From Urgent Care to the ER to Surgery

Saturday night we were informed that our church meetings for Sunday had been cancelled. It had snowed ALL day long...bringing 8-10 inches so it wasn't a real surprise. But a massive disappointment. It was supposed to be the Christmas program.

Since we weren't going to church and I had planned to cook a roast, I invited our next door neighbor, Jean, over to eat with us around 1pm Sunday.

Around 11am we got a call from our friends down the street. They were going to hold "pretend church" (minus the Sacrament) complete with talks, lessons, and songs and invited us over to join them. We were grateful for the opportunity to feel the Spirit on a day that might have proved difficult for us otherwise.

We went to their house at 3pm right around the time it started sleeting. I was starting to get anxious that we wouldn't even make it out of our driveway. We have no studs or chains, but I tried comforting myself with the fact that we did purchase our van in Michigan where snow like this is no biggie and the van does have front wheel drive. But still....I didn't want to be the idiots who got stuck in their own neighborhood, going to "pretend church" when our real church meetings had been cancelled in order to avoid such a predicament. Fortunately our efforts to feel the Spirit were blessed. We had no problems getting there, but I admit I was a little stressed for that 1/4 mile drive.

We had a lovely time at our neighbors and the 2 1/2 hours that we spent there flew by like it does at "real" church. We headed for home at 5:30. We snacked for dinner since we had a big lunch and I had about 3 pieces of rich chocolate and a piece of caramel. It wasn't long after consuming the candy that I felt some discomfort in my abdomen. As I changed out of my church clothes, I told Jared, "No more candy for me, I've got some bad gas cramps."

I went to bed hoping the gas would pass (no pun intended) but when I woke up on Monday, I still had the pain. Jared wasn't working at the Urgent Care that day. I was planning to go into the office and do some billing stuff. But...the weather was pretty iffy and as much as I wanted to get out of the house, I figured I'd better play it safe. At the same time, I wasn't feeling well enough to go in even if I could.

Around 10am, I laid on the couch to do some reading and put my knees up which usually helps alleviate gas pain and move it along. I fell asleep and laid in that position for 2 hours, but it made no difference. I almost felt worse. So I went and laid on the bed, curled up in a fetal position. I felt like a drag. Here it was Jared's day off and I was under the "stubborn gas" weather.

I laid on the bed like that for another 2 hours, hoping the pain would go away. Jared did offer to get me some Gas-X (or something of the like) but it seemed silly to send him out in the bad weather just for gas relief. Around 2:00 I felt like I might be sick. Was this the flu?? It didn't seem like it was. And I wouldn't throw up. So I ate some toast trying to induce vomiting, but that was also unsuccessful.

At 3 o'clock Jared mentioned my IUD as a possible factor. I hadn't checked for the strings in a while. So I did a self-check, twice. I couldn't feel the strings. Hmmm. My OB/GYN told me to call her if ever I can't feel the strings or I've got abdominal pain, or both. Like every other business, however, her office was closed so I got the answering service who told me to contact the doctor on call. I spoke with the nurse and asked her what the symptoms were of an IUD that's moved. She spoke to the doctor and they told me that chances are, if I can't feel the strings, it's because I've expelled it not because it's moved. She said I could go to the ER or wait (which is funny because that's what Jared tells the patients who he talks to when he's on call). While I was on the phone with the doctor, Jared had called up to the Urgent Care where he works and told them we might be coming. They were closing hours early at 4pm. It was 3:20 and if we were going to go, we needed to do it right away. The abdominal pain was an issue, but even more concerning to me was the status of my IUD. If it was out....we kind of need to know that!

Our neighbor Jean came over to watch the kids while we ran up there. It's only about a mile and a half away, but of course, we got behind the most conservative driver of the year who was going only 10 mph. I know we were driving in snow, but c'mon! They were in an SUV too.

At the UC, they checked me in and took my vitals then, after a pregnancy test confirmed I wasn't pregnant, did a plain film x-ray. The doctor showed me the x-ray and verified the IUD was still in there and then showed me all the dark spots that covered the film. That was gas. And the white patches within those dark spots were stool. He said it LOOKED painful. Great. I kept the UC open for gas and poop. Way to go, Jenn. The doctor had me lay down and started palpitating my abdomen and the areas surrounding it asking for pain levels. It hurt enough for me to grimace when he pushed on my left side. But when he pushed on my right side, I yelped and all but jumped off the table. He did a little more prodding and a couple more tests. And then he came back to the right side and pushed more. It was horrible pain. He gave Jared a knowing smile (he and Jared sometimes work together) and said, "She's got tenderness in her lower right quadrant." What does that mean?? He said that's where my appendix is. Ahhh. I asked him about the gas and stool. He said an inflamed appendix can cause the intestines to be blocked causing a back up. The doctor wanted us to get a CAT Scan, but of course Imaging at the hospital was closed so we'd have to go to the ER for it. I was ordered not to eat or drink anything in case surgery was necessary, they handed me the x-ray they had taken, and called the ER to let us know we were coming and off to the ER we went. Jared called our fabulous friends, the Prestwiches and asked if they could relieve Jean and watch the kids for us, since we weren't sure how long we were going to be. Without hesitation they moved into action that doubled the amount of children in their home and just days before Christmas, no less.

It was a very long drive to the hospital from Urgent Care due to the road conditions. But we didn't care. Jared and I were in good spirits. How sad it was that we were actually giddy to be going to the ER because it got us out of the house. The kids weren't driving us crazy either. It was more or less being forced to stay inside with nothing to do and nowhere to go to because everything was shut down or cancelled.

We only had to wait an hour and a half in the ER before being escorted back by Sheryl in her Santa hat. She was a great nurse. She drew blood and then gave me an IV. Then we met Dr. Alana Hunt. We liked her too. She said my pain could very well be appendicitis, but possibly an ovarian cyst. The CAT scan would definitely give us more information, so I was prepped for that.

Getting a CAT scan was a new experience for me. Fortunately the techs were very kind and reassuring and it went quickly. The tech told me he'd try and get the results within the half hour. I don't even remember what time it was at this point. But Jared and I weren't waiting too long before Dr. Hunt returned. She waved her finger back and forth as she came into the room and said, "You aren't going to like this." Great, I thought. I really am just full of crap and they're sending me home. How embarrassing.

She said that it wasn't my appendix. The culprit: my IUD. It had punctured my uterine wall, almost the entire way through, and it needed to be removed. Whoa. The IUD had crossed our minds at one point, but the pain wasn't registering to me like uterine cramps that I've had in the past. But at least we knew what was happening. And the sick side of me was actually relieved something was wrong. #1) I had a legitimate reason surrounding my pain and I wasn't making a mountain out of a mole hill--living with someone in the medical field always makes me question whether medical attention is truly necessary #2) I was still out of the house.

We let the Prestwiches know I was being admitted for surgery, but they were already prepared for an all-nighter and had the kids' PJs and baby things. All that was left to do was wait for the surgical team to get there. Apparently there were no other surgeries scheduled, and they sent the nurses home. Whoopsies. It was a little before 9pm at this point, so I sent Jared to go eat dinner. While he was gone, Dr. Gent, the OB/GYN on call came to talk to me. He explained he would try to get the IUD doing laparoscopy first but might have to cut me open if he wasn't successful. I understood.

Jared came back around 9:20pm after grabbing a bite to eat and the surgical nurses had arrived. They wheeled me up to the OR holding room to get the consent forms signed and so the anesthesiologist could talk to me about his part in the surgery.

As I moved myself from the gurney to the operating table and the nurses fluttered around hooking things to me and strapping me down, I couldn't help but think....first of all, I forgot to kiss all my babies goodbye when I left for the Urgent Care. That was really dumb. I just thought I was going to be gone for 30 minutes and didn't want to make a big deal about me leaving and casually walked away. I won't do that again. Secondly, I didn't wake up this morning thinking "I'm going to need surgery today." Yet here I am. It's incredible how QUICKLY your life can change. Fortunately this was a fairly low risk, easy procedure as far as surgeries go, but I never saw it coming. That's what was disconcerting to me.

The anesthesiologist put an oxygen mask over my face, I felt a sting in my arm as the sleepy-time medicine was administered, I felt my eyes get heavy and told the surgical team, "goodbye."
The next thing I knew, I was in a different place. I was hearing voices. I was trying to open my eyes, but it took a lot of effort. I was coughing too. I finally got my eyes open, but they wouldn't focus. I tried hard to do that too, blinking and squinting, but it took me a while. I was trying to shake out the cobwebs, but it wasn't working.

I guess that's all the nurses in the recovery unit needed...me to be awake...because a few minutes later they wheeled me to the 5th floor. I vaguely remember Jared following us. My new nurse needed to get some health information from me. I could hear and understand her fine, but I couldn't make my eyes open up. Jared answered most the questions for me. When I tried answering, my perfectly formed answer in my brain came out muddled and nonsense from my mouth. It was very frustrating! Why people would purposely drug themselves is totally beyond me!

Once I was settled in my room, Jared left to go home and get some sleep. I'm a "lightweight" when it comes to anesthesia and got sick shortly after he left. But I was able to sleep for 3 hours before they came back to check my vitals again. My mouth was cotton and my throat was sore from the breathing tube. I could barely close it and get my saliva glands working. The nurse checking my vitals gave me some ice chips. And I was able to sleep for another 3 hours until 6:30am this morning when my vitals were checked again. Too bad they can't check your vitals while you're sleeping.

I had a headache and was hungry and couldn't really get back to sleep. I hadn't eaten since 2pm the day before and that was just toast. I couldn't order breakfast until 7am though. So I watched the "storm coverage" until I could order my French toast breakfast with bacon. I was able to go to the bathroom twice, I kept my breakfast down and Dr. Gent told me that "there was a God last night" because not only could he find the IUD with the scope, he was able to get it out with the scope. He confessed it was iffy there for a minute. He gave me my prescriptions, one for pain and one for birth control pills, thank you very much. He told me to come see him in 2 weeks for a follow up appointment and then said I could leave when I was ready.

I ordered lunch at 11 so I could have one of their chocolate shakes and Jared came to get me at noon. We filled my prescriptions at the store, grabbed a few groceries and then went to save the Prestwiches from our children. Of course the kids were upset to see us. They wanted to stay. That's right, back to the boring house for us.

All is well. I'm sore from surgery...similar to C-section pain just not as deep. The only problem really is when I hold Calvin. His little feet rest, dangle or kick RIGHT smack dab where my sore spots are. But I can't not hold my baby. At least my sharp abdominal pain is gone. And looking on the bright side, we've already met our deductible for this year and will only owe a small fraction of the ridiculous costs of yesterday's medical adventure.

Now if I can just remember to take those little pills...