Those who are my friends on Facebook will know by now that my birthday dinner got postponed because I had to take Marsha to the hospital on Tuesday night. Actually, it was the ambulance that took her there. Marsha had been complaining of some pain in her back over the weekend, but we paid very little mind to it as it was mild pain and she just chalked it up to gas. Well, on Tuesday the pain went from mild to excruciating! She called me while I was walking home from the train hysterical and crying that the pain was unbearable. By the time I got home 5 minutes later she had already called 911 and the police was there.
Paramedics from New Brunswick were there within 5 minutes of my getting home but I quickly learned that they do not transport except in life and death issues like a heart attack. They call EMS, and unfortunately EMS in Highland Park was busy so Edison had to come. So it took close to 15 minutes or more for them to get there. We had them take her to St. Peters University Hospital in New Brunswick and I followed along in my car.
I got to the hospital and found no parking in the emergency room area so I had to go to the regular hospital parking deck and pay to park. Then because it was after hours, not all of the elevators in the parking deck work (not that there was any signage to this effect). I finally got to the Emergency room about 15 minutes after Marsha and then it took close to that for them to find her for me!
I get back into the ER and she is on a bed waiting and waiting and waiting … You get the picture. After an hour or so someone finally came over and said that they don’t know why but Marsha was not registered! This is why no one was doing anything for us. As far as they were concerned, she was not there! Didn’t anyone wonder who these people were taking up space in the ER? We got to watch some TV, but to tell the truth, I would have preferred to watch at home. We did not complain much as the TV took her mind off of things.
So she got registered and they nurse sent her for a CT scan figuring that the doctor would order that. When she got back from that (which went fairly quick) the doctor finally came. She said that it could be kidney stones or gall stones and Marsha would need an ultrasound to check the gall bladder. I asked if there was anything that could be done for her pain, and the doctor said; didn’t they give her the pain meds? She had ordered it a while before! They must have thought that her screams of pain were her screaming at the reality show that was on the TV.
So the morphine went in and after 15 minutes or so, the pain subsided. She got her ultrasound and we found out that Marsha was the proud owner of gall stones. Luckily the gall bladder was not infected and things looked good, so no emergency surgery was needed. They sent us home with a prescription for Percocet and told us to follow up with her doctor.
I took the day off yesterday to drive Marsha around. We went to our doctor who told us to follow up with a Gastroenterologist and an appointment was made for this morning. The rest of the day went find yesterday and the Percocet helped with the pain. This morning she got to the GI doc and he told her that he does not do gall bladders! I guess they must have forgotten that fact when our family doctor called to make the appointment. He gave her three names, two of which were in our insurance plan. One could not see her until Wed and the 2nd Doc saw her this afternoon. She is scheduled to get her gall bladder taken out on Monday.
At least I got my birthday dinner last night!