Another hospital bracelet to add to my collection

On Sunday, my brother was sick too so my mom stayed home with us from church. It was actually fun because we had no where to go and had some shows to watch! My dad was still gone to Honduras and Guatemala.
Landon was still sick on Monday so he stayed home from school. We started getting ready for my dad to come home that day. His plane was scheduled to get in at 2:30 in the afternoon. The plan was for my mom to pick up my dad from the airport, then bring him home, then take Landon to the doctor because they thought he had strep.
My mom was planning to leave at about 2:15 and my brother was going to go with her. I really wanted to go but I just felt too sick. A little before 2, my lower back started to hurt a little. All of the sudden, my lower right side, lower back, and lower right part of my stomach started hurting so much. I was laying in the living room so I got up and ran upstairs to take a bath. I've never had anything happen like that before. The pain was worse than my gallbladder pain, which we didn't think was possible. I took some pain medicine but it did nothing to relieve the pain. I couldn't breathe because the pain was so bad. Nausea hit with the pain and I thought I was going to be sick. I was upstairs so I texted my mom and told her that she was going to have to take me in if the pain didn't stop. At that time, I decided that I couldn't even handle taking a bath. I ran downstairs, at this point delirious. I honestly thought that I was going to die. I was shaking and crying. My mom called my grandma to come over immediately. She also called my primary care doctor and asked if we should go there or the hospital. They said go to the hospital right then because they thought it was my appendix. I think my grandma was speeding on the way to my house because she got here fast! She stayed at my house with Landon since he was sick and couldn't go to the hospital.
On the way to the hospital, my mom texted my dad and told him what was going on. Thankfully, he was with people from church, so they were able to take him to the church and my grandma and Landon picked him up there.
We got to the hospital around 2:30 I think. They took my vitals in triage and said it shouldn't be too long. My heart rate kept going from 140-160 bpm and my blood pressure was low. I don't know why my blood pressure was low since I was in so much pain. But the high heart rate showed how much pain I was in. I also still had a low grade fever. We sat in the waiting room for so long. Probably over an hour. I was so angry because it didn't look crowded. Did they forget that I was hurting and it could be my appendix? What if it ruptured right there in the waiting room and they didn't even know? I looked down and I was wearing a shirt that said love God, love people. I really was not loving those people who were taking so long. The director of the emergency room came out and had me do a test to hopefully speed up the waiting time once we were in my room. They finally took me to a room and we waited some more. The doctor came in and asked why i was there and ordered some tests. He also wanted a CT scan. A while later, the director of the ER came in again to see how things were going. She was very sweet. She said that they had several unexpected ambulances come in which is why it was taking so long. They even had people on stretchers in the hall because they ran out of rooms.
The nurse came in to get blood tests. At first they were not even going to start an IV, but they saw how much pain I was in and decided they needed to give me pain medicine. We didn't tell them that I had a port because usually they say they can't use a port. So that means they have to find a vein. She tried twice, and said she had to get another nurse because they are only allowed to try two times. That's when we told her that I had a port. She said that she loves using ports! The reason some people can't use them, is because you have to be an RN. If you are an LPN, you can't access ports. We asked why that is, and they said that accessing a port is looked at as a procedure because it's very invasive. LPNs don't have as much training so they can't do it. That explains why some people say they can't access my port.
I really didn't want my port accessed because I don't like random people doing it. Some people don't hold the port while they put the needle in, so the port moves around and it is very uncomfortable. It's not something that I feel comfortable with just anyone doing. The nurses understood that.
Three more nurses came in to look at my veins. One of them tried in my hand and got it! Third time's the charm. For some reason, they didn't hook me up to IV fluids even though they said that I was dehydrated. They took the blood they needed and she went to get the pain and nausea medicine. I could not wait. The pain was still intense and had been for a couple hours now. She put the nausea medicine in first, then the morphine.
Right after she put the morphine in, the pain got three times worse, my mom said my face turned bright red, I got out of breath, and I got so hot and started sweating. I began throwing myself side to side, trying to help the pain. I was crying and groaning, almost screaming. The nurse didn't know what to do. She ran to tell the doctor and they decided to give me another dose of morphine. Since my pain was so bad, we thought it would just take several doses to break through. The nurse gave me the second dose of morphine and the pain got even worse, and the same thing happened again. The pain was unbelievable and no one knew what to do. I was going from side to side because I didn't know what to do! They called the doctor and nurses in my room. They got cold washcloths and put on my head to try and cool me down. They decided to switch pain medicines. I was given a dose of Toradol. They said it would take 15-20 minutes for it to work. They said they had never seen that happen before.
I was so thirsty from the episodes but I wasn't allowed to eat or drink in case I had to have surgery. That was frustrating.
Sometime during those episodes, the doctor came in and said they ruled out that it was my appendix. They also ruled kidney stones or infection. He said that he wanted an ultrasound instead of a CT scan now that he had ruled those things out.
Ultrasound came and got me and took me to another part of the hospital. The nurse was so nice. She did my gallbladder ultrasound so we already knew her. The Toradol started kicking in during the ultrasound! We were in ultrasound for over an hour. My dad arrived at the hospital while we were in ultrasound. They took me back to my room once we were done. We got to my room at 8 or so which means that there were new doctors and nurses. They had a shift change at 7. A while later, the new doctor (which we've had before and have had problems with) came in. I think he remembered us because he didn't make eye contact and was in and out very fast. He said they found a cyst on the ultrasound. They would send me home with pain medicine and I was supposed to see another new doctor to get medicine so that I won't get anymore cysts.
The pain was already returning so when the new nurse came in we asked for another dose. The Toradol is not a narcotic, it's a very strong anti-inflammatory. The nurse said no, your chart is already closed so we can't do that. We could not believe that! How hard is it to scan my bracelet and open my chart back up? So I didn't get another dose and they sent me home.
We got home around 9 or 10 that night I think. It was a very long ER trip. They sent me home with Loritab to help with the pain.
The pain has been better. It's not terrible, but it hurts when I'm up. The pain medicine helps for the most part. I'm just taking it easy and resting. My mom stayed home with me yesterday, but today I'm on my own.
Once when I was in Children's hospital for Lyme pain, they gave me Toradol and I had the same reaction that I did with the morphine. They gave me morphine and it helped the pain. On Monday, it was the opposite. Morphine made the pain worse, and Toradol made it better! I guess it depends on what kind of pain I have.
Thank you all for your prayers! It's amazing how fast things can change and how fast pain can hit