doctor, doctor.....give me the news

so much for no hospitals this year.....

vacation with my family turned a bit more excited when I landed myself in the E.R. overnight. First, let's cover how wonderful my vacation was. I got to work around the house with my dad which included cleaning up, painting my bathroom, painting the side of the house, patching a hole in a ceiling, and scraping off a popcorn ceiling and painting the ceiling. I also got to visit with my uncle, survive what seemed to be monsoon weather, went to the disneyland, volunteered, bought a dress and overall had an amazing time.

Amazing except for that wednesday night (after disneyland at least). I woke up in extreme pain and I don't mean stomach ache, I mean somebody is repeatedly stabbing me in the stomach from the inside and out. After some coaxing by my parents I agreed to go to the hospital. They took my vitals and gave me a room in the E.R.. A few blood tests, IV and some medication later they still did not know what was wrong with me and told my mom that I would stay overnight until they could do an ultrasound in the morning. I survived the night....in pain, but at least it was pretty entertaining for me with the monitors I was hooked up to. The following morning they rolled me to the ultrasound room....yes I got to be rolled around on a hospital bed. Talk about a super exciting thing :-D. Anyways back to the story. Ultrasound completed I stayed in my room and the shifts changed so I got a new doctor and a new nurse (sad b/c the original staff was super fun and made me laugh, and the doctor was quite good looking). My dad arrived and in no big surprising turn of events the ultrasound showed nothing. Yes they still have no idea what is wrong with me. They prescribed some pain medication and a proton pump inhibitor and said to follow up with my regular doctor and to eventually get an endoscopy.

Well I returned to northern california alive with my stomach still in one piece....I think. I emailed back and forth with my doctor and have now been given a referral to a gastroenterologist. As weird as this sounds....that is like winning the lottery for me. Now I just need to set up an appointment and say a prayer that this doctor will be able to solve my problems and complete the simple task of telling me why I am in pain.

So instead of hoping for a hospital free year.....since that has clearly failed, I will hope for a year in which I find out what is wrong with me and can successfully treat it and/or find ways of managing it. :-)