ER and Hospital Stay #1

We go the ER on a Friday night. Bad idea. Everyone in the valley seems to be there. I get checked in and wait for what seems like an eternity. My Dad decides to call Dr. Rasmussen’s office and speak with the answering service. They inform him that they will contact the Dr. and then call back. They never call back so my Dad calls again. They then tell him that the Dr. is aware of the situation and is speaking the ER Dr. A few minutes later, the triage nurse comes to draw my blood in the lobby of the ER. After this is done, I am finally taken back to a room and allowed to lie down. The ER Dr. comes into the room right away and assesses the situation. I am given pain and nausea medication first and then taken down for a KUB x-ray. Once all the tests are done, the Dr. comes in to inform me that most of the tests are normal. However, Dr. Watts (assistant surgeon) wants to admit me for dehydration and monitor my condition. They will decide in the morning if I need a feeding tube.

I spend the first night in the hospital. This involves getting labs drawn at 3:00 in the morning again. In the morning, Dr. Hill comes in. He is the general surgeon on call for the weekend. He informs me Dr. Rasmussen is out of town and between him and his partners they will be handling my case while I am in the hospital. Over the next 2 days, I see Dr. Rasmussen’s 5 different partners. This also involves explaining my case to 5 different people. Dr. Hill decides first to order a CT scan of my abdomen. He wants to check the area of where the hernia surgery occurred and make sure there is nothing wrong. The CT scan is done and of course comes back normal. In the afternoon Dr. Cook and his partner come in and I explain my case again to them. They decide the best thing to do is get me hydrated and to the point I can eat something again. I get a couple different drips of medication and of course pain meds and Zofran. One of the drips is called Procalamine. This works wonders for me. It has amino acids as proteins, essential minerals, and glycerin for energy. It takes about 10 hours to infuse into the body and apparently it is not administered frequently because none of the nurses are sure how to give it to me. I get 2 giant bottles of this medication over the next 2 days. On the third day in the hospital, Dr. Garry comes into my room. He says if I do well today, I can go home tomorrow. I don’t really like that idea and strike a deal with him. He says if I can eat breakfast and keep it down, he will let me go home. I do just that. Yogurt it is. I am still having pain but I want out of the hospital. I get discharged that afternoon.