Divider

Divider

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Done With the ER

So, it was about 12:30 AM before I finally saw the doctor in the ER yesterday...That would be about 11 hours after I arrived. When I finally saw the doctor at that point, I had a terrible migraine. I was so beside myself I was actually crying to the doctor about how much pain I was in and how terribly I felt they treated me.

Somewhere around 9 PM, I had finally asked the nurse for Tylenol, just to take the edge off the migraine throughout the evening, but they couldn't do anything for me until I saw the doc. I couldn't have anything to drink, and I was in the middle of the hallway right underneath the florescence lights. I did what I could to cover my eyes from the brightness, but I was just in so much pain. By the time the docs saw me, I hadn't had anything to drink in 11 hours. When I spoke with doctor, she decided that I probably was dehydrated, and luckily she did have the sense to realize that they had exacerbated the whole problem.

When I had left the urgent care center, the doctor there thought that I might have vertigo. But because of my EKG, she wanted me to get my heart checked out more. When I arrived at the ER, they did do another EKG, which the doc that I spoke with at 12:30 AM finally said that it did come out normal. But because of my migraine and because of my now dehydration, that was what she focused on. She never did look into my ears to check to see if there are indeed was fluid, like urgent care had said. And she never did address the vertigo issue. Pretty much, she treated the symptoms for the migraine and the dehydration.

The good news is, though, that she did say that one of the medications I'm on does create dehydration if you don't stay on top of your fluids. She said that you have to drink way more than you actually would normally have to because of the way the medication works. So, it very well could have been dehydration that caused the dizzy feeling I was having. I think that the whole experience, though, which I likened to a form of torture, made it difficult for me to trust that she knew what she was talking about.

In any case, she decided the plan would be to pump me with fluids and to get me medication ASAP. She even agreed that what had happened to me was unacceptable. When she left the side of my bed, she said she was going straight over to put the orders in to get the blood work going, and get me on the fluids and pain meds. So I covered my head back up to avoid the light, and waited. It was at least another hour before she was walking by in the hall again and noticed that I didn't have an IV.  She said that it was completely unacceptable and went back down the hall to go get somebody to get the fluids and meds immediately.

So I was probably hooked up to fluids and meds sometime around 2:30 a.m. By then I was sooooo exhausted. As soon as the pain meds were administered, I was moved out of the center hallway into a curtained off area where the lights could be dimmed and I was finally able to relax a little bit to catch some sleep here and there throughout the night.

At some point in the middle of the night, the doctor came back to me to talk about the results of the blood work and she said that everything came back normal. She was going with the diagnosis of dehydration. At that point, I was so woozy from the medicine they gave me to stop the migraine, that I couldn't quite think straight to ask my questions. Of course, now I have many questions, but it's too late. I am going to follow up with my primary care doc, though, and see if I can get some of my questions answered by her.

Once I woke up this morning, they told me that I could leave whenever I was ready to leave. I couldn't wait to get the heck out of there! I called Prince Charming and he got the kids up and dressed, shuffled them into the car, and then came to the hospital to get me. I still had to go and get my car from the urgent care center where it was left yesterday, but that was easy enough.

When I finally got home, I rested on and off while the kids watched some TV. My mother's helper came in the afternoon for a couple of hours to help with the kids and a couple of light chores, which was a huge help to me today. I'm finally starting to feel a little bit more like myself. However, I definitely still need to catch up on some more rest. Tonight was a takeout night, for sure!

Grateful for your support,
Marathon Momma

No comments:

Post a Comment