Wow

So last night I made it back to the ER with the same type pain. They did the usual labs and found that my potassium was pretty low. They made me swallow horse pills that replenished that potassium and I had to go back in today to get my blood redrawn (to make sure the ER gave me enough.) My potassium is back up, but I have been told I have to drink Gatorade (to keep my electrolytes up) and have my blood drawn AGAIN tomorrow. They're still not quite sure what caused the low potassium (it's been normal throughout this whole ordeal.) The ER doctor yesterday wanted to admit me, but the on-call admitting doctor said no because my surgeon wouldn't be in until Thursday and the on-call doctor "didn't have room in her schedule to see me." So, the ER doctor said "I feel horrible about sending you home, because they are more than likely going to admit you by the end of the week. If it's any consolation, I will make sure you are comfortable before you leave (i.e. more Morphine) and I'll send you home with a prescription for strong pain killers and an anti-nausea med to get you through until you meet with your surgeon." So, tomorrow, I meet with the surgeon and get my "sentence" so to speak. We'll see how that goes.

Update

So yesterday, I went in for my EGD (camera down my throat). I found out a few things. 1-I DO NOT like the drug Versed...it's what they give you so you don't remember the procedure. I woke up this morning so jittery and anxious because I could not remember almost 24 hours of my life...weird feeling. But apparently, this is a not rare, but not "common" side effect because apparently it took quite a bit of the drug to sedate me enough to do the procedure. 2-The surgeon is almost positive that I will need to have my gallbladder out. 3-They had to take a few biopsies...don't remember of what or why (because of the lovely drug Versed). I have my follow-up to go over all the results and my options with the surgeon next Wednesday.

You'd think I'd learn after 10 or so times...

So, yesterday, I realized that I had failed to learn a lesson from SEVERAL previous incidents...FYI, it is a good idea to find your glasses BEFORE you take out your contacts. Take it from me...it can be very difficult to find your glasses when all you see is a blurry mess.

Just tell me already!

So, my doctor's office called with the results from the gallbladder scan. They "want me to come in to discuss the results" UGH! Just tell me already! So, my appointment for that is on Thursday. ANYWAYS...mission update. I got my picture taken by Teresa Willnauer to send in with my mission application, and I LOVE it. Now all my paperwork is DONE. So, all I have left is a meeting with the bishop (the pastor of my congregation), which is scheduled on Thursday; and then meet with the Stake President (the leader over several local congregations.) Once I have their stamps of approval, my application will be sent to Salt Lake where the general authorities (big wigs of the church, so to speak) review it and decide where I am going to serve for 18 months. I'm almost there! Anyways, I'm curious where people think I'm going to be sent. So, leave a response to this post telling me where you think I'll go...leave 2 guesses, one for if I stay in the states, and one if I go foreign...and the language you think I'll be speaking (i.e. San Antonio, Texas on a Filipino speaking mission...) If anyone guesses it, they might get a prize!

Ugh!

So I had my follow up appt with my family doctor (after having one more "episode" on Sunday. Luckily, that one was handled with the pain meds the ER sent me home with.) Before he was even in the room for 2 seconds (he had just read about my ER adventure), he said "you need a pipita scan." Since there were no stones in the ultrasound, my doctor is playing with the possibility that my gallbladder just isn't functioning properly. So, this scan is where they get die into the bile in the gallbladder and watch how the gallbladder gets rid of it. If this scan shows that it isn't working, that means that I get to have it out. FUN! At least this is happening now, when I am NOT on my mission, and have a job that will support me having the surgery. (I have accrued so much sick time that I could take a month off if I needed it.) So, that's the latest...this mission prep is killing me!

I hate long blogs, so I broke this one up..at the ER

So, when the nurse came out to triage and asks "are YOU my patient" with a smirk on his face, it makes you feel really good...I love being known in all the ERs. This time I was VERY grateful that I hadn't delivered a difficult patient to them that day. The nurse saw me writhing in pain, and my blood pressure of 140/100 and decided that something was up. They took me back to a room (the room that we always put our really sick patients, by the way...I didn't think I was that sick). I saw the doctor that was working and recognized him from when I did my clinicals in school. I loved this guy, he was just a generally good guy. Well, they told me that one of the P.A.'s would be seeing me, more than likely. So, my supervisor went and talked to Dr. Goldenburg who then said "oh, yeah, I'll see her right now." The doctor came in (much to my relief), poked around on my belly, asked me the usual questions, and then said "how about you get and IV and some pain meds, then we'll talk." YES!!!! I knew I loved this guy. So, to sum up, one IV, two narcotics, and one anti-puke drug later, I felt pretty dang good. They did an ultrasound and saw no gallstones, but said my gallbladder was a little enlarged. Dr. Goldenburg said "well, the tests were pretty much inconclusive, but my gut (no pun intended) is telling me that it was your gallbladder. You presented as a classic case. You could have had a single stone that passed before we could catch it on the ultrasound." So, they sent me home with a prescription for Prevacid and Lortab and told me to follow up with my primary care doctor. My supervisor was amazing, staying with my up until 10 minutes before I was discharged, seeing to it that I got the care I needed, and even offering to drive me across the county, to my home afterwards. My very close friend, when she heard I was in the ER, dropped what she was doing, and came up to stay with me and drive me home. While initially, I thought that the urgent cares being closed was a "curse", later I realized it was truly a blessing. No way would I have gotten all the tests done so quickly (or the pain meds, either) if I hadn't been in an ER. Just goes to prove that "someone" is watching out for our best interest, even if we don't know it at the time.

Never ask 'what else?'

So the title of my last blog was 'What Else?' I would like to retract that statement...I don't want to know the answer. Yesterday, I was at work having a blast with my partner. Between her trying to combine the word 'fit' with the word 'tuck' and accidentally dropping the f-bomb on scene in front of a patient (don't worry, the patient was gorked, so she didn't notice), and my partner almost yelling at the entire county by talking into the radio mic instead of the P.A. mic on the ambulance while she was pretending to yell at the drivers that wouldn't pull to the right. It was a great shift. Then we ran a basic diabetic call. This guy's blood sugar was low, but he was awake, so we were watching him eat and patiently waiting for his blood sugar to raise. I started having what I thought was really bad heartburn. I wiggled around enough to tolerate it, but towards the end of the call I was just thinking "would this guy hurry up and get better already!" So, we finish that call, and go back to the station. That's when it hit. I couldn't sit still because the pain was so bad. My partner, watching me wiggle and rock in the office chair said "that's it, I'm sending you home." Well, after calling all the urgent cares and finding that they were all closed (convenient, huh), we decided (well, my partner and supervisor decided) that I needed to go to the ER. So, the ambulance went out of service until someone else showed up at the station, and my supervisor drove me to the ER....

Geez, what else?

So, I was working on a snowy, slushy day. People were getting into little (and big) car accidents left and right. My partner and I just finished getting fuel in the ambulance when we get another 911 call. Okay, no big deal right? Well, on my way to the call, all of a sudden another car collides with the ambulance. Luckily, no one was hurt, except another ambulance had to be called to handle the 911 call we were supposed to be running, and the bumper of the car that collided with us was no longer attached to the car...Well, it is county policy that the driver of the ambulance has to immediately go and do a pee drug test and a breath-a-lizer. Well, I had already gone to the bathroom an hour or so before. Those of you that know me...know that this posed a problem. My camel-sized bladder caused me to have to down 24 oz of Dr Pepper and almost empty the hospital of apple juice...all in about 20 minutes. You will be happy to know that my breath-a-lizer test came back at 0.000. The company that does the testing will probably call me and say "your drug screen was negative, but we think you may be diabetic." I ALMOST made it to my mission without wrecking an ambulance (even though, I didn't wreck it...there wasn't even that much damage, just a minuscule dent in the wheel cover.) I have to admit, there is never a dull day in my life.