Ahhhh, a day at home. A day with my husband to rest and feel better.
Wait… what’s this pain? Oh god! Why am I in so much pain?
Oh! That’s right! I took a sub day to rest and feel better because my side had been hurting and I needed some time to get my feet under me.
I woke up on Tuesday feeling groggy and hazy. I remembered setting up my substitute request through the district website and I remembered thinking I would only need a day to feel better. In the past it had only been a day of discomfort when I was passing a stone or going through ovulation on a side that had a cyst or two. But this was different. There was something about this pain was that unrelenting.
Plus, I hadn’t slept well. I had woken up in discomfort a few times and then struggled to get back to sleep. Of course, sleep is what I really needed to start feeling better but that didn’t seem possible. So I planned to nap and watch some TV as I stayed in bed most of the day.
My son was home sick, too, so I had to do a little parenting. We set up a doctor’s appointment for him at an express care clinic because he would need a Covid test and a doctor’s note to let him back to school and work. That was easily done online. We also had a parent meeting for his wrestling team that was going to conflict with the doctor’s appointment so my husband and I made plans to split the work. He would take the parent meeting and I would escort my son to the doctor’s appointment for his sinus infection.
But I began to worry that I would not be able to take him. My pain had increased tremendously throughout the day and I was debating whether it was worth it to take me to urgent care. Our express care location wasn’t available to help me (I had been turned away with this pain before because they didn’t have all the capabilities as an urgent care) and my family doctor’s office as booked solid.
Before the day got away from us, my husband and I took a trip to the urgent care just to see what they could do. Turns out, they could do very little and said I was most likely to receive treatment for my abdominal pain at the ER. As the clerk checking me in said these word, hot tears pressed again my eyes while pain blossomed along my left side. I took a deep breath, thanked her for her time, and left through the sliding doors to my husband waiting in our car.
It took every ounce of control I had not to throw my stuff angrily into the car. I was fuming. I was in pain. I was tired. And I was starting to worry that, like the times before, that I would end up in the ER and receive just medication to dull my pain. I wanted answers, I wanted results. But we left and went home empty handed and broken hearted.
My husband held my hand and comforted me as best he could.
Once home, I medicated myself as much as I could and prepared to go to my son’s doctor appointment and thanked all the gods above that he cold drive. I could just rest in the passenger seat and let him get us there without a worry. He was thrilled because he got to take the freeways.
There were no surprises at his appointment. He had a sinus infection and his doctor’s note had him out until Thursday. Oh and his Covid test came back negative so that was some good news for an otherwise bad day. We trekked back home and I quickly made my way into bed. And there I rested until my husband came home and I announced we may have to take a trip to the ER.
Let me confirm for you, readers, that this is a big moment. Doctors, needles, long waits, and lots of tests are not ideal for many but for me they bring a certain anxiety. And just saying the words out loud made me feel emotional. This meant I knew I wasn’t getting better and that I would need help in the most serious of ways.
My husband and I set our son up to be on his own and reminded him to lock doors and get ready for school the next day. Another bonus to him being old enough is that he can manage on his own and we don’t have to have a family member babysit him. He can now take care the housed get himself to bed, within reason of course. Then we grabbed a few things to keep us busy in the ER and headed out.
We got lucky. The ER was not very busy and I was triaged into the bowels of the hospital to sit on a bed along a wall. A sign above me marked me as “Hallway 1” and there I was given medicine, had blood drawn, was given the chance to pee in a cup, and was able to lay down for a bit of a rest in between tests and scans.
The results? A cyst on my left ovary, a renal stone, and a cyst on my liver. But nothing life threatening so I was packed up and sent away with a prescription for medication and told to rest.
At 12:30am, we trudged home and settled into bed as best we could. It was already too late to get our prescription so I would have to wait until the next day to manage my pain.
I had been smart and contacted my secretary and principal with the news that I was going to the ER. I had quickly put in for a substitute for the next day just as a precaution and I was thankful for my foresight.
Because, little did I know, that things were about to get very serious, very quickly.