Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Unknown Pain

One of the sad things about having a pet is that when they hurt, often times you have no idea what is wrong.  The difficult part is that your pet really can't tell you where or why they hurt.  Last night, Jess had unbearable pain and although she was able to tell me where she hurt, I had no idea what it was or what I could do to make it better.  In a way, I felt just as helpless.

So last night, about 11:30, after dealing with some severe abominable pain, we went to the ER.  One of the problems with the ER we go to is that part of the clientele that it serves is very poor without insurance and many use it as a walk in clinic.  It seems like every time we use the ER's services, the place is jam packed with people, many looking like they simply have a case of the sniffles.  This led to last night's trip being over 6 hours long.  And we were given somewhat of a priority too.  When we left around 6am, there were people in the waiting room still that I recognized as coming right after we did.  I don't know how some people do it. 

So what was wrong?  Well, like I said, They give us a little bit of priority because lower right ab pain could me appendicitis and that isn't something you really want to mess with and take your time on.  But still, we had labs drawn as well as an ultrasound and a CT scan and although the doctor originally thought we were on our way to having the appendix removed, it ended up not being that.  He was actually confused at the end with what it could be and gave us several ideas.  Since Jess was starting to feel better by the end of our stay, he didn't seem too concerned.

This afternoon, after getting a few hours of sleep, we did get a follow up appointment with her OBGYN and he seemed pretty convinced it was a paraovarian cyst.  His explanation seemed pretty believable so that is what we will go with.  After she posted about it on Facebook, others chimed in on having had that and how horrible it was, one friend even saying it hurt more than pregnancy contractions.  Now, I have heard labor pretty much sucks on the pain scale so I can't imagine that this hurt even worse!  Hopefully, this doesn't happen again, but if it does, I know she'll be able to handle it being the awesome trooper she is!

4 comments:

Miss Sassy Pants said...

When the ER doctor gave me that look, when he was pretty sure it was appendicitis, I couldn't help but wonder who the hell has surgery while out of work from having surgery?! I'm thankful it didn't come to that, and while the pain from the cyst sucked like no other, I'm also glad there was something there to justify the pain, so I didn't come off as crazy with pain for no reason. Thank you for spending the sleepless night in the miserable ER with me. You are truly my angel.

laura b. said...

That sounds awful and scary. There is some relief in simply finding out what is going on, I know, but I hope it isn't something you have to anticipate happening again.

Jose said...

Oh wow that is just not good to hear, I can't imagine it can be good to have so my heart goes out to Jess and you too. I'll keep Jess in my prayers so that this gets taken care of as fast and painless as possible. And yes, being poor means having to enudure a lot including long waits at the doctor's office or at the ER.

Mom said...

That is definitely not the norm to be out of work for a surgery only to have another surgery. I'm glad it turned out she didn't need surgery. Weird how it all happened but glad Jess is better now.