. Just in case.

~Tanya~ said...

I know this is no help but just made me think about my sister. Did anything come up about giving birth a short time ago? I ask b/c my sister says she is still having contractions sometimes hard ones. Her ob said something about the meds that were used to induce her. I don't know the details & don't mean this is what you have or to scare you. Just something that came to mind. My sister did have more of a time w/ the inducing meds if you remember. Hmmmm.... I think I would go in & talk to your regular dr. too.

Allison said...

with that low grade of a fever it sounds like you had a viral bug to me. I had something very similar last week, thought it was food poisoning, and then realized our house had something viral because we all ended up getting it. I'm glad they didn't find anything...sometimes that is better but it sure stinks being in the ER for that long.

Anonymous said...

hope your feeling better