Well THAT was no fun!

I spent all afternoon and night in ER at OHSU yesterday.  UGH! We had just left the movie theater. I was driving.  Got several blocks from the theater and the pain hit SO fast! Really terrible, tight cramping pain involving my whole torso and chest.  Starting in the back and radiating around front with the hardest hit part the right upper quadrant.  The pain was about a 9.  All I could tolerate without passing out.  I was sweating profusely and couldn't breathe well. Very shallow. Couldn't get a good breath.  Man I was scared.  I pulled over right away and told my husband to take over driving and get me to the emergency right away.  I literally thought I was going to die on the way there. After 10 minutes of this, it finally let up a bit.  Pain down to about a 6.  I got my wits about me enough to call my dr. and alert I was on my way to ER.  I got cut off with bad reception when I was pulling in.  I sat in the waiting room over 2 hours before they took me back. All the whole I'm in this terrible pain.  Afraid to move. When I got back, they didn't give me anything for the pain right away. Did an EKG and send me for a chest x-ray then I got a whopping whole 5 mg. of oxycodone.  I just weaned myself off oxycodone from my surgery, and that was at 30 mg. dosage, so I couldn't see how 5 mgs. would do anything.  It did take the edge off every so slightly, But not enough to really even notice. My heart and lungs were fine, so we moved on to gall bladder.  They sent me for a scan.  Took forever.  Lots of pics.  Went back to my room. Sat for another couple hours.  Got another oxycodone. Then the pain started to subside.  Whew.   So, they sent in a resident surgeon to explain what they found.  I didn't appear to have any other gall stones in there, but they suspected I passed one and that it got stuck in a pancreatic duct because it was dilated.  My white blood cell count and liver enzymes were elevated, indicting inflamation and possible blockage.  So, no clear cut answer. So, I need to get my labs redone on Tuesday to see if my counts are coming down.  Then I see my surgeon on Thursday and we will discuss this further.  I will probably get scoped.  I don't know, something called ERCP for some big long name procedure where they put a camera down there and look around, stretch stuff out if there are strictures, and pluck any wayward stones if they find any.  At least that is what two surgeons and the attending doc said.  We will see what Dr. Deveney says. They also want me to tell him about my trouble swallowing and the spasm like feeling I get when I swallow.  Like something is stuck and trying to go down.  So, maybe the ERCP can take care of that too. So the ER doc left me saying it could happen again, but they were confident it was a passed stone.  If it happens again, probably my gall bladder will be taken out. So, I'm feeling way better today, and living in fear of that pain returning.  I think I'll carry my own pain pills with in case they don't get me in for a long time again.  I really thought I'd pass out from the pain.

So sorry to see that you had problems with your gall bladder. My mom was back in the hospital only a few weeks after her hysterectomy to have her gall bladder removed.  Her original surgeon saw stones on her gall bladder during the operation but didn't bother to remove it.  She reportedly had pain far worse than going thru childbirth and had to go to the ER in the middle of the night.  The hospital had to call in a sleepy tech to do the tests.  Once that person determined that she needed surgery, the hospital had to call the surgeon in from his home.  She had the open surgery around sunrise (lap wasn't available at that time) and left the hospital a week later with a diagonally long scar across her torso above her hysterectomy scar.  (Most of today's stand-alone gall bladder operations are lap now, thank goodness!) So if you experience pain in your torso that is much worse than going thru childbirth, then go to ER ASAP like you did the first time. Hopefully you won't experience those problems before your appt with Dr. D. later this week.

Oh yes, WAY worse than childbirth pains.  WAY!

It is kind of important not to take pain pills in situations like yours and they do not give them to you for quite a while in ER situations for a reason. Pain means something is wrong and they need to try and figure out what is wrong largely from where and how strong the pain is. As a teenager I was in a fairly severe car accident where I broke ribs and bruised my spleen. I went 4 days with no pain pills because they needed to know right away if my pain levels changed. A ruptured spleen can kill you in minutes. Although I know spending a long time with pain (from experience) is horrible it is for good reason-not just to make you suffer. The waiting on the other hand sounds more like a staffing problem-not so good. Maybe there is a method to that madness too? :) i cant figure it out though. Im glad the pain is gone for you and hope it does not return!! Tina

Good advice Tina, also, They had to the the EKG and Chest X-Ray to determine if your were having a heart attack. Though if they did a cardiace work-up it makes no sense to leave you in the ER waiting room for 2 hours. Wow! I am an ER nurse NOT AT OHSU and it makes no sense to me why the 2hours, but I wasn't there and have no clue as to what the situation was in the back. As for the pain Dr. Tina is correct. One good thing about pain...it lets you know you are still alive ;o) As tortuous as it is. HOPE YOU ARE FEELING BETTER!!

Dang GIRL!!! I hope you get some definate answers tomorrow...I'm sooo sorry you had to deal with more crap!!! BIG HUGS!!! Deanna

Kim have faith you will get to a point where you are enjoying good health due to  Dr. Deveney's surgery repair.  You did not deserve ANOTHER tough patch (well you didn't deserve ANY tough patches) and you continue to be brave.  I hope this is the last of it and you start to have a long and uneventful stretch, and that twenty or so pounds finds you this year.  I want to know what triage nurse could hear your history and have you at a level 9 pain and think it O.K. to wait two hours?  It's scary to be in pain so long!  Couldn't they have contacted your surgeon for some orders?  Anyways.....hope this all gets solved.  I know it will!! Patty

Forgot....I had a gallstone stuck in my liver duct and it was a night I will never forget.  I was seven months pregnant.  I passed it off as indigestion at first.  They couldn't take my gallbladder out laproscopically because of the baby (Rebecca is her name now!) so I had to have the full 10  in*****ision.  That was fun healing while my daughter grew to 9 pounds!   Gallstone, kidney stone, childbirth....they all hurt! Patty