Okay, here I go, but be warned this is going to be a very bumpy ride.
DD turned 25 today (Tuesday) and it was also one week ago today that she got married
DD and I spent half of Sunday in the hospital with the return of her abdominal pain and she was told she had diverticulitis which showed up on the CT scan of May 16th (but was not mentioned at that time). I know how serious this can be because of my father's experiences with it. They hooked her up to IV for antibiotics and did tests. They then said there was no infection and sent her home with an RX for more anti-biotics and a bottle of demerol for the pain. She has had diarrehea every day since this started and the ER doctor says she is just full of "poop and gas" and should take some laxitives and will be fine.
Now she already had a colonoscopy scheduled for yesterday (Monday) and had it done in the morning. They gave her a written report (complete with colour pictures) saying that everything was fine - no colitis (original diagnosis), no diverticuli (infected or otherwise), no problems at all.
She was very discouraged and very much in pain. I told her that this was actually a good thing because all of this was definitely ruled out now. When she got home to make an appointment immediately with her family doctor and we went there at 10:00 this morning. Her doctor agreed that it was not bowel related but still was not convinced it was appendix. She said if she were to persue anything it would take a few days to a few weeks to set anything in motion and that DD should go to the hospital, but not the same one.
We went to a smaller hospital in the next town and we met by the triage nurse from ****. DD had the chills and had been running a fever when we left the house but it was down by this time. She was also dressed in sweats and a baseball cap because it was comfortable. The nurse took one look at her and the fact that she was not going back to the same hospital and made some very cruel assumptions. She told DD to stop shaking - she couldn't have chills because she didn't have a fever. She also said she couldn't have a pain level of 10 because her heart rate as 78 (what does THAT mean?). She basically stated that she must have been kicked out of the other hospital because she was just trying to get drugs. I tried to intervene and she shot me down saying DD was old enough to talk for herself. She then put 5 people with minor injuries through before us. I went to the new triage nurse and asked when we would go in and she looked up the chart and said "oh, we better get her in right away".
Well she sees a medical student, a resident and a surgeon. They are all concerned that all the tests show different things, including a small cyst on her ovary that was never mentioned before. The surgeon decides enough is enough and sets up an exploratory for Wednesday 1:00 pm (PST). He says he will probably removed the cyst and appendix during the procedure. He is worried about a rare occurance of chronic appendicitis where the appendix flares and ebbs on a regular basis so that it wouldn't always show on the tests. We were both impressed with him.
DD settles down and relaxes a bit because she knows something is being done. I leave to make phone calls and give her a chance to visit with her cousin because it is her birthday. Enter in the nurse from triage. She totally ignores DD's plea for something more for the pain. She sees DD walk her cousin down the hall to leave and yells at her for being up. We ask once again for her morphine bump up but the nurse onces again ignores it. Our two DH's show up around 5 pm and mine and I go out to have the lunch he brought, after singing happy birthday with a flameless candle in her Blizzard (doctor said she could have ice cream for her birthday but nothing solid and nothing at all after midnight.) She and DH go for a smoke, which they shouldn't have and the nurse has moved her bed into the hall and told her she won't get any morphine on HER shift. Well, SIL runs to find me to make it all better. I find the nurse and say my daughter really is in a lot of pain and she said that she doesn't act like it. I finally said "If it was your 25th birthday and you had only been married one week, would YOU want to be in the hospital if you weren't sick?" We get the morphine but she asks DD "what dose of morphine are you used to"? DD looks totally wounded and says I don't know I hate taking anything but I just want some relief until I get the surgery!
Well, the new nurse came on and I had a long talk with her before we left. The pain management got worked out but DD lost her room and was to be in the hall all night. I explained what had happened, but there was no place for her. They will do there best.
SIL has taken tomorrow off and he and I will be at the hospital all day tomorrow. He wants me there because I "seem to get things done". I hate that I have become able to throw my wait around, but I am just tired of seeing this poor young woman treated the way she is.
Okay, now to me. The camp I cooked at last year called yesterday grovelling to have DH and I come and give whatever time we have to help out during the next two months because they have over 30 staff on special diets and will have even more when the campers start this Friday. DH really wants to go for this weekend and a couple of others. I am in pain, have my doctor's appointment next week and have catering orders that are enough work for me to handle. And I really don't feel I owe anything to them (long story I won't go into). Plus, I don't want to leave DD right now.
Okay, I am done. Hopefully now I can get some sleep.