A Night Spent in The ER
As I sit here I can't seem to bring myself to write about my latest health problem that came from out of nowhere Sunday night. I guess I'm not sure how detailed and specific I need to be. All I know is that it gave me quite the scare. I've tried a couple times but I guess I'll just do it. Once again I'll issue a warning to the squeamish.
After church Sunday night we were sitting around waiting for the College and Career group to start up. Not long after it started I had to use the washroom. As strong as the urge to go was, I wasn't able to empty my bladder or bowels. I started getting some abdominal pain so I went home. When I got home, five minutes later after walking down the hill, the urge to go was still there so I figured I'd try again. Well when I let out a bit of urine there was blood in it. That's when the fear set in. I grabbed everything I figured I'd need for a camp-out in the ER and drove myself, not really wanting my parents to have to sit all night with me there.
I got assessed by the triage nurse and registered pretty quickly after arriving, but then the waiting began. I figure I got to the hospital at around 8:30pm and wasn't called to a bed until 12am, all the while emptying my bladder about once an hour of the blood that was filling it. At around 12:30 a doctor came to see me and asked me a few quick questions. He didn't seem too worried about me since I wasn't really in much pain and hadn't received any recent trauma or done anything that would cause the blood. He was going to move on to another patient I guess when he realized he hadn't looked at the urine sample I gave them. He went around the corner to talk to the nurse and I heard her say words, "very apparent", after which the doc came back and said, "I guess I'm not done talking with you yet". They took my blood and then I had more waiting to do for the results to come back. No one came to see me again until 4am when the doc wasn't really sure what to call my problem. He said he'd consider it a urinary track infection. I guess my blood tests didn't show anything abnormal. So he gave me some antibiotics and instructions to drink lots of water to flush whatever it is out of my system - my urine was still mostly blood at that point. I have to have some tests done next week just to make sure everything is okay.
Finally I got home around 4:45am and told my mom what happened. She tends to be a light sleeper so I knew she'd hear the garage door open. I went to sleep and woke up about four hours later to have breakfast and my urine was back to normal. I've been fine ever since, other than being really tired Monday, but I've had some abdominal and back pain. My Colitis is still acting up so the pain might have been from that. I know my lower midsection was pretty tight all night in the ER since I was so tense.
It definitely wasn't fun listening to some of the other patients in the room with me. I really really hope that when I have kids I'll never have to spend a night in the ER with them. I can't imagine the agony of having to watch your toddler being given an IV, crying the whole time, "Mommy!" as if to say, "Why would you let these strangers hurt me like this?" That's gotta make you feel like the worst mom in the world even though you know your baby won't get better any other way. Soooo not fun.
Matthew.
After church Sunday night we were sitting around waiting for the College and Career group to start up. Not long after it started I had to use the washroom. As strong as the urge to go was, I wasn't able to empty my bladder or bowels. I started getting some abdominal pain so I went home. When I got home, five minutes later after walking down the hill, the urge to go was still there so I figured I'd try again. Well when I let out a bit of urine there was blood in it. That's when the fear set in. I grabbed everything I figured I'd need for a camp-out in the ER and drove myself, not really wanting my parents to have to sit all night with me there.
I got assessed by the triage nurse and registered pretty quickly after arriving, but then the waiting began. I figure I got to the hospital at around 8:30pm and wasn't called to a bed until 12am, all the while emptying my bladder about once an hour of the blood that was filling it. At around 12:30 a doctor came to see me and asked me a few quick questions. He didn't seem too worried about me since I wasn't really in much pain and hadn't received any recent trauma or done anything that would cause the blood. He was going to move on to another patient I guess when he realized he hadn't looked at the urine sample I gave them. He went around the corner to talk to the nurse and I heard her say words, "very apparent", after which the doc came back and said, "I guess I'm not done talking with you yet". They took my blood and then I had more waiting to do for the results to come back. No one came to see me again until 4am when the doc wasn't really sure what to call my problem. He said he'd consider it a urinary track infection. I guess my blood tests didn't show anything abnormal. So he gave me some antibiotics and instructions to drink lots of water to flush whatever it is out of my system - my urine was still mostly blood at that point. I have to have some tests done next week just to make sure everything is okay.
Finally I got home around 4:45am and told my mom what happened. She tends to be a light sleeper so I knew she'd hear the garage door open. I went to sleep and woke up about four hours later to have breakfast and my urine was back to normal. I've been fine ever since, other than being really tired Monday, but I've had some abdominal and back pain. My Colitis is still acting up so the pain might have been from that. I know my lower midsection was pretty tight all night in the ER since I was so tense.
It definitely wasn't fun listening to some of the other patients in the room with me. I really really hope that when I have kids I'll never have to spend a night in the ER with them. I can't imagine the agony of having to watch your toddler being given an IV, crying the whole time, "Mommy!" as if to say, "Why would you let these strangers hurt me like this?" That's gotta make you feel like the worst mom in the world even though you know your baby won't get better any other way. Soooo not fun.
Matthew.
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