I promised I would write it up and here it is:

Tuesday morning (Aug 9) at 3:45 am, I woke up with a pain in my abdomen. Above the belly button and deep inside my abdominal cavity. This usually is a gas pain that happens about every 6 months nowadays. The last one was in March, the one before was last August. It doubles me over and nothing helps. It goes away in half an hour to an hour. This one kept going and going. At 8am I decided that while I don’t think a doctor would be able to do anything for me, I have done everything I can think of and that is the next step. I had a 9am urgent care appt and couldn’t find anyone to take me in so I called a cab. I know the problem was magnified because of the panic I was in not knowing what it was and what to do about it. The doctor wasn’t too worried, had me take some of my drugs (for the eye problem) to alleviate the panic and sent me to the lab to get some blood work done. Just a little side note, I don’t have insurance at this point. I have sent in my COBRA continuation forms but they haven’t cleared yet, so Kaiser thinks I have been terminated. I happened to grab my COBRA form before leaving the house so they pretty much passed be through paying nothing and I will get a bill when it is all over. Oh joy.

I had help getting to the lab and it was a long wait. The meds kicked in and I was able to eat something (yes I grabbed my bag of con type food on the way out as well). By the time they got to me, I was feeling like I could walk instead of crawl again. I was ready to leave Kaiser around 12:30 and didn’t have anyone who could drive me. Not only don’t I have my car, I am loopy on drugs and will not drive. Dev at work came and got me. I have only been working there a month and they have been so supportive. He even bought me lunch when I tried to buy it for him.

I had him take me to work because we have lots of work to do, I don’t hurt anymore and a loopy state might produce some fun PowerPoint slides that the boss would be interested in. Around 4pm, the dr office got a hold of me and said I had an elevated white blood and they “would really like me to go to the emergency room as soon as I could.” So Dev took me back and dropped me off.

My boyfriend ditched the rest of his workday and came up from San Jose to find me in the back. They did a CATscan and thought I had early appendicitis. So they wanted to admit me to the hospital. It took them from 4:30pm to 10pm to diagnose me and until 4am to actually move me upstairs. I could be taken to surgery at any moment if it got bad, I could be opened up during the next morning, I could be sent home and have surgery scheduled, or there could be nothing wrong with me. At 8am, some doctor’s showed up to poke my tummy and I told them there was no real pain, just uncomfortable pain like I had eaten too much. They said they were going to check with radiology. Then nothing. I was left with an IV in my arms, attached to a pole, having them collect everything that came out of me. The last thing I ate was lunch the day before and the last thing I drank (besides the liquid for the CATscan) was before I got to the emergency room the day before. I was not a happy camper. Around 4pm I started getting pissy and saying that if the doctor doesn’t make a decision soon, it will be another day. Soon after that, the attending physician, which I hadn’t seen yet showed up and asked me if I hurt. “Nope” Do I want to go home? “Yes!” You are free to go.

They gave me some dinner while I waited for fresne and capricious_k to show up with clothes for me. I felt so much better after eating and drinking. I had two bags of antibiotics through the IV. At first they were going to send me home with a 5 day prescription, then maybe a three day, then because I didn’t have any pain, no antibiotics. When I counted the pills they have me, it was a 7 day prescription. They didn’t charge me anything because they have no membership for me. I am still waiting for COBRA to kick in. So it is either going to be around $15-65 (if the emergency room gets charged if I get admitted to the hospital) or some astronomical cost. After they wheeled me to the curb, the girls and I went grocery shopping and got dinner and had a picnic at my place and the entire hospital ordeal was over. All except the paperwork and the tape marks on my arm tha have lasted a week. And the mental scars. Minor ones but I hate needing to go to the hospital. It means I am really sick. Two years ago, in the beginning of Aug, I had to go to the emergency room in LA from heat exposure.

I am fine. They really don’t know what exactly was up. If I have pain, I am suppose to call the dr’s office and we start it all over again. I am kinda pissed. If I went through all that, I wanted it to be for a reason and not just a waste of time. And I figure something is still wrong which means I will have to go through it again. Blessings on the nurse that happened to mention that they sometimes treat appendicitis with antibiotics. That makes me feel like it might have been worth it. I am taking gentle care of myself. I am tired a lot. Twice this week, I went home at lunch and took a nap.

I want to thank Dev (from work), my boyfriend C, fresne, capricious_k, Fennifer, and my Dad. I felt very supported by these people and they helped me deal with everything. I am lucky to have you in my life and able to help. Thank you very much.