Sunday, August 30, 2009

Me and the ER

Yesterday I had been feeling not so great and spent my entire afternoon in bed. At some point I realized that I was really warm and took my temp. 101.6. My usual temp is 97.6, so 4 degrees was a big deal. I call my friendly Kaiser advise nurse and the ER Dr. said I need to come in and have some blood work done to make sure I don't have an infection brewing somewhere.
The ER. It's the place I hate the most, not that anyone likes it, but from my past numerous experiences, it has been a pain in the ass. Sitting in the waiting room for hours and then sitting in the ER bed for hours, which usually ended up lasting over 12 hours. Granted the last 4 times I was in the ER I was also admitted to the hospital and I knew this time that wasn't going to happen for a fever.
I had taken some tylenol and my temp. had gone down a degree but we drove to Vallejo anyway. Side note, I can't wait for the ER in Vacaville to open!!! (for those that don't know, it's closer and just a nicer town to go to) So we're sitting outside of the ER and I check my temp again and it's gone down another degree. I figure what can I lose, I'll call the advice nurse again and maybe I can avoid this whole senerio. Needless to say they still wanted to do blood work.
I check in and ask for a mask since I had forgotten one of my own and I sat in the waiting room for less than 5 minutes and was called into triage. And then it happened......I didn't have to go back to the waiting room, I went immediately to a bed. Yes, it's sad to say, but I was so excited, that right there cut 4 hours out of our long expected stay. They took many viles of blood and a urine sample, good thing I had to go, and then I waited. I'm not sure where these tests go, but it sure did take a long time for the results to come back. While waiting the nurse had put in an IV and after all was said and done I didn't even need it. My results were all good, white blood cell count was good......woohoo.
So the ER Dr. came in and said that it all was good and that I may be a little dehydrated would I like some fluids (through the IV) I said nope I'm good let me out of here. He responded with not a problem.
We got to the ER around 9:30pm and left at 1:10am, it's a new ER record!!!

Just an update of what happens next:
Monday I have my 2nd chemo treatment.
Tuesday I have my port put in.
The following Tuesday I have my 3rd chemo treatment and then I have 2 weeks off.
I'll update after my next chemo treatment.
Til then keep those prayers and positive thoughts coming!!!
Love you all,
Kate

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Honey
thanks for the updates, glad to hear the ER wasn't long. Hope you have a better experience tomorrow with treatment, sounds like your mom is a good support for you, that is awesome.
Love you
cathy

Colleen said...

That is great that everything went so quickly vs "normal Kaiser time". I hope that everything goes smoothly today and that you aren't too nauseated!

Take Care!

Colleen