ER Visit

The last 24 hours have been pretty crazy. Let's just say I am glad we had the foresight to take a drive-by tour of our local Kaiser facilities earlier this week. I had a vague idea of where Kaiser ER was, and luckily my memory and sense of direction didn't fail me when I needed it the most last night.

It started Sunday morning with Adam not feeling great. His stomach felt unsettled and kind of achy for most of the day. By 4pm he was in a lot of pain. We both wondered if he had another kidney stone (He had one once around 6 years ago). He went upstairs to lay down, and not 5 minutes later texted me that we needed to go to the ER. His pain had gone from about a 2 to a 10 and he felt horrible. I loaded the boys in the car and was called my nephew to meet us at the ER and take the boys to his house.

They ran a bunch of tests and took x-rays. The x-ray showed nothing but there was blood in his urine, which most likely indicated kidney stones. Adam was feeling better from all the pain medication being pumped through his veins, so he was discharged around 9:30pm with a prescription for Vicodin. We picked up our sleepy boys from my sister's house and headed home. Adam took his medicine and we were asleep by 11.

One hour later Adam woke me up and pretty much told me he was dying. Sweating, throwing up, shaking uncontrollably.....his pain was really bad. I could tell he needed to go back to the hospital, but I had no idea how best to get him there. Call an ambulance? Wake up our sleeping boys and drag them to the ER? I called the advice nurse and she said Adam could double up on his dosage of Vicodin just this once. So he took the pills and waited, suffering through the pain and nausea. After 30 minutes had passed and the pain had only intensified, we packed up the boys and headed back to the ER at 1am. It felt like we were rushing to the hospital to have a baby, only our roles were reversed!

I dropped Adam off in front of the emergency room and parked with the boys. I was so conflicted. I wanted to be there with Adam to find out what was going on, but Ryan was asleep and Lucas was clearly unhappy about being woken up. Ryan woke up a few minutes later so I carried them in and waited in the ER waiting room.  Adam was able to text me for a while to keep me informed, but then his texts stopped. I was getting really uncomfortable and the boys couldn't sleep sitting up on my (non-existent) lap. So I went in search for Adam's room.

They were just wheeling Adam back from a CT scan. He was so full of drugs that he could barely stay awake. I tried to find a nurse to inquire about him, but got brushed off with "we're busy, hold on". Adam's room was too small for me to sit down with the boys, so I went in search for more seating. I have to say, the staff was pretty unhelpful. I couldn't find anybody to answer my questions. I was carrying a half-asleep boy on each hip, dropping things out of my purse. And it was like I was invisible. Strike 1 for Kaiser Roseville ER. This was the only point during the ordeal when I felt like I couldn't handle it. I just felt really helpless and frustrated. And of course tired. But then I found a small enclosed waiting room that was quiet, so I settled in there with the boys.

Adam's doctor found me and told me the scan had found a 2mm kidney stone heading towards his bladder. He said the worst pain was most likely over for Adam, so I was really relieved. After more waiting and more prescriptions, we finally got to go home just after 4am, 10 minutes after the boys finally fell asleep in my arms!

The boys were up this morning after about 3 or 4 hours of sleep, so I was too. It actually worked out well because I had to take the boys back to Kaiser for Lucas' asthma check (great!) and flu shots for the 3 of us (ouch!). Adam is still sleeping but has gotten up to take more pain medication. I'm so glad he's okay and that the worst is over. Hopefully no more trips to the hospital for the next two months!