A Typical Night in the ER

So last night the girls and I were bowling about 9:30 when I got the most excruciating pain in my back. I've never felt anything like it before. By the time I got home I realize it's not just my back. The pain felt like a knife stabbing me right under the lowest rib on my right side. I thought I was dying. I can't take that kind of pain with out throwing up. At first I suspected it was my appendix but thought the pain to be a little high for that. Kidney Stones was my next guess. Bubba took me to the ER at midnight. Mr. Rainy had to take a taxi from work to his car at the park and ride as the buses had just stopped running for the night.

The pain was really bad for about 2 hours and then while in the waiting room, it went away. It came back when I went back to an exam room. The nurse put a line in and drew blood and I had to get sick again as the pain was through the roof. Luckily it got better again and didn't come back for the rest of the night. I waited in that room for about 4 hours without seeing a doctor.

There was a guy behind curtain number 1 when I was led to curtain number 2. He had stomach pains that have been happening on and off since 1980! We heard his whole life story. How he's been tested for everything over the years. How he weighed 210 when he got married 30 years ago and now he weighs 255. It was weird to not be able to see him through the curtain but hear everything him and the doctor talked about. That had to be the chattiest ER doctor ever. I learned all about where his parents immigrated from and how he's seeing a nutritionist himself to help him eat better. On and on! It was strange. About this time Mr Rainy found us. Curtain number 1 guy left a little later and I had to get up and use the rest room. I tried to walk out and find one but nobody was around to ask. I sent Mr Rainy to find one for me. Meanwhile they bring in new person by way of ambulance. It didn't sound good right from the start. It was obvious as the room filled up with people and they were slinging medical jargon only heard on TV shows. Listening to their talk and the beeping and mechanical breathing sounds, it was clear they were trying to save her life. Then the nurse comes in and leads me to the restroom. As we pass the bed next door she says, don't look. Um, ok no problem there. When I came back they had the curtain pulled all the way around her so I couldn't see but there must of been 8 people bumping around behind that curtain.

Then they said it. Pulmonary Embolism. I didn't know exactly what that was but knew it had to do with her heart and it was bad. During this time, Mario and I are communicating with our eyes as there's no way we wanted to talk and disturb the show. It was surreal. Like you know what's going on but you just can't believe it. It all seemed fake like they were on TV but worse. The nurses and doctors were talking like normal, chatting actually and even joking. In no way at all did they act like it wasn't just normal everyday stuff. No raised voices, no panic tones, no fear, very unlike similar scenes played out on TV. If you really had no clue you'd think they were just doing a routine exam. Then you hear a loud digital female voice say, Check the patient. It was weird and random. It did it twice before they shut it off. The nurse said she was born in 1985. Mario and I both looked up at that. 85? We said with our eyes. Our son was born in 88. He's only 20. This girl was only 23 years old. I glanced at Katie to see if she was paying attention. I couldn't tell if she understood all that was going on. My problems seemed like nothing compared to what was going on behind curtain number 1. When they called her death the three of us just looked at each other. You could hear the mom in the background crying hysterically. I have no idea what brought this girl to the ER. I'll never know what she looked like or who she was but we witnessed the most intimate event in a persons life. I will never forget. Her name was Nicole and she was 23 yrs old.

My nurse shows up a little later to apologize for leaving us alone so long. I'm next on the doctor's list. I try to talk Bubba into going home but she wants to stay. We chat about this and that, listen to the announcements come over the PA system every once in a while. She laughs about the name Dr. Waffle. Dr. Waffle finally shows up at my curtain. He is not the chatty doctor our earlier stomach guy had. With a fun name like waffle you'd expect someone a bit more cheerful. He was a no nonsense kind of guy. He said I need a CT Scan and they need to get a better urine sample. It's either kidney stone or an ovary problem. Within a few minutes some cute young guy comes to my curtain and I panic thinking he's going to be collecting my urine sample! When he tells me he's taking me to my CT Scan, I started breathing again. That was easy and not too embarrassing. Thankfully I get my nurse for the other thing. Whew!

I end up getting transferred out of my room to a different room. The nurse felt bad that we were still in the same room with a corpse. I don't know why they didn't move her out instead of us. My new room was quiet and dark. In curtain 2 was an older teen with a broken arm that I had seen in the waiting room. Not sure what his story was. His arm was already casted when he came in and he wasn't in any obvious pain. I only know that a cute young doctor made a very tired looking nurse come back and redo his cast/bandage about three times. She looked frustrated and barely hanging on. I don't blame her. By this time it was about 5 am and while I'd been lying down for a few hours I hadn't really looked at the insides of my eyelids since 9 am the day before. Finally my serious, not chatty doctor came in. To help with the mood he could of told me that I will be giving birth to a 5 mm kidney stone. He also could of said take it to my regular doctor after it's born and he'll tell me what kind it is. Oh joy! Give me something to look forward to. Should I name it after Dr Waffle? But nothing he said sounded even remotely comical. The facts remain the same though and if I'm lucky this too shall pass without the help of the pain meds I was prescribed.

After sleeping half the day away, I'm still waiting for labor to kick in. I can't get over the events of the night. I'm in awe of what doctors and nurses do everyday. How they can take extreme situations and handle them like nothing. I am very thankful there are people (even Dr Waffle) out there like that. I couldn't do it.

The Dynamic Duo

Where did my babies go? Wasn't it yesterday that my little Bubba would sit contentedly on any lap for hours at a time? Her little dimples would flash so quick and another pair of hands would snatch her up. By the time she was 4 she developed an energy that couldn't be capped. She was bouncing up and down and all over and she was a marvel to watch. She'd flash that grin and look over her shoulder as if to say, are you watching me? Of course we are. We can't take our eyes off of you! While she loves the attention, don't expect her to talk to you. Maybe she grew accustomed to us always being there watching out for her. Maybe it was always in her nature to be quiet and shy. I tried to help her spread those wings. I'd have her order her own food at the McDonalds counter. I'd make her talk to her teachers and coaches. I even let her go to China with her gymnastics team when she was 11. But what she needs to help her soar isn't a mother or a father but a sister.

Essica, from day one was demanding something from the world. Demanding to be held and then a minute later demanding to be let down. If I wanted to dress her in purple, she wanted to wear orange. When I wanted to help her ride her bike she pushed me away and then practiced every day by herself on the back patio until she got it. The first day of preschool she did not want to go. She cried and threw a fit and I had to push her through the door and run. It broke my heart but I should not of worried. Once through the door she completely forgot about me. She was in her element. She had those kids and teachers whipped into shape in no time. When I complained to her teacher one day about how they let her do whatever she wants, she told me, "Essica is one kid you will never have to worry about. She is a natural leader. She knows what she wants and how to get it. That is a skill that can't be taught." Wow, my child is only 3 and already I can relax and let her take care of herself! You know what? That teacher was right.

The two girls together make for one amazing pair. The younger pushes the older to do things that she normally would be too shy to do. Alone, Bubba, might not try new things but when Essica is standing beside her life is full of adventures. The older keeps the younger one grounded. Puts a bit of humilty and humanity in her britches as only an older sibling can do. When Essica is demanding, Bubba is the peace maker. They compliment each other so perfectly. While many siblings fight over every little thing these two have been the best of buds. All of their future life plans include the other. As long as they're together I won't worry about either one of them. Right now they are in Portland by themselves, with a car and a credit card. I should seriously be very worried but curiously I'm ok.



What all this really means is that I can save all my worrying for my boys! Those two will undoubtedly either be at home until they put me in the ground or take off for parts unknown with no forwarding address. Not sure which I prefer. :)

Europe in 5 minutes.

Come along for a short journey to Eastern Europe. Your travel guide is Ms. Essica. As a member of the Tacoma Youth Chorus, Essica was part of a choir tour through Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Austria. They performed concerts in the following places: St Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, Hunyady Hall of Bojnice Castle in Sliač, Decanal Church in Tabor, St Saviour’s Church in Prague and also at the Cantus MM Festival in Salzburg. Their trip took 2 weeks but we can see it all in just a few minutes. If you're like me this may be as close as you'll ever get to seeing these places.

Wisconsin anyone?

I'm sure WI is a lovely place to live but it's not much to visit. Not that we had much time to see anything anyway. Y Nationals turned out a lot different than I expected. Bubba and I went with our cheerleading pom poms but she ended up wearing a leotard instead. Last Monday before we left she tried out a beam routine, partially done on her left, non dominant leg. She said it went ok and she might just try competing. I told her I'd try really hard not to laugh. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing when it comes to emergencies and competing. At the open workout on Wed she actually did all her skills on her good leg! (See photo to the right. Check out coach's face. This is the moment we knew she'd be competing) It turned out to be a good thing that her coach didn't scratch her from the meet. She pulled off some very nice routines with no falls! Team mate, Chels, has had pnemonia for the last month and she also wasn't expecting to compete but she gave it a whirl on bars and beam and looked exactly like she always does, minus the coughing. :) Muscle memory is amazing too. Our little team could not compete for a team award without those necessary All Around scores but all the girls did great on the routines they did. Bubba ended up qualifying for beam finals (placed 8th), Chels for bar and beam, Alison, bars, beam and floor and Mia for all 4 events! We're very sad that this was the last Y Nationals for Alison and family. She had an amazing meet with two 9.7s! Beam and Floor. She ended up winning beam, came in 2nd AA, 2nd on bars and 3rd on floor. Congratulations Al. We're so proud of you.

So instead of sight seeing we went meet seeing. Day one, 6 hours of gym; day two, 8 hours of gym; day 3, another 8 hours of gym and awards! Even with our handy dandy seat cushion, my bum was feeling the burn. Thank God, this season is over. I'm looking forward to watching my next gymnastics meet from the comfort of my living room couch in Aug. :) We did see Lake Michigan for a few minutes one evening on our way back to the hotel. It's very pretty.

Next year we go to Philadelphia. Even though we've been to PA before I'm excited we're going to Philly this time. We may make it a family trip and head up to New York. This will be Katie's last gymnastics trip so we might as well do it up right. Of course gas prices might just see us staying home instead. I'm hoping for a very light meet season to help us afford Nationals. Yeah, right!