After Four And A Half Hours At The ER . . .

Yes, it has not been a good day, especially for Ron.

Thursday night after dinner, Ron started to complain that his back hurt. Ron is not much of a complainer and all night Thursday he was moaning and groaning in pain. He hardly slept Thursday night. This really is not like him.

Let's go back a bit. Last week, Ron fell and he fell hard. He had a huge bruise on the right side of his back, up high almost under his arm. He also had a bruise on his left bicep but other than that, he thought he was ok. He spent a couple of sore days but then felt he was none the worse for wear.

Thursday was a tough day on him. He was crammed up under his van changing the oil. He also was bent over changing the oil on his motorcycle. The neighbor had fallen and couldn't get off the floor. Ron went over and just lifted her back to her feet. Then, as is law when you work on a motorcycle, the bike had to be ridden. After a day like that, we were attributing his pain to some back strain.

Friday he was marginally better; he seemed to be moving a little better and not moaning as much. Perhaps it was just a strain. Then, Saturday he was markedly worse. He could barely walk and was not able to cough without extreme pain. We were pumping Aleve into him with little success.

Then Ron admitted that it wasn't his back that was hurting, but a specific spot that happened to be right over his left kidney. He was suspecting a kidney stone. While he's never had a kidney stone, the pain was right over the kidney and he's heard that stones are extremely painful; he was in extreme pain.

He fought with himself for a few hours after the suggestion of a visit to the ER when the pain finally got the better of him. We got him dressed and we were out of here.

In triage, Ron told all; he told of the fall last week, the lifting of the neighbor, the car repairs, riding the bike, everything. He also added his thoughts on a kidney stone. I guess his assumption made sense since we ended up getting a lovely plastic cup for Ron to fill. They figured they could get started on a urinalysis even before we were seen by a doctor.

The wait was horribly long. I could go on and on with the horrors just in the waiting room, but I'll gloss over that part. Most of you have probably had a similar wait in an ER at one time or another.

After all that, I think he ended up with a really good doctor. She was young and had a name I can neither pronounce or spell. But, she was very personable, very caring and very sharp. I'd say she was worth the wait.

First of all the urinalysis came up clean. There was no infection and no blood in the urine so that left out a kidney stone or a kidney infection. She had Ron lay on his back while she manipulated his legs. Nothing she was doing made his pain flair up or get any worse. Only when she prodded his back would he yell in pain. She had ruled out the kidneys and any musculature problems. What could it be?

The doctor actually said that for a 50 year old man, other than this pain, he was in good shape! Ron wasn't in too much pain to not take offense to that comment! He said "HEY! I'm only 49!" She felt a little bad about her faux paus until we started laughing about it. Poor Ron has 11 more months of being 49 and he's going to make sure he gets all of them in before he relents to 50!

Anyway, she thought for awhile and then thought of the ribs. He did fall a week ago and even though the symptoms came days later, she felt she had a winner.

She did make sure Ron got an injection of some kind of happy juice to help him with his pain and then sent him over to x-ray.

The x-rays came back and she actually brought us into the nurse's station to look at the x-rays. Gone are the days of snapping the films into the light boxes. Welcome to the computer age where your images come up on huge monitors! We looked at a few images before she brought one up where you could pretty plainly see that was rib was indeed broken, and it was broken straight through.

While we were looking at all of Ron's hidden secrets, I saw what I thought was a blob all through his left side, sort of above, under and below his broken rib. To me it looked like a horrendous growth and I was surprised that she didn't seem too concerned about it. I finally asked what it was and she said "oh, that's just gas". Hello? You mean to tell me he's full of gas? Trust me, we didn't need an x-ray to tell us that! He offered to prove it when he asked me to pull his finger, but the nurses did take a vote on that one and his finger remained unpulled. They had no sense of humor!

So, Ron's had a happy shot and we left with a prescription for Percocet. Hopefully now that he's had one of those and he's spent some time on an ice pack, just maybe he can get some sleep. And that's just what he needs.

For now, he is to get lots of rest, pain management as needed, and ice packs. There is nothing else we can do and this can take up to three weeks to heal. So, Ron is out of commission for awhile.

What did he learn from all of this? Four and a half hours and a $100 copay and all you get is a prescription for Percocet and told that you are full of gas. Hell, I could have told him that in four and a half seconds and wouldn't charge him a thing! Hopefully, that Percocet will make it all worth it for him. He doesn't deserve all he's going through. Get well soon, honey.