So I went to work on Wednesday and the 4 hours of putting stock away nearly killed me. I came home sore as hell and in desperate need of a pain pill. I was totally wrecked.
I woke up Thursday morning feeling like I had been run over by a truck. My side hurt like a motherfucker and my stomach wasn’t far behind it. I took it as easy as I could and headed to bed the earliest I could. In retrospect, I’m not sure why I bothered.
I was in so much pain Thursday night that all I could do was toss and turn. My entire stomach was now very tender and every time I rolled onto my side I woke up in pain. This continued all night. I was getting worried but put my worries to rest knowing that I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning. So like it tends to do everyday, morning came and it was time to start my day.
Friday was a back to back doctor day with Jack getting his kindergarten physical at 11am and my post-hospital check-up at 11:45am. Jack’s appointment went swimmingly well and then we were off to my appointment. Once there, I had to fill out some paperwork since I hadn’t been there in a while. Once all of that was done we headed back into the examination area. The nurse could see that I was having trouble carrying Addy so she grabbed her for me. We did the usual vitals thing and she took down everything that was wrong. When my doctor came in she looked at me and the list of complaints. She started to poke and prod and I was jumping in pain. She then had me lay down and started pushing on my belly. Again, I was jumping in pain. She then asked me if there was anyone who could come get my kids because she wanted me to go to the ER ASAP. I told her I could call my mom and she even suggested calling me an ambulance. Having already had an ambulance ride once that week, I declined and said I would drive myself. About 15 minutes later my mom showed up and we transferred all of the kids’ stuff over to her car. By this time I was as not feeling well after being poked and prodded. My mom asked me if I was okay to drive and at that point I didn’t think I was, So I asked her for a ride. Thankfully, my doctor insisted I go to her hospital, which is the one I originally wanted to go to last Friday but was told I couldn’t. I felt a lot better since I felt they were just trying to rush me thru last week. So with the kids in the car, it was off to the ER we went!
My mom dropped me off and I went in to register. My doctor had called ahead so they were expecting me. After registering I sat in the waiting room less then 5 minutes before they called me back. They verified who I was and said that my doctor had indeed called and we were headed back to a room. So they brought over a wheelchair and I got a ride to my room. While going through the halls there were a lot of bed with people in them in the hallways. I though that they were maybe at capacity and that I would be in a shared room of even one of these poor souls left in the hallway — but that was not the case. I got a full private room, and I even had my own bathroom. Not too shabby! They came in and looked me over and told me basically what they were going to do. I luckily had a very nice nurse this time which made things very delightful compared to my last experience. She put in an IV and gave me some very nice meds for my pain and nausea. A few minutes after that she came in with 2 large Styrofoam cups full of liquid. She told me that I had to drink one each hour for proper contract for my cat scan. Even though the liquid tasted like ass, I did as I was told. After drinking the first cup they came and took me for a full set of x-rays. I felt a lot more at ease about this since this was something that they obviously did not do at the last hospital. Once the x-rays were done I was wheeled back to my room. I was only there for a few second when my wife came him. We chatted for a bit and laughed about how much we really prefer this hospital to the one we were in last Friday. About another 2 hours, and my second cup of juice later, they came and took me for a cat scan. The scan itself took about 10 minutes and was a lot more thorough then my previous one given that I was longer, they scanned more of me, and they gave me even more contrast during the scan. Once all of that was over I was again wheeled back to my room and was told they’d have results in about 30-45 minutes. Again, a far cry from last Friday when I swear they had result within 5 minutes.
In the end, the nurse came in and gave us the good news and bad news. The good news was that all of my organs were intact and I was not bleeding internally. The bad news was that I had broken 2 ribs. She said that since I had the broken ribs and did not know it, going to work on Wednesday cause the pain to radiate across my stomach and chest, thus explaining all of the extra pain I was having. I was giving a prescription for some more pain killers and was told there really wasn’t much more I could do then to rest for the next 4-8 weeks.
So that’s where we’re at. I have a hospital note for no work this weekend and have already been in touch with by boss about being out for 4-8 weeks. All I have to do this week is get some paperwork from my doctor tell them how long I need to be out and then coordinate with my HR rep and see what we need to do on there end. Will it suck not getting paid for 4-8 weeks? Sure. But it’s sure as hell better then surgery!
