Mary80's Journal

So this morning, I take Maggie out and then come back inside to feed everyone before I head back out to try and feed a stray I call Mama and the two kittens I just found out she had.

Unfortunately, Maggie had other ideas.

She dashed out the door before I could close it, leading to the Great Maggie Chase. Although with my leg, shoulders and tummy, it was more like the Great Maggie Run While Mary Hobbles After Chase. She wouldn't come to me and would take off whenever I got close, so excited to be out. She got all the way to the other pool on the other side of the community, roughly a block away. It was there that Mary lost her last nerve and said, Screw it.

So I'm hobbling back to the house and who comes dashing by? Maggie. I told her, "Come on, let's go home" and she started heading back to the house, stopping every once in a while to see if I was still following, all the way to the door.

And then of course I was panicked because I thought Gabbie, my baby kitten (who is a couple months old at least, but she's my baby) got out....so I walked around a little more, with one of my other cats, Sandra, meowing as I did the psst psst cat call thing in the hopes that Gabbie would come out.

Finally, I was just so tired I went back to the house....I went in the kitchen and dumped the little container of cat food I'd been holding the whole time into the cat dish...turned around...and there was Gabbie. I almost cried, I was so relieved.

So that was my exciting morning. Maggie doesn't seem to care that Mommy doesn't feel good and she's lucky I walked her. Thursday night and most of Friday I had her make use of her puppy pads because my stomach and shoulders were hurting me so damned bad. I don't even know what it is, but my stomach had me doubled over and it wasn't cramps or IBS....anything that I've felt before. I even called out of work for Friday because I knew I couldn't do it.

I was gonna try to go to CentraCare, a walk in clinic, until I discovered that none of them are on the bus routes and that the one that is closest to a bus route is a 2 mile walk after. Considering I was barely making it around the house and not really standing up very straight? Yeah, two miles was out. And after calling my doc, who couldn't diagose me on the phone, even she thought the 90 minute ride there was out of the question.

So finally, around 11pm Friday night I made the decision to go to ORMC's ER. Now I'd delayed because every time I've been there, it's been a waste of time and effort and nothing got done and there were no answers. This time, I was in the waiting room for about 6 hours...a waiting room that even penguins would have thought was freezing. Finally I get taken in around 6am and I'm then given probably the most traumatic medical procedure I've ever had....a pelvic exam. Now granted, I had one last year by my doctor and it wasn't that bad. Not fun, not not bad. This one had me sobbing and crying out in pain. It was a female doctor and I'm really surprised at how non gentle she was and I felt very very violated. But considering that the only people who've seen down there are her, my doc and me, I know I was overreacting to  the whole thing. But even so, I was very sore after.

When I got back to my little curtained off room (and not in the in/out section either), they gave me an IV of fluids, morphine and something else for my stomach. I wonder if the morphine was just to calm me down but it worked. Cuz the stomach thing and the morphine did nothing for my pain...my stomach didn't feel any better. Then came the CT of my tummy, which wasn't bad. And then just ALOT of waiting. I dozed a bit, read a bit and listened to the jackass next door to me talking to his friend complaining and complaining about all the waiting he was doing blah blah blah. There was an old guy across from us and you knew he was lonely because he was having these long discussions with anyone who came to see him.

Long story short.....it was the same story as always. Can't find anything. The CT came back fine, so no gallbladder issues, no appendix. Blood came back fine and preliminary tests from the pelvic were fine as well as the doc not seeing anything etc. So they gave me a script for oxycodone and sent me on my way.

So I missed another day of work, but I have an ER thing showing I was there. I spent ALOT of yesterday sleeping. Two hours when I first got home, then a nap around 4 to 6, then I went back to bed at 9 and slept on and off till around 8am this morning. I'm going to try and stay awake because tomorrow I have to get up for work at 8am, so I don't want to have a bad night's sleep before that.

Thanks for reading.