The ER Experience

Its been a while since I wrote anything here, and it was the daily mundane activities keeping me away from my favourite activity..Now I'm back..well..sort of..I sat up to write this from my hospital bed..intrigued? read on..

One Fine Day my husband and I were happily at the airport, waiting to board a flight from Los Angeles, CA to Dallas, TX. It had been a while since we'd gone away together and spending quality time with each other was on the top of our minds, that coupled with helping out my brother, who was to undergo a torn ACL operation in Dallas and meeting up with my mom who was visiting from India. All-in-all we'd planned on relaxing for 4 days and enjoying time with the family and each other..

Day 1 Dallas was all it had promised to be, we got up early to get my brother to the hospital, then we relaxed at the hospital (which was more like a resort from the looks of it) for the 3 odd hours it took for him to be done, and eventually we drove my grumpy, groggy and so-in-pain I'll snap your head off brother home. We put him on his bed and relaxed around him..joking, laughing, trying to put him in a happy place and maintain normalcy. That night we had a mixture of home cooked meal a la mom and some outside junk for our spoilt palates, topping it off with ice-cream and cake..needless to say I overate.

How it all began at around 3:00AM I woke up with an acute pain in my stomach and an urgent need to urinate, while try as I may I could not urinate properly, I threw up almost all my food in the process. I braved the situation for an hour, without waking up a tired soul! But after continuously throwing up, unable to urinate and feeling the pain in my sides only grow, I decided I needed to shake people up. And so I did, mom, brother, husband, sister-in-law-2-be, all up now and trying to put me at ease. Seeing the pain I was in, it was finally decided to wheel me into the nearest Emergency Room (ER).

ER1 was at Baylor Medical (Baylor I'm sure of, not the whole name though) in Irwing TX, we reached there at around 4:30 AM, by then the pain was blinding, my husband and sister-in-law (Pallavi..makes for easier future reference) accompanied me to the ER together with my brother's extremely helpful friend Deep. We got registered and were told the doctor was on his way...

The smirking nurse is whom I remember most clearly at this ER.The worst possible thing you can do in front of a patient in excruciating pain is laugh right? And one would think a nurse would understand that simple fact..but noooo..the nurse who checked us in, took sadistic pleasure in laughing at my calamity it seems, she had a constant smirk on her face as she asked me questions I could barely answer, she sat in front of me grinning like a Cheshire cat while she asked my hapless husband to fill out form after form and the final straw was when she asked me "do you talk?" in the most patronizing way possible and asked me my name!! I remember it taking all my effort not to reach out and slap her, while I told her my name and also categorically mentioned "Its NOT funny". I think someone in the room realized she wasn't helping, because thankfully I did not see her again..

The late doctor , while all this was going on, the doctor was still not in sight! and it was almost 2 hours since I'd checked into the ER!! Given, I was not in a life or death situation, but a 2 hour response time to an ER patient is more than I can fathom. He finally walked in around 6:30ish (and obviously I'm a little hazy with the time's here), looking all spic'n'span, so he'd obviously taken the time to dress up well before walking into ER, unlike the always on the move barely having time doctors we see on ER(the show). One look at me and hearing my symptoms, he immediately said it sounded like kidney stones (Gotta give him points for quick diagnosis). At this point, I completely zoned out. I don't remember anything clearly, except a vague picture of a white room, with dressed in white coats nurses, trying to get me to lift up my arms, and I having a vague thought they were angles and I needed to comply. My husband now tells me that would be the CAT scan room, as Dr. Late ordered one for me, then eventually he referred me to a urologist, whose 2:00PM appointment we got, and were sent home.

Back Home I remember vaguely being almost carried back home and put to bed while we waited for it to be 2:00PM. My brother had his next day doctors appointment at 1:00PM as well, so we had to again call for the services of the ever-present Deep to drive my brother and Pallavi for their appointment, while my mom and husband accompanied me to mine.

Dr. Blue Eyes, is how I'll refer to my urologist, he's a nice guy, who told me to drink lots of water and try to pass the stone out naturally to avoid surgery. He told my husband to call him though if my fever went above 100 degrees. He asked for a urine sample (yet again something I was able to provide surprisingly for the 4th time in 10 hours!). O well! from there, we went on home, where I continued feeling sick.

Home Again I don't remember anything about this time home, I simply remember being in pain and feeling groggy. The pain made me senseless to everything around me, I can only imagine what my poor mother, husband and Pallavi were going through, having 2 patients at their hands when they were only prepared for one. At some point my temperature was taken, it was above 100 degrees consistently, the doctor was called and I was ordered back to the ER asap.

ER2 was at Medical Center of Lewisville, we got there, registered quickly and without any patronizing nurses to put in their place, I was strapped to a bed while the nurse informed my husband and Pallavi, who had again accompanied me to the ER, that they were preparing for surgery.This came as a shock, since we weren't informed there would be a surgery and my husband scrambled to understand what was going on and why.

All a haze again , again, most unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view, I don't remember much of what happened. I believe I was pretty much out of it even before I was given the anesthesia. I remember vague disjointed things, like the nurse giving me some nice tasty lip balm to wet my lips to make me look good, the anesthesiologist coming in and telling me his wife had been through this surgery 15 odd times, and it would be a breeze, someone lifting me up to move me around and claiming I'm so tiny, my husband saying I'll be fine..

The Recovery Room is the next thing I remember, I woke up feeling c.o.l.d. in a semi-dark large room with what looked like a lot of tables, other equipment and me! For a moment I panicked thinking everyone had forgotten about me, then this nice nurse came up and reassured me, she said I "did well", the operation went fine and I was in recovery. I even asked her if my husband had gone home .. again to be assured he was waiting for me in my room. After giving me some time to adjust to my surroundings and fully aware, she said it was time to move again..

Room 425 was my final destination (at least for the next 3 days), after all that moving around. I saw Pallavi and my husband, looking relieved and waiting for me. I was still a little groggy, but the doctor had told them he got the darn stone out. It was 2:30 AM, everyone was exhausted, I was put to bed, the ordeal seemed finally over.

The Aftermath , what luck, that this had to happen on a weekend! The next day being Saturday, my brother's friends were all free from work and went home to give him company, this freed my mother up to come visit me at the hospital. I was feeling OK I said, there was a little pain in the side, I was constantly being given IV Fluids and morphine for the pain. The doctor came and saw me bright and early, he explained that I had a bad infection, so he had inserted a stent in the tubes to keep them open to overcome the infection (whatever that meant), my face and eyes were swollen and it was good to have mom around to comfort me. The doctor had put no restrictions on diet, so I got a nice Menu from the hospital for breakfast/lunch/dinner, whoever said hospital food was bad should try the cream of broccoli at MCofL, it was the best I'd ever had. My husband went home to freshen up while mom was visiting, and the rest of the day I remember them all fielding calls from friends and well wishers. There was a machine which took my blood pressure automatically every 15 minutes, and the nurses came in every 2 hours to take my temperature. I slept most of the time and the day passed without complications, other than my fever which kept bothering the nurses, since at one point I touched a 103!

And So on and So Forth that's how it was in the hospital for 2 whole days, I don't care to remember the number to needles stuck to me and I feel sick at the thought of the 4a.m blood donations. All in all it was an extremely difficult experience to say the least, but it highlighted the known but often forgotten fact : Family and Good Friends are the most important Assets in Life.

I know I don't have to..but I'd like to Thanks these people from the bottom of my heart :

Dharmen : My Husband, without whom the first three days would've been impossible to bear, for bravely sleeping on the chair in the hospital for 3 days without complaints, for running around getting things in order while at the same time making it feel he's never left my side. I Love You Honey..I can never say that enough

My Mom : For packing for the US within a day for my brother's operation, then coming here and finding not 1 but 2 sick kids in her hand, yet not getting a nervous breakdown and managing it all with love and care that only a mother can afford

Pallavi : My sister-in-law, even before she officially joins the family, she's done more for us that we could have imagined, for being loving , sweet and ever present, I'm proud of my brother choice.

And Last but not Least Deep : My brother's friend, who came running at 4:00AM calls to goto the ER with the same fresh smiling face he has on all day, who helped with driving people to and fro the hospital , giving me and my mother company while my husband stepped out and also helping my brother with everything he needed done, from plugging him to his exercise machine to supporting him on the way to the restroom. He did more than one could expect from a relative. Friends like these are truly hard to find!

God Bless You All!