Three choices,,,,

Ok, yesterday I wasn’t feeling all that great, well, really it was the second day/night in a row when things just didn’t ‘seem’ right. I mean I knew that I wasn’t having a heart attack, yet there was something wrong. So, I did what I had been told by my health insurance to do, call the Nurse 24/7 hotline.

I gave the nurse the list of medications that she didn’t read off to me from her computer screen. Then I went on to answer her questions, but she was getting impatient with me when I couldn’t answer some of the questions with just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I’m sorry, I have Multiple Sclerosis, the numbness in my feet and hands weren’t anything new. I know I have a problem with my esophagus, which is why I’m telling you this, I have a hitial hernia that is ulcerated, I’ve had it for 3o years, but since last October it started growing and now has been nice enough to pull my stomach up over my lungs.

Yes, I can tell you why I’m calling. I’m calling to see if you know of something I can take that will stop me from ‘belching’ out the A,B,C’s like somebody who has had too many beers. I feel like I have enough gas in me to get me to California and I live in Connecticut! No I didn’t wait until after hours on purpose. I waited since it wasn’t this bad yesterday or earlier today.

Do I think I can get to the hospital? Uhmm yeah, but do I really need to know how to get there? Oh… you are going to give me ‘three choices’ about this. Gee thank you so much! The first is if I can get somebody to take me there; if not, do I have a way of calling 911 (let’s see, if I called an 800# I think I can dial 911), or if I don’t have either options, she could call 911 for me.

So, silly me, asked the next question,,, ‘why’? The answer was pretty easy,,,’You need to get to the hospital.’ Ok, let’s try this again,,,’Why?’

‘So the Dr’s can find out what is wrong with you?’

‘What is wrong with me?’

‘If I knew that I wouldn’t be sending you to the hospital. So, let me ask again. Do you think you can either find somebody to take you to the hospital? If not, can you call 911? Or do you need me to call 911 for you?’

I asked my boyfriend who was in the next room if he could drive me to the hospital or should I call 911? He said he could drive me, he came looking at me with a question in his eyes.

Before I could hang up on the call the nurse told me somebody would contact me in 48 hours to see what happened. Okie dokie. We get out to the car, it’s a nice night out. I called the E.R. just to see how long of a wait it would be in the E.R. and was told an hour and a half. Wonderful.

We get to the E.R. met by Security, asking if I need a wheelchair, after my boyfriend had just gotten my walker out of the back seat of the car. I just looked at him, and he said “You might be more comfortable in the wheelchair considering how long it will take to be seen.”

“Sure I’ll take the wheel chair, sorry about you having to fight with the walker.”

The nice and friendly Security Guard had wheeled me to the ‘check in’ desk. I have her all the information. I did ask if I could get some oxygen in ‘triage’ and was told ‘No’. Alright. Within 10 minutes a very young nurse called my name (there were only two of us in the waiting area, my boyfriend and myself), he came over to me and wheeled me into what I call the ‘interrogation’ room. I answered all the questions, then when it came down to my list of medications, I just pulled the list out of my wallet. My boyfriend updates a copy once a month if needed, if not, he’ll just print out more for me for when I go to the Dr’s.

A quarter of the way through the questions, another nurse comes out and takes over. I wasn’t sure what that was about, and to be honest, I really didn’t need to know. I was wheeled into an exam room thinking ‘Hey, this is great, it’s only been about 20 minutes for all this to take place not an hour and a half!’ Oh how silly am I?

Another nurse comes in, tells me to get undressed – but I’m just wearing my night shirt and a pair of slacks. I still have to get undressed though. Great, it hurts to move, and I have to get changed. I wasn’t hooked up to anything, the nurse said the Dr. would see me soon. Two hours later, another nurse came in to draw blood. I still hadn’t seen a Dr. yet, but she had to draw blood. She already knew I was a ‘tough stick’, I guess that is notated in all of my chart about that. I asked her if she couldn’t get it after the first try could she use warm towels – which is what I had been told a few times already, but she told me they didn’t have any of those. So, I told her that I had also been told to ask somebody from I.V. department, and she said she was ‘it’. I took a long deep breath, again something that hurt.

She finally got the I.V. in after three times (you are supposed to get another nurse or somebody else if one nurse can’t get it after two times), then I was taken down for a CATSCAN. I still hadn’t seen a Dr. yet. I even asked the nurse who was doing the I.V. to me if I was going for a CATSCAN and she said ‘No’, then she called X-Ray to come and take me for my CATSCAN.

About two hours after the CATSCAN, the Dr. finally comes to see me. He asks how I’m doing, and I told him not that great. So, he said he was going to give me something to help me with the gas. Also he told me that he couldn’t see too much in my esophagus since it was ‘clogged’. I already know what the X-Ray technician told me – he had taken four x-rays, and he still didn’t get the full extent of my stomach since it is up so high on my lungs. He called down to the Dr. to tell him that and asked the Dr. if he wanted anymore pictures and the Dr. said ‘no’.

throughout all of this, I start to get very itchy. Wonderful! I tell the nurse who took over for the one who did the I.V. Plus I let this nurse know that the I.V. wasn’t dripping since I had my CATSCAN. Lovely,,,, here we go again,,, have to try to put in a new I.V.  I also show her the rash that is recent, but itches very badly.

The nurse goes out to get the I.V. tray and tries twice (after she pulled the first needle out, which is bent), then tells me she is going to talk to the Dr. since she will not try to stick me again (Yeah a nurse who knows the rules!).

By the time we got out of the hospital it was 7:00 am and we had gotten there at 10:30 pm. There was the quick pit stop to the 24 hour drugstore to get the two medications from the Dr. One is to help with the gas, and the other is for the rash. I also have to call my Dr. to let him know what happened.

To be honest, if this happens again, I’m not calling the 24/7 nurse or go to the hospital. I was so wiped out and I have a nice bruise on my arm from one of the attempts to do the I.V.