My Night in the ER
Aug. 29th, 2006 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlWhen we last left our faithful heroine, she had just scheduled an emergency doctor's appointment with her regular health care practitioner. After five days of Penicillin, the symptoms that had originally been diagnosed as strep throat had gotten worse instead of better. The outrageously swollen lymph node on the right side of her neck had not gone down at all, her sore throat had gotten sorer, and the inside of her throat had become so swollen she could not swallow or speak properly. Here she is with a synopsis of that emergency appointment and the events that followed:
Okay, so at 7:15 PM last night my mother and I went over to my doctor's office to see Nancy, the very nice, very young, very hip RN who I see for all of my health ailments. Great thing about Nancy is even if she doesn't know what I have, she always refers me to very capable and kind specialists who do. We sit down in the examination room and Nancy confirms what I'd already pretty much guessed, that my strep test came back negative. Duh! When she took the original swab last Thursday I knew she was barking up the wrong tree. I've had strep within the last five years and know what it feels like. So, she ordered me to quit the Penicillin immediately, (thank god) and she proceeded with a normal exam. I was running a slight fever, 101 degrees. She looked down my throat and said my tonsils looked frighteningly swollen and there was a lot of mucus down there. And my voice. Dear God, MY VOICE!!! Really, I sounded autistic. The lumps in my throat were so huge I couldn't speak normally. Nancy said she had no idea what I had, but that she didn't want to send me home because she was afraid my throat might continue to swell, causing me to stop breathing in the middle of the night. She said normally she would just send me on an emergency ENT (ears, nose, & throat specialist) appointment, but since it was so late they would all be closed. So, she advised my mother and I to go to the ER where they could at least give me steroids to bring down the swelling.
So mom and I got our stuff together and went down to the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital. We checked in around 8:15 PM or so. Luckily they weren't overflowing with patients so I got to see a doctor within the first hour of admission. The doctor I saw was this very tall, pretty, bespectacled woman named Dr. Rockefeller. She gave me the once over, made further comment of how awful my throat looked and ordered a whole load of drugs and tests. The first thing I got was a couple tabs of Percocet, a very potent pain killer. after that I was shown to a hosptal bed where they took some blood for a Mono test, and then hooked me up to an IV of fluids. The nurse said it was just to hydrate my body and to think of it as a tube full of Gatorade going straight into my vein. After a half hour or so a radiology technician took me to have ex-rays of my throat taken. I had to be wheeled into the lab on the bed because I couldn't walk. Not long after taking the Percocet I'd started to feel dizzy and nauseated, so we figured that the pills just weren't agreeing with me.
They took two ex-rays and then wheeled me back to my mother. Not long after, one of the nurses came back with two more IV bags. One was a bag of Toradol, another pain killer, and the other was Dextramethasone, a potent steriod that would shrink the swelling. The nurse also took my blood pressure and heart rate. While my blood pressure was fine, my heart rate was a bit high, 134 beats a minute. She decided to put me on oxygen to bring my heart rate down, the theory being that my throat was so swollen I wasn't getting enough air and my heart was working extra hard to pump what little oxygen I was taking in through my blood stream.
After that, I just laid there for a while letting all the drugs do their work. Eventually, all the pain and swelling went away and I was even able to speak in my normal voice again. Dr. Rockefeller was pretty surprised by the dramatic vocal change. Around midnight they decided it was okay for me to go home. I left with a perscription for Ibueprofen and instructions to get and ENT referral ASAP and see the specialist within the next day or two. They said waiting three days would be pushing it. They also said they would call me with the results of my Mono test in a day or two.
I stayed the night at Mom's house and Mike let me sleep in his bed while he took the couch. This afternoon I called Nancy and told her what happened. She has put in a request for an ENT referral and now I'm waiting for the administrative assistant to call me back with a name and number.
Just the latest in what has been a long, LONG summer of fucked up health problems.
To the men on my friends list: I know it seems as though I haven't written many substantial journal entries this summer. That is not so. I've written many under a girls only filter because I've been dealing with some frightening gynocological health issues. Since I know many men aren't comfortable hearing about those sorts of things, I decided it was better to just leave all of you out of it. But, within the next 2-4 weeks, after some pivotal tests are done and I have a better sense of what I'm dealing with, I may be ready to come clean. So, if you are a guy and are interested in knowing the specifics of my continued gynocological problems, let me know. I'll include you on the filter.
To the women on my friends list: Just a reminder, you can always opt out of the women's health filter if you're uncomfortable hearing about my medical issues. I will not hate you or think you a horrible friend.
To be continued...
Okay, so at 7:15 PM last night my mother and I went over to my doctor's office to see Nancy, the very nice, very young, very hip RN who I see for all of my health ailments. Great thing about Nancy is even if she doesn't know what I have, she always refers me to very capable and kind specialists who do. We sit down in the examination room and Nancy confirms what I'd already pretty much guessed, that my strep test came back negative. Duh! When she took the original swab last Thursday I knew she was barking up the wrong tree. I've had strep within the last five years and know what it feels like. So, she ordered me to quit the Penicillin immediately, (thank god) and she proceeded with a normal exam. I was running a slight fever, 101 degrees. She looked down my throat and said my tonsils looked frighteningly swollen and there was a lot of mucus down there. And my voice. Dear God, MY VOICE!!! Really, I sounded autistic. The lumps in my throat were so huge I couldn't speak normally. Nancy said she had no idea what I had, but that she didn't want to send me home because she was afraid my throat might continue to swell, causing me to stop breathing in the middle of the night. She said normally she would just send me on an emergency ENT (ears, nose, & throat specialist) appointment, but since it was so late they would all be closed. So, she advised my mother and I to go to the ER where they could at least give me steroids to bring down the swelling.
So mom and I got our stuff together and went down to the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital. We checked in around 8:15 PM or so. Luckily they weren't overflowing with patients so I got to see a doctor within the first hour of admission. The doctor I saw was this very tall, pretty, bespectacled woman named Dr. Rockefeller. She gave me the once over, made further comment of how awful my throat looked and ordered a whole load of drugs and tests. The first thing I got was a couple tabs of Percocet, a very potent pain killer. after that I was shown to a hosptal bed where they took some blood for a Mono test, and then hooked me up to an IV of fluids. The nurse said it was just to hydrate my body and to think of it as a tube full of Gatorade going straight into my vein. After a half hour or so a radiology technician took me to have ex-rays of my throat taken. I had to be wheeled into the lab on the bed because I couldn't walk. Not long after taking the Percocet I'd started to feel dizzy and nauseated, so we figured that the pills just weren't agreeing with me.
They took two ex-rays and then wheeled me back to my mother. Not long after, one of the nurses came back with two more IV bags. One was a bag of Toradol, another pain killer, and the other was Dextramethasone, a potent steriod that would shrink the swelling. The nurse also took my blood pressure and heart rate. While my blood pressure was fine, my heart rate was a bit high, 134 beats a minute. She decided to put me on oxygen to bring my heart rate down, the theory being that my throat was so swollen I wasn't getting enough air and my heart was working extra hard to pump what little oxygen I was taking in through my blood stream.
After that, I just laid there for a while letting all the drugs do their work. Eventually, all the pain and swelling went away and I was even able to speak in my normal voice again. Dr. Rockefeller was pretty surprised by the dramatic vocal change. Around midnight they decided it was okay for me to go home. I left with a perscription for Ibueprofen and instructions to get and ENT referral ASAP and see the specialist within the next day or two. They said waiting three days would be pushing it. They also said they would call me with the results of my Mono test in a day or two.
I stayed the night at Mom's house and Mike let me sleep in his bed while he took the couch. This afternoon I called Nancy and told her what happened. She has put in a request for an ENT referral and now I'm waiting for the administrative assistant to call me back with a name and number.
Just the latest in what has been a long, LONG summer of fucked up health problems.
To the men on my friends list: I know it seems as though I haven't written many substantial journal entries this summer. That is not so. I've written many under a girls only filter because I've been dealing with some frightening gynocological health issues. Since I know many men aren't comfortable hearing about those sorts of things, I decided it was better to just leave all of you out of it. But, within the next 2-4 weeks, after some pivotal tests are done and I have a better sense of what I'm dealing with, I may be ready to come clean. So, if you are a guy and are interested in knowing the specifics of my continued gynocological problems, let me know. I'll include you on the filter.
To the women on my friends list: Just a reminder, you can always opt out of the women's health filter if you're uncomfortable hearing about my medical issues. I will not hate you or think you a horrible friend.
To be continued...
