My Trip to the ER

TMI warning!

So 2 weeks ago I experienced one of my first's....I went to the Emergency Room. I woke up on a Thursday morning and I felt sick so I called in sick to work. I figured I just had the flu that's going around so I told Mike he could go to school. I laid down and relaxed and I started to feel a little better. I decided that I would take a nice hot shower and then work on some ideas for a bulletin board at work. When I got out of the shower my stomach started hurting. I felt nauseous and kind of dizzy. So I laid down again and drank some more water. About an hour later the pain was so bad that I couldn't stand up. Anytime I moved at all I felt like someone was punching me in the stomach repeatedly. So I called Mike and asked him to come home. I hadn't gotten sick yet but I felt awful. We called Dr. L but he said we should go to the emergency room to see what was wrong.

So Mike drove faster than he has ever driven to Spartanburg Regional. (Funny story: Apparently on the way to the hospital I was telling Mike that we couldn't go because I was wearing sweats, I didn't have any makeup on and my hair wasn't done. He kept telling me it didn't matter but I was arguing that it did matter and that no one could see me that way....good to know I had my priorities straight ;)

So basically, I hated this hospital first of all, the entrance for the emergency room is in the back. So you have to drive all the way around the hospital to get to it....you know cause the people who are going to the ER aren't in a rush or anything.  So we go inside and I have to sit down right away cause my abdominal region is hurting so bad. So we sit and we sit and finally go into triage after about 20 minutes or so. Then we go back out and sit some more. Finally I tell Mike I need to go to the bathroom but there is only one and its being used. Which was fine since I couldn't even make it to the door before the world began spinning and I collapsed against the wall and couldn't move. So Mike went and got me a wheelchair to sit in. The best part was that he got me one that I could curl up in and practically lay down. So while we waited I tried to sleep and I did a little bit. Finally after 2 hours we were called into another office to tell a RN about my problem again and then we registered.

After we registered we waited for another 2 hours (its been 4 so far if you're counting) and finally went back to a room. Now I'm not crazy. I know that you have to wait a long time when you go to an emergency room. I didn't expect to be able to just go see the doctor. However it was frustrating seeing people come in after me and leave the hospital before I even saw the doctor and to see people sitting around talking on cell phones and complaining that they had been waiting for 30 minutes. However, this isn't the reason that this hospital is crap.

When we finally got back, the nurse had to do all the preliminary vital checks. So she checked my blood pressure, then she did an EKG, and of course she had to draw blood and hook me up to an IV. Now I've had blood drawn quite a few times so I'm pretty used to it by now. I really wasn't expecting it to hurt much and I knew that as long as I didn't watch I would be fine. Suddenly I feel a pain that overshadowed my abdominal pain (which was a lot less now that I was laying down again but still) and I hear the nurse tell Mike that she needs him to go get a nurse to get her more gauze cause I have blood running down my arm. I'm thinking "what the heck did you do?" She was moving the needle around like crazy and it took forever for her to draw the blood and get the IV in. When she finally did I just looked at her thinking "really you could have just let me do it myself....probably would've had the same result but at least I'm not supposed to know what i'm doing you moron"

Then she tells me that I need to have a CT scan done to rule out some things like appendicitis. I'm fine with that and I go sit in a recliner in the little waiting area. Suddenly she says that Mike can't wait with me. He has to back out to the general waiting room. I started freaking out. When I'm in pain I like to have someone with me. Nothing is scarier than being in pain, not knowing why and being alone. So he leaves and I'm scared, in pain and I'm so cold that I'm shaking. I couldn't get up so I just sat there. Then a nice gentleman who was waiting for the results of his tests went and got a nurse and told her that I needed help. When she came over I asked for a blanket and for her to please go ask my husband to call my parents and give them an update. (I had forgotten my phone at home) Then I asked why exactly my husband couldn't stay with me. She responded by saying that the chairs were for patients and what if they were all full then their would be no where for family members to sit. I'm thinking then they would stand up but at least let them stay if the patient wants someone with them.

After a little while, a nurse comes back and hands me a cup and tells me to drink it. She walks away before I can ask what it is or why I have to drink it. So I drink it and it tasted like garbage. I felt like I was going to be sick. When she came back I asked her what it was and she said it was a drink to make things show up on the CT scan....she said it in a way that she was shocked that I had the nerve to ask what was being forced down my throat. Then she put another bag of fluids on the IV and also gave me some morphine and something for nausea and another cup of that stuff. I drank it fast and then the morphine kicked in. I suddenly wasn't in any pain and I fell fast asleep.

The nurse woke me up a little while later and told me I could go back in the room and wait to talk to the doctor. I was a little confused and dazed but I said ok. I went in and tried not to go back to sleep but I remember asking someone to go get Mike Epperson  because they had told me he could be there when the doctor came in. Anyway the doctor came in and Mike wasn't there. He told me that they weren't going to do the CT scan because the pain was everywhere and not centralized (so why did I have to drink that stuff?...the day just gets better and better). He says that I probably have a pelvic inflammatory disease which was caused by an STD. I look at him and respond with, "I'm 110% sure that I don't". He responds with rolling his eyes and writing something down. Then he leaves and the nurse unhooks the IV and gives me 4 antibiotics to take. Then she tells me to take Ibuprofen if I feel any pain and to consult a gynecologist in 4 days for a follow up. Ummm ok.......shouldn't I be taking more antibiotics over the next few days????

At this point we had been at the hospital for almost 7 hours, I hadn't eaten all day and I was exhausted. I found Mike and we went home. When I told him what the doctor said he immediately wanted a second opinion and said that the diagnosis made no sense. I couldn't have agreed more.

The next morning I was still feeling yucky so I called in sick to work and then called Dr. L's office to get that second opinion. I called and asked if we could come in as soon as possible and the nurse said they had an opening at 11am that day so I called Mike and told him that we needed to go to Greenville. Thankfully he only had to miss one class and it was a review day that he didn't need so we went to Greenville.We explained what happened to Dr. L and the look on his face when we told him the diagnosis we got was priceless. He was so close to calling them stupid for saying that without actually knowing anything. Instead he ordered an ultrasound for me. He thought maybe I had ovulated and wanted to make sure everything was good since I had been on estrogen for 2 weeks and this could have just been my bodies response to it.

So we got all set up and I had an internal ultrasound done (oh boy that was an experience). (This is where it gets a little personal so I'll just skip to the results). He said that their was a lot of fluid everywhere. He is pretty positive that this was from a ruptured ovarian cyst. We also found out that my body is responding well to the estrogen. It is preparing nicely for a period in a few weeks. Unfortunately with a cyst their is really nothing to do but let the fluid come out so that the pressure can be lessened and just let it pass. At least we know though that no more were forming and that everything internally looks good.

It took a few days but after about a week I started to feel like myself again. I went up to the .075 estrogen patch for the last 2 weeks and that went well with nothing unusual happening. Yesterday I started the Progesterone. I will take this pill every night for the next 10 days. Hopefully at the end I will start my period. I'm really hoping this works and I keep thinking I'm probably one of the few women in the world who is actually looking forward to and hoping for her cycle to start.

We'll keep you updated on any changes. For now I'm just really hoping not to have anymore cysts form. We just hope things keep going well :)