well
it's been forever
life has been interesting
faith went to the er on the 5th
it was about 8:30a
she was at school
she got a stitch in her left side underneath her rib cage
she thought "huh i wonder where that came from"
not too long after that
it migrated to her back and became very painfull
she went to the office and had them call our daughter who works in yorkville
i work in aurora which is further away
she thought she'd have chloe drive her home where she could lie down
but
chloe called me
and
i said to take her to the er
when i got there they were just putting an iv port in her arm
then they gave her some dilaudid (sp?) and some anti-nausea medicine
they waited for her to pee so they could do a urinalysis
they said she showed a microscopic trace of blood
so
they did a ct scan to look for a kidney stone
they didn't find 1
but
they noticed that she has quite a severe s-curve
she has had scoliosis since 13
she was 5'2" when i married her
and
now
44 years later
she is 4'11 1/4"
so
naturally
after they gave her a prescription for darvocet
they wrote down
left flank pain scoliosis
3 hours after we got home
she had to take a darvocet
then
from the 5th to the 14th
she had no pain
but
about 9:15 on the morning of the 14th
she got a stitch
luckily
she had a darvocet with her
she got through the morning
then
when she went home after she got off at noon
the pain came back with a vengeance
after she called the on-call physician's office for an appointment
her physician was off till the morning of the 17th
she wasn't sure if he would want her to take a darvocet before coming in at 2:30
so
she didn't take 1
she called back to see if it would be ok to take 1
his nurse told her to go to the er
at 2:30
we were there
they hooked her up to an iv again
and
gave her some more dilaudid
and
some more anti-nausea medicine
oh yeah
i forgot
both times
at the hospital
she got the dry heaves
this time
having seen what the earlier doctor had written
the new doctor ordered a ct scan of her thorasic spine
and
3 chest x-rays
no organ was obviously being constricted
so
once again she was released
this time with a recommendation that she see someone about her scoliosis
meanwhile
chloe
and
her twin sister in dallas
were both concerned that all this might be heart related
so
the next day
we called her cardiologist
3 years ago she had had a slightly irregular heartbeat
he said to go back to the er
and
have them do an ekg
at 2:15p we were back
another new doctor
he not only gave her an ekg
he also hooked her up to a heart monitor for about 1 1/2 hours
nothing
her heart enzymes were normal too
he did another urinanalysis
not a trace of blood this time
but
since the 5th
her creatinin had increased from .8 to 1.5
interesting
on monday the 17th we saw her regular doctor
she had copies of all the er reports
and
had seen all the ct scans and x-rays
she immediately ordered an ultrasound of her left kidney area
and
checked to see if the cardiologist had ordered a stress test
he had
for thursday
the reason people keep worrying about her heart is because the sum total of her symptoms
back pain a feeling of indigestion nausea
and
as of the 15th
shortness of breath
are all signs of a heart problem in a woman
the result of the ultrasound was that we found out she had something called hydronephrosis
an indication that she might have a blockage somewhere in her urinary tract
yea
a diagnosis
tuesday we tried to get in to see the urologist her doctor had referred her to
but we couldn't get in till wednesday
so i went in to work for 2 hours
wednesday morning i had to go to the hines va hospital to have an aortic ultrasound and a pulmunary function test
my doctor is trying to figure out why i am experiencing shortness of breath
he called yesterday to say that both test results came back normal
meanwhile
while i was at the hospital
chloe went to the urologist with faith
he wondered why faith's doctor had ordered the ultrasound of her kidney
he said that what he saw in the film was just some dilation where the ureter joined the kidney
and
there might not necessarily be any blockage after all
he ordered a renal scan for friday
thursday was supposed to be faith's stress test
but
he postponed it indefinitely when he found out she had broncitis
oh yeah
she was diagnosed with that when she was in the er on the 15th
friday morning at 7:30 she had the renal scan
and
at 1:20p we were in an scoliosis specialist's office in oakbrook terrace
he should be good
because he is a professor at loyola
and
teaches students about scoliosis
he came in
and
immediately said it's not scoliosis
scoliosis pain doesn't begin in the side and move
it begins in the back and goes down the leg
it doesn't come and go
it's a constant pain
he pointed out that he could replicate the pain by pushing on the soft tissue on her left side
he said he thought it sounded like a problem with her kidney
or
he said it might be that her ribcage on the left side might occasionaly touch her pelvis
meanwhile
the urologist's assistant called us because she hadn't realized that faith had had her renal scan at 7:30a
her appointment had initially been for 11a
but
we had moved it up because we had to get all the way oakbrook terrace by 1:20
anyway
she found the test results
and
although she probably wasn't supposed to
she told us that there was no blockage
so
we see the urologist for a followup monday afternoon
and
the scoliosis specialist has told us that if it turns out to be the ribcage/pelvis thing
pain that had only occurred 3 times wouldn't warrant a 10 hour major surgery
he said to take 400mg of motrin if/when a stitch occurs
and to take 400mg 4 times a day until it goes away
and he wrote up an order for physical therapy
so
if anyone has any guesses
please
leave a comment
thank you
sorry this took so long
God bless
signing off
goodbye for now
posted by Bill Robertson @ 1:01 PM
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