It was so good to be home and sleeping in my own bed last night. I had a wonderful group of nurses and LNAs taking care of me, and my hospital bed was comfortable enough. However, there is nothing like my own bed. I haven’t been able to say much about what happened not because I was keeping anything secret but because: 1) I did not feel like writing much and 2) I did not have a phone charger with me so I could only do so much before the battery was going to die. Luckily, I started feeling better, but also because one of my overnight LNAs offered to take my phone and charge it using her charger while I was sleeping.
Anyway, you are probably asking what happened. Friday night, I got a severe migraine, and when I woke up Saturday morning, I still had the migraine but my back was also hurting and I had a stomachache. The stomachache got worse throughout the day. I one point, the pain was bad enough that I could not move. I was on my side and tried to roll over onto my back and wasn’t able to because of the pain it caused. I was nauseated and vomitted at least three or four times during the day and had been running a low grade fever off and on throughout the day. At this point, I would normally would have gone to urgent care, but there were reasons I didn’t. We received 9” of snow over Friday night and throughout the day on Saturday. While roads had been plowed, I would have had to clean the snow off my car, and I was in no condition to do that. I was also in way to much pain to drive anywhere or to get up and do any of that. I took medicine that I hoped would help and alternated between my bed and the couch. I eventually fell asleep and mostly slept through the night not having been able to eat anything the day before. I had drank a cup of tea first thing, but that had seemed to take forever to get down, I had drank as much water as I could keep down, but it wasn’t much.
When I woke up Sunday morning, I was feeling better, but not a lot better. Susan convinced me to go to urgent care, which I did and was there just after they opened at 9 am. When I finally saw a doctor and told her what was going on, she examined me and poked and prodded me. I cried out in pain as she pushed down on the upper right quadrant of my abdomen. She said, let me make a phone call. She left the room and came back a few minutes later to tell me that she had talked to the doctor at the emergency room at the hospital and she was sending me there. She suspected it was either the flu or my gallbladder. She said that when I arrived to tell them she had sent me. Since I had driven to the clinic, they let me drive to the ER. The nurses in the ER thought I might have the flu and tested me for Covid and the flu. Both came back negative. They hooked me up to an IV because my blood pressure was very low, something like 90/56, and I showed signs of dehydration. On the weekends, the hospital apparently doesn’t have people who can do ultrasounds, so they sent me for a CT scan. What the CT scan found was that I had an obstruction in the small intestine, some minor kidney damage, and an enlarged spleen. They admitted me to the the hospital, and I was taken to a room.
While the nurses and LNAs had checked in on my regularly and taking my vitals throughout the days and nights, I only saw a doctor for about a minute Sunday night, maybe two minutes Monday morning, and another two minutes Tuesday morning. Basically, the only thing he told me was that the kidney damage and enlarged spleen on the scan was probably from dehydration, and if I kept feeling better and had no setbacks, he would begin progressing my diet, which he did. He told me if I did well on the progressed diet, that I should be able to go home. I was told by the nurses that the best treatment was to limit my diet and allow the IV fluids they had given me to get things moving again. The ER doctor had told me that surgery did not look necessary and that the most they might have to do is to send this thing down my nose and into my intestine which would then balloon up and push anything on through. She said it was an unpleasant procedure and would only become necessary if the rest and fluids did not work.
By Sunday evening, there had been signs of movement, but nothing to indicate that the blockage had moved, and I was only allowed ice chips. At this point, the only thing I’d had since Friday night had been some water, a little ginger ale, and some hot tea. I really did not want to eat. My blood pressure and glucose remained low and my temperature was still slightly elevated. I was miserable. Eventually, there were small signs of movement during the day on Monday, and I was allowed to be on a clear liquid diet starting that night. I still had some pain whenever I took in anything more than ice chips, but things did seem to be getting better. On Tuesday morning, they let me have a full liquid diet. I have never been so excited over vanilla pudding before. Around mid-morning, a nurse brought me the room service menu and told me I had been allowed a full diet and could order whatever I’d like. I ordered an open faced turkey sandwich with gravy, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and some vanilla ice cream. When the lid came off, I immediately got nauseated, but that passed and I was able to start eating. I ate maybe a third of it because it was making me nauseated, and it was very bland, which I had expected.
About mid-afternoon, a guy came in and said he was there to take out my IV, and I said, “I assume this means I’m going home.” He said that’s usually what it means. My nurse of the day came in, said she had some paperwork for me, went over the information about what medicines I’d been given and what I had not been given (they kept me off my blood pressure medicine since my blood pressure was so low), and asked me to sign another sheet of paper. I said, “So, I can go home?” She said, “Yep, you can go home.” I said, “I just get dressed and walk out?” She said, “Yes, unless you want a wheelchair to be brought up to take you out.” I told her I was fine on my own. I got dressed, and as I was walking done the hallway following the signs from the elevator, I saw my LNA of the day, and told her goodbye and asked if the elevator was just ahead. She said she’d walk me to it. We were talking on the way to the elevator and I told her I had to find my way around to get to my car which was in the ER parking lot. She said she’d walk me through the emergency department and rode the elevator with me and let me through the employee area to a set of doors just behind my car. I got in my car, sent some messages to different people telling them I was on my way home, and then drove home.
It was an ordeal, but thankfully it was not worse than it was, and I did not require any surgery or any more significant time away from Isabella. By the way, I did have a friend bring me a phone charger, but it was having some trouble which is why the nighttime LNA charged my phone for me. I told my boss that I would not be in this week. My coworker, who isn’t known as the most friendly person, texted on Monday to see if I needed her to go check on Isabella. I thanked her and told her that I had neighbors who would do that. My boss texted to check on me, sounding reluctant that she was doing so, at least it seemed that way to me. My cold and distant coworker sent a warmer message than my boss. I just can’t get that woman. Anyway, she should be working her ass off today with me not there. We are having an event that I’ve been planning for months, and she has continually added more and more for me to do and offering no help or assistance. Now, she gets to reap the rewards of her style of management that has everybody do only their job and nothing more. We are a three person staff, siloing jobs doesn’t work. Maybe she will learn a lesson. I will be taking a sick day tomorrow also.
Joe
The Closet Professor 