So today is Sunday, May 16th and I just had a very different weekend!  Let me go back to Friday:

Friday, May 14th, started like any other day.  I woke up to my phone going off at 5:09 am, I hit snooze a couple times, and then I finally got up to go to the bathroom.  I noticed some sharp pains in my abdomen, but I shrugged them away as I often have such pain.  However, I soon realized these were not normal pains, so much so that I decided to call my doctor.  Of course, it was too early to talk to him, but I did get hold of his service and they suggested I go to emergency to get things checked out.  But, in case you don’t know, I am accountant by trade, and I quickly surmised that I would have a lower co-pay if I instead went to an urgent care facility.**  And, to justify this decision, I LOVED CareNow out here and figured it made more sense anyway.  Because, with CareNow, you can check in online and they call you when they are ready for you.  So I did that, knowing they opened at 8am, and relaxed.

At 8:02 am I received the call, and Deana and I headed over.  I didn’t wait at all once I arrived and the doctor saw me immediately.  And the thing was, he quickly told me I was bleeding internally.  He said he was going to take some blood to see how anemic I was, and said either he was going to get me into see an internist or that I was going to emergency.  He came back a few minutes later and told me that I needed to go to emergency and that he even wanted to call an ambulance.  My face and stuttering of “but I have someone in the waiting room!” swayed him, although he did make me decide what hospital to go to and told me he was going to call and confirm I went there directly.  (And, by the way, he did……..)  Keep in mind I wasn’t feeling THAT bad, just being cautious and all.  In the scheme of things, this was not the worst day of my life and I have felt worse in recent days.

So Deana drove me to Baylor Regional Medical Center directly, arriving at about 9:30am.  She dropped me off at emergency, I walked in with the paperwork CareNow had given me, prepared to sit down and waste the afternoon on tests, but knowing I’d be okay by day’s end.  I walked to the registry window, handed the paperwork and explained I had been told I had internal bleeding, and began filling out the sign in paperwork.  Let me just say, Baylor has this REALLY COOL scanning machine for IDs and insurance cards!  No photocopies or anything!

Anyway, while the registration was still going on, I suddenly heard my name!  I looked, and there was a nurse calling me.  I look back at the woman registering me, and she says she needs to do two more things.  The nurse, however, starts raising her voice, telling me I need to come in where she was.  The registration lady finally says, “well let me get a bracelet on you and I will take care of the paperwork later.”  I go with the nurse, who immediately begins taking info.  While doing that, she mentions that CareNow had called to advise them that I was on my way.  About three minutes later, just as Deana was arriving after parking the car, they were walking me to a private emergency room!  Try THAT in California!

I will spare you all the dirty details, but Friday amounted to a CT scan of my gut and about four thousand blood tests.  I was admitted to the hospital with what doctors believed to be bleeding in my upper GI.  I arrived into my room at approximately 2:30pm.

Just a reference point – I had only had sips of coffee by this point, and due to the problems at hand, I couldn’t have anything else……even water!  And do you know, when someone tells you that you can’t have any water, how instantly you become parched????

So, the private room I was taken to was amazingly nice – better than most hotel rooms I’ve stayed in recently.  Comfortable bed, sofa sleeper, reclining chair, TV, safe for valuables, etc.  But even more impressive was my nurse, Nan.  An older woman, she made me feel right at home.  She had to ask me a bunch of medical questions, and through the course of that I mentioned I had never been admitted to the hospital before.  In fact, the closest I came was in the emergency after my motorcycle accident.  Well, wouldn’t you know it, but Nan is part of the Christian Motorcycle Association!  She gave me all sorts of info.  But better than that, she PRAYED for me before the end of her shift!  I bet THAT doesn’t happen in California!

Just so you aren’t feeling sorry for me, at about 7:00pm I was allowed to have chicken broth and ice water.  🙂

So jumping ahead again, Saturday morning at about 8:00am I had a scope put down my esophagus, stomach, and upper intestines.  The doc found a 5mm bleeding ulcer at the very end of my stomach.  That was the culprit, probably due to the fact that I live off of Advil most days.  Advil and stomachs are not friends.  And the thousands of dollars I will eventually pay for this trip will remind me that for some time……..

I am tired now, I had many more exciting things to write about.  But more later.  Ultimately, I stayed in the hospital until Sunday afternoon as they made sure the bleeding had stopped and my blood levels returned.  One key piece of info, they knew I have never been a smoker because of my high oxygen levels.  Ding.  And my liver is very healthy.  And my electrolytes are perfect.  But yeah, I have an ulcer.

Now, I have 5 prescriptions to take and one that makes me a little drowzy.  So Gina is saying bye bye for now.

** See how Gina’s plan to save money worked out?  I had to pay THAT co-pay of $50 and will also have the emergency/hospital co-pay!  Go figure!