Emergency Room

Wednesday night I got a call from Kathryn and she told me they were taking mom to the Emergency Room. Kathryn told me mom was suffering from chest pain and throwing up. I quickly jumped in the van, and off to Banner Gateway I went.

I got there and mom was really restless and uncomfortable. She said her upper stomach hurt and the pain wouldn't go away. I found out that about 9:30 her stomach started hurting, so she just ignored it hoping it would go away. It only got worse, so she decided to go downstairs at work to the potluck to see if food would help. That aggravated it more and she decided to come home from work. As soon as she got home, she threw up. She tried to rest, drink water and take it easy, but the pain only got worse. Jessica called to see how mom was, and notice mom didn't sound well. So Jessica quickly went over to mom's house, and when Kathryn got there later they called Dr. Bair in her ward and he told her to go to the ER. So that's when they called me.

We got there about 6:45, and mom was finally seen about 7:30. In triage they thought it might be her gallbladder, so they started working on getting her a room. Then we got to sit and wait, and wait, and wait for a nurse and the doctor. They finally came in and decided to do an ultrasound, so she got moved to another room. More waiting. Another nurse came in and started pain medicine and mom was able to start to calm down and relax. She was then taken for an ultrasound, and then more waiting for the results. Michael, Jessica and Allison left about 9:30, and Kathryn and I waited for the results and diagnosis. Mom was able to get some sleep, even with them coming in every once in a while to check on her. The results came back at about 11, which said that she has gallbladder disease, which caused gallbladder stones, and that she would need surgery, so the doctor was going to talk to the surgeon and get his opinion if she should have emergency surgery, or do it as an outpatient surgery. More waiting. About 11:45 the doctor came back in to tell mom that the surgeon suggested outpatient surgery, prescribed a pain medicine if the pain came back, and started the release process. We left the hospital about 12:15, and Kathryn drove mom home with me following them. We got mom into bed, got her comfortable and told her I'd be back in the morning.

I got home about 1, and fell into bed about 1:30. Long day, but I was grateful I was there to help mom and be with her. Her consult is set for July 15, and I pray that she doesn't have any more flare ups before she can have her gallbladder taken care of!