What a day!

At 5:00 this morning, Jamie comes to me and said he had been sick all night and his lower back was in severe/excruciating pain. I was puzzled at first, but as I watched him and heard how he was acting, I began to get very concerned. My husband is not one to moan and whine around with every sniffle . I've seen him in pain before, but never have I seen him in this much pain. I went and asked him a few questions. He was moaning, writhing about, unable to form a coherent sentence. I knew we needed to figure out the next step.

It was 5am on a Sunday, so the ER was the only answer for some relief and answers. I began contemplating my choices. My niece is the closest, but since her husband works midnights, I figured that a phone call at 5am, might cause her to be scared. Jamie's parents are the next closest, but my Mother In Law is still recovering from a surgery she had a few weeks ago, and I didn't want to keep them away from the new baby. So, I confirmed that Jamie could wait 30 minutes, and called my mother. She was here fairly quickly and then we decided to head to Murray ER since that is where all our doctors are anyways.

I started consulting "Dr. Google" as I waited and looking up symptoms (bad, I know) and determined that the area he was hurting was probably kidney related and possible a kidney stone the way he was in pain. We arrived at the ER and, I have to say, when someone comes in there with pain, they start jumping quickly (no waiting around this time).

The first nurse that we had was a really cool guy. His first question was if Jamie had ever had kidney stones and when he responded, "No". He said, "I think today is your day." They immediately started an IV to push some fluids (he was dehydrated), pain meds, and Zofran. The nausea got quite a bit better, but the pain still had him moaning and writhing about, so they pushed him something else. Finally he got some relief!

They weren't even discussing the possibility of it being something else. They came in and gave us verbal information on kidney stones and what he might be looking at. They ordered a Cat scan and we waited for the results. Well, we found out that there was NO stone. That was good news and bad news. Nobody wants something like that, but at least that would have been an affirmative answer to the pain.

So, then they ordered a blood draw and found that his CBC showed a bacterial infection. The Cat scan showed that his intestines were inflamed and bulging a bit in the area that was hurting so badly. So, they tentatively diagnosed him with a fancy word for food poisoning!

So, we got sent home with 3 meds, work excuses, and specific instructions on when to bring him back if need be. We have to go tomorrow to get another CBC to compare numbers. Hopefully they'll be better, and he'll be on a mend.

I think we may all play "hooky" tomorrow. I'm really tired from all the excitement too and Jamie needs a nurse and a driver tomorrow anyways. He is running a low fever, but that is understandable. I think we'll grab something for supper (for the kids and I anyways), and all head to bed in a bit.

On another note, I simply could not stand that I was in the same building as that precious baby, and didn't get to look at her. I am sure that I'm covered in every despicable germ that was ever created after camping out in the ER for several hours.