Emergency

An unplanned event
consumed our Sunday today...
and it's not over!

~ carliewired

Daughter #1 called on Saturday evening to say she was experiencing some abdominal pain. I drove over to assess the situation. We chatted. Offered a hot water bottle. It seemed to be improving so I returned home with the promise that my cell phone would be on and beside my bed. She called again at 1:30 AM in distress. The pain had increased. We needed to go to the hospital. In 30 minutes I had collected her and we were walking into the emergency ward of our local hospital. 

First, we lined up at an office door. We're to stand behind the line and wait our turn. It isn't the first time I've been there with my family member in pain. This time she crouched on the floor beside me. There are no chairs. Staff watch the happenings from behind glass panels. There is no bench, no chair, no rail to lean against. Someone finally calls my ailing daughter into the office. The person goes over a check list. My daughter is 'assessed' and sent out to wait in the hallway again. This time she's waiting to be called into a clerk's office. This person takes all my daughter's information - address, family doctor's name, family contact.....In spite of her grueling pain and tears, my daughter handles it all like a trooper. She knows the drill.....she is finally assigned an wrist band and a file folder she is to carry to the next station. We teeter along the hallway in the opposite direction now. We cruise past another waiting room and on to the emergency ward. I wave the file folder at the door sensor. We are admitted and my daughter is given a bed. We are lucky it is a quiet night and she is first in line at this point. Now the wait begins....

She gets an IV, a visit from the attending emergency room physician, a catscan. The pain begins to subside very quickly with some great meds. She is told she has a kidney stone and a sizable one. We wait for the urologist to arrive. Outside, it is already morning and the sun is up. I have spent almost 6 hours sitting beside her bed. She naps, I don't. The specialist arrives and gives her the options. 

I call Debbie to say I won't make day 2 of her painting class. I go find a coffee and a muffin. My daughter is fasting. Surgery is a possibility today....or maybe tomorrow. No one knows if she will be admitted today. She is comfortable and asleep. At 9 I return home for some sleep. I crawl into bed with my clothes on. I set my alarm for noon so I can return. My daughter texts me to say she has been moved to the 6th floor. 

I return to her by 2. No surgery today, so she's allowed food now. I go in search of something edible at the coffee shop downstairs. We visit. She's comfortable and in good spirits. No dinner arrives for her so I go back to the coffee shop for more. Her dinner arrives 2 hours late. By this time daughter #2 has arrived home and I can go home again. Fingers crossed this surgery comes off tomorrow!