Visiting the ER in the middle of the night has its perks. One: You can catch a break and get in through triage quickly. Not as many emergencies at night. Two: When you get seen quickly, you get meds or IVs quickly and the pain you came in with is death with speedily. And Three: Not only is the wait in the waiting room short but you may get seen and diagnosed quick enough to go home and get some sleep in your own bed. Logically I know this can all depend on whether emergencies are coming in by ambulances, but that wasn’t the case for us.
In my case, visiting the ER at 8:30 at night on a Tuesday was a dream. We got in quickly and got out just as fast. And it was peaceful enough for me to close my eyes for a while and sleep while the pain meds took hold. In that brief window there on the gurney in a hallway, I felt relief. And with relief came the waves of exhaustion that quickly allowed me to shut my eyes for a brief repose.
Sadly, I wasn’t a life threatening emergency so I was sent home with a prescription and lots of test results to pour over when I was feeling better.
There IS a not so great side to visiting the ER at night on a weekday. When my Oxycodone prescription was created and sent to my local pharmacy per my records, it was sent to one that was closed. I don’t blame them as it was 12:30 at night and I would want to be closed up and at home, too. Little did we know that there is a pharmacy right across the road that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week with a drive-thru for those who are sent home from the hospital with medicine.
Because we didn’t have this information and the doctor didn’t offer this as an option, my much needed pain meds were sent to wait until CVS opened at 9:00am the next morning.
Then came Wednesday.
I woke up Wednesday morning and willed myself to feel better. But try as I might, the pain was still there, aching just below the surface.
Rolling slowly and with extra caution not to wake my husband (who was equally as exhausted as me due to carrying all the responsibilities AND fighting his own autoimmune disease), I made my way downstairs to take some Advil and use the restroom. I was finding that I could not do much in the morning without peeing first. The pressure and discomfort of my bladder only added to the cacophony of pain that echoed through my body.
Hunched over and gripping one side of my abdomen with my hand while the other guided me slowly down the stairs, I made it to the bottom bathroom and the top drawer were the pain meds were resting. But I suddenly didn’t feel well. The world tilted slightly and I felt warm from head to toe. I knew what was coming…
I was going to faint. Or throw up.
As quick as was humanly possible in my condition, I got myself into the bathroom and prepared for the worst. Within 10 minutes, I knew things were not going to improve and I was desperate to stop the ill feeling that was causing my skin to get clammy and cold. So I pulled down a towel from the wall and made myself a pitiful bed on the hard tile floor.
And there, I cried…
I don’t know how long I was in that bathroom for. I know I went between the lying on the ground and kneeling at the toilet a few times thinking the time had finally come to be sick. But it never was. I was stuck in limbo and as I waited for the inevitable, I tried to remember when I had eaten last.
hopeless tears fell onto my arm and trickled down to the towel beneath me. I was realizing that there was a problem within me and I couldn’t see a solution. I just wanted the pain to go away. I just wanted to sleep.
Damnit, I just wanted to feel better again.
Soon a knock came to the door and there was my worried husband, speaking softly as he tried to opened the door and help me. I was in the way, of course, having made a bed for myself on the ground. But it was hearing his voice and noting the concern threaded through his kidney words that I fell completely apart. I scootched away from the door and allowed him in while I cried and cried. Eventually I got up and threw up (finally!) and he stood there to hold my hair for me.
Once I was rinsed up and better, we made a call to my general doctor’s office and tried to get a follow-up appointment. No one was available so we agreed to see a nurse at 3:00pm. I was grateful to have the appointment but I was also heartsick at the idea that I had all day to wait until I saw someone.
After helping me make my way to bed, my husband picked up my prescription and I was able to blissfully lessen the pain and get some much needed rest.
All I had to do was make it till 3:00pm and then I could see a doctor.
All I had to do was wait…