Day at the ER

What. A. Day.

We had decided last night that we would head into the ER today if Roger wasn't feeling any better. My google MD was causing me to worry about all the things that could be wrong.

I was able to get a friend to watch the older 3 kids. (Thanks Angie!) (Angie also happens to be the same person that watched my kids when Adaiah was born. I'm open to all thank you gift giving suggestions!)So, with the kids well taken care of, we headed to the ER.

I don't like the ER. It's a creepy place. Sitting in the waiting room there was a little boy, roughly Josephs age, who looked like he had an encounter with a baseball bat? I don't know what happened to the little guy but he held a towel to his face the entire time. Only when he was (finally) called back did I see all of the blood. (I had to turn my head. It made me cry) Then there was the elderly group. They were there for a friend/brother. He was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle. He was flown in. I think he is a Pastor, and from what I heard he still has every intention of preaching on Friday. Don't know where he is preaching or why it's on a Friday, but he wants to be the one to wrap up the current sermon/series. I'll spare you the details from the rest of the waiting room. Your welcome.

After about 45 minutes or so Roger was called back. I went with him, only to be stopped at the door "she can't come in here. No babies allowed." I was... well, I was going to say mad but I was so much more than that. I was sad and frustrated... and a few dozen other emotions too. So I had to turn around and go back to the waiting room. Adaiah was as good as gold the entire time by the way. Really, she couldn't have been any better. Thank you Lord for that! So after I calmed down I tried talking to the people at the front desk so I could figure out what was going to happen. I mean, who was going to give me updates? Where were they taking him? (they brought him to a different part of the hospital than the other ER patients that were being called back)...

Ok, fast forward an hour. I asked the nurse for an update and she called me outside. For a moment my heart sank, I thought it was going to be bad. But she said "come with me, I'm going to sneak you in there" So I followed her, keeping my head down and ignoring the nurses from the other nurses station :) She got me back there and there I stayed until Roger was discharged. I cried when I walked in the room, I think Roger thought I lost my mind. I was just happy to be with him. Maybe it's just a girl thing, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be all alone in there for so long! He was feeling terrible though so he was mostly sleeping anyway.

(yeah, ok this just isn't going to be a short story, it's been a long day) :)

When I got in their Roger was hooked up to oxygen and a monitor for his blood oxygen level, heart rate, and blood pressure. That was all that had been done in the past hour. ugh. Another hour went by and the nurse came in to say that she hadn't forgotten about us, it's just been a crazy day. Yeah tell me about it! You know what we had to listen to during that loooong wait? A very high woman screaming and whining and carrying on in the room next door. She was under custody, a Deputy Sheriff brought her in. 2 officers guarded her door. She was making me crazy. The fits she threw reminded me of Hannah having a tantrum when she is really tired. She whined things that made no sense and asked for medicine, which the nurses kept reminding her she is allergic to. The mom in me wanted to go over there and wash her mouth out for talking so nasty. Only, this wasn't a little girl throwing a tantrum. It was a 20 something woman high as a kite. Only about 20 minutes before Roger was discharged did she finally quiet down. The police officer that was there at the time threatened to tie her to the bed if she didn't calm down (she was REALLY out of control at that point)

Anyway, back to Roger. The Dr came in and asked various questions. Already I liked him better than the specialist we saw on Monday. He wasn't sure that this sounded like an asthma attack, but ordered a nebulizer treatment just in case. He also ordered blood work, an EKG, a chest x-ray, and some CT scans.

A few hours later we got the results.

Everything came back good. His white blood cell count is a little high, but the high dose of steroids that he is on can do that. The CT scan showed no signs of blood clots. There did seem to be some tube...or something... leading to the lungs that is collapsed. He didn't think that was all that significant. It didn't explain the pain/discomfort/breathing problems that Roger is having. There were a few other things that were tested (via bloodwork) too but I don't remember. They all came back good though.

So he recommended that Roger goes back to the specialist on Friday. I'm not too thrilled with that plan, but what else are we going to do? He can't get in to the new guy until the 14th. So... we'll just have to go to the old guy and demand more tests. I don't understand why he didn't order any before. Hopefully we'll get some more answers on Friday. Today I at least learned that I shouldn't let my mind wander when dubbing myself a google MD.




The End