Lunch.Shopping....ER?

Friday was all planned out to be a fun day out with my little guy. How did I end up in the Emergency Room?

Mike & I took the day off work to dedicate to little Michael (Bubs) in continuing his graduation acknowledgment to make him feel special. We dropped the other 2 kids off to school and got ready to get the day rolling. We went to run an errand and ventured to this restaurant that we have been wanting to try out for brunch. We tried on Mother’s Day but they were too packed. We still had a 30 min wait but waited the time and finally ate. It was very tasty!

Next, we went to the shopping outlet to let Bubs pick out some new outfits for Summer since he has outgrown most of the clothes from last year. Once I entered the store, my stomach started to hurt a little but I tried to walk it off and ignore it. As he picked out his second shirt, I felt queasy like I was about to throw up but pass out at the same time. This was a feeling I never felt amongst all of my historical G.I. issues. I told Mike to continue shopping as I needed to get to the restroom quickly. I was struggling to get to the bathroom stall as my vision got a little blurry and I was very feverish. Once I made it to the stall, I had a horrible feeling. The feeling where you have to decide which direction your stomach contents are going to come out at. As much as I tried to hold it in, I threw up. And saving some gross details, I spent a lot of time in the restroom. By the time those symptoms subsided, I headed back toward the store. I felt so weak that I sat on the bench outside as I felt if I took a few more steps, I would be down for the count. Mike and Bubs soon came out and asked if I wanted to go to urgent care. As a nurse, I knew that the way I felt needed some closer attention than an urgent care and the pain was unbearable so told him to go to the ER.

As I stumbled through the doors, what felt like a job interview with all the questions, they managed to get me back pretty quickly. I knew exactly what needed to happen and sure enough, they did it. They took vitals, started an IV, drew labs, and administered a bolus of IV fluids with nausea meds. All I kept thinking about is “what’s my end total going to be?” Lord knows none of this stuff is cheap. After about an hour, I felt a little better. The pain was still there but I felt like I had a little more energy. The first doctor that assessed me assumed that I had food poisoning. He did no auscultating, no palpating, and at the time, had no lab results to confirm his diagnosis. But the doctor that came in after shift change disagreed and said it sounds like Gastroenteritis. He was very concerned, gave me a prescription for nausea meds, and stressed to me that if symptoms don’t go away “please come back and be sure to follow-up with your primary care physician”. I appreciated his concern and pardon my language but “ain’t nobody trying to come back up in here, especially with a cover charge at the door of $150 known as co-pay”. In my head I was thinking why not rule everything out now so that I don’t have to come back. Oh well. Mystery Diagnosis continues. We still managed to carry on the rest of the evening with Snow Cones as Bubs wished and had Pizza/movie night. Of course I had toast and water as I recovered from my issues. I'm still having some residual pain but doing much better! (And no, there are no beans in the oven! Geez)