Nicole's Notes

The wait was not a good thing. For one thing, it allowed me to notice that for a hospital, there seemed to be a lot of creepy crawlies about. I'm not talking barflies or druggies, I'm talking bugs. Flying bugs, crawling bugs. Not tons, but I saw about half a dozen. Makes you wonder what I didn't see. And they left me hooked to an IV, and didn't really check on me that often, which was minorly annoying (although I hate being disturbed when I'm reading).

Still, 8:30 came around, and at some point near then, the nursing shift changed. The new nurse came in and introduced herself and provided me with a large and unpleasant drink that was the prep for the CT scan. Apparently I had to have it 2 hours before the scan. Now some basic math will show you that I couldn't have my scan until... 10:30am at this point. And since I had been sitting on my duff in the hospital emergency area since roughly 3:30am, you can imagine that I was somewhat peeved not to have received the drink earlier. And since the drink was a laxative and I was tethered to the bed by an IV, you can imagine that I was getting somewhat cross. And since I hadn't had much sleep, you can imagine that I was somewhat... fretful (bitchy is the word that comes to mind).

After finally convincing a passing orderly to attach the IV bag to a wheeled stand, and using the facilities, I was ready just to take off, CT scan be damned. As I was dressing, the nurse finally returned and got a slightly incoherent blast of complaint. She assured me that I woud be seen by the CT techs as soon as they finished with their current person, and gave me some pain medication, and convinced me to get back into the stupid johnny.

Eventually I was wheeled in the stretcher (although I could easily have walked) to the hallway outside the CT scan room (the previous patient was apparently still inside), and left to rot. A nice nurse stopped by and asked me how I was doing (I later realized my stretcher was directly opposite her doorway) and got the CT scan tech to hurry the hell up.

The CT scan was just like it is on TV. Except that there was a pretty waterfall poster attached to the ceiling for you to stare at during the scan. Afterwards, they even let me get dressed in my normal clothes, but still refused to let me walk back to the emergency room area. The nice nurse reappeared, and we got to talking and discovered that her sister is one of my coworkers. She eventually wheeled my stretcher back to the emergency room, and the doctor on duty was convinced to come in and discuss the findings.

The doctor revealed that there was an abscess in my abdomen. Midway through this announcement, he was called to take a phone call, which he did to my annoyance. He came back to explain that the scan wasn't clear on what the abscess was attached to, but that it was a walled off bit of infection that would need to be drained or possibly surgically removed. He would call in a surgeon and a radiologist to talk to me. He bustled off. I called Jason to come to the hospital post haste.

I was wheeled to a much more open (and less likely to be ignored) part of the emergency room facilities and hooked up to some major antibiotics and Jason showed up. The nice nurse stopped by at one point, and I tearily told her the news (what? I'd had less than 2 hours of sleep and wanted my own damn bed, of course I was teary!). She quietly pointed out that the hospital was closing next week and I should definately not have the surgery there. She recommended a particular surgeon at another hospital (one that a lot of the staff and all the records were being transferred to). She implied that the staff remaining were not necessarily the ones I should trust my health to.

At this point (remember the bugginess of the place), I sent Jason off to the parking lot, to use his cell phone outside (it's a hospital, can't use them inside) to contact my doctor's office and find out if they could get me moved and scare up a decent surgeon. They could, they did, and although the emergency room doctor was somewhat offended at this slur on his recommendations, by 5pm my records and I were in an ambulance on my way to a different hospital.

In retrospect, I should have just unhooked the IV and had my husband drive me. Someone who gets motion sick in the best of times should not be forced to ride lying down, facing backwards, in a vehicle without enough shocks, during rush-hour, when she has abdominal pains. I wasn't sick, but I felt pretty green and shaky by the time we arrived at the other hospital. I was glad, at this point, that I didn't have to walk anywhere, only have my stretcher wheeled about. This emergency room was shiny and new looking and nary a bug to be seen. Joy!