A day at the doctor

Well, I definitely had other plans yesterday than to spend the day at the doctor's! I was supposed to go with Rebecca and her class on a field trip, but when I woke up yesterday morning, my stomach did not feel very well. I took two Tums and then proceeded with my morning as usual. By the time we were ready to go out the door to take kids to school, I was nearly doubled over with pain.

I drove to my friend, Camille's, to pick up her son and I asked her to take the kids to school. In the meantime, her sister-in-law, Sarah, who was visiting for the week, made some phone calls and got someone to come over and give me a blessing. I, also in the meantime, was calling Kaiser and got an appointment with my doctor. By this time the pain had abated a little bit and I was feeling better. Sarah volunteered to drive me into Fresno for my doctor's appointment.

As soon as we got on the road, the pain started again. It was as though there was a column of pain going down from my stomach/heart area down into my intestines. If I hadn't already had my gall bladder surgically removed, I would think that I was having a gall bladder attack. That was how intense the pain was.

We got to Kaiser and went up to the doctor's office, but by the time I got into the exam room, the pain had subsided again. The doctor asked me a bunch of questions and said that she thought I had an extra build up of acid in my stomach. (She also mentioned that this could be caused by stress. Hmmm. She's probably right. So I'll just reduce my stress levels. Ha!! Ha!! Ha!! Ha!!) She sent me down to the lab for some blood work and prescribed a Pepcid-type medicine. We went to the lab and then when we picked up the Rx I took one, and swallowing the pills started to make my stomach hurt again.

By the time we got out to the van I was having me third attack. I would say the pain was a 7 out of 10. I called Kaiser and said that I was having another attack and since I was still in the parking lot, if I need to come back up I could. They said to go back up and we went back in. As we were about to get in the elevator, I felt like I was going to throw-up. I ran into the bathroom, and although I felt all the fevery-clamminess that usually proceeds throwing-up, there was no gag reflex to get anything to come out. We went upstairs and they took me to a treatment room and tried to get me on an IV. My veins are not very cooperative, so after two tries (and two big bruises) they gave up and brought me a "GI cocktail". It was a nasty concoction that numbed my throat and mouth and was supposed to stop the spasms in my stomach and make it feel better. I lay down while they called the radiologist and the gastroenterologist and I got some "pseudo" rest. My stomach still hurt, but it was down to a 5 instead of a 7.

The results of my blood tests came back, and all of them were normal, except that my liver was inflamed. They made me an appointment to have an abdominal ultrasound the next day and prescribed me Prilosec. After picking up that Rx, we were ready to go. It was seven hours after we had arrived. Yikes.

I was able to eat about six saltines before I went to bed last night, and then I was supposed to be fasting before the ultrasound. So, technically I was on a 26 hour fast. I really didn't feel like eating though, believe me!

Today I had the ultrasound and it is so cool that we have the technology to look into the human body. It was fun to watch my liver on the screen. I should become an ultrasound tech! The results of the ultrasound should be available in about a week.

I am so grateful that Sarah was there to be able to spend the time with me that I needed. I felt really bad that she had to spend the last day she had here with her family with me, but she insisted that she didn't mind and I really appreciated her being there. I also appreciated Camille taking care of the girls for me. It was so much easier to be there at the doctor's office without having to deal with taking care of the girls as well. Kevin called me frequently throughout the day to see how I was doing and to see if there was anything he could do.

Today I have felt a whole lot better and thankfully have not had any attacks. I have been able to eat a little bit and slowly am getting back to normal. Whew!