Another Night at the ER… Day 22

…and I only blew 4 veins!

I started having severe pain in my left side, so bad I could not breathe deeply without wanting to cry and my heart was tensing up with the pain. I called the VA telephone advise nurse and she told me to get to the ER ASAP.

Their main concerns were a heart attack followed by pulmonary embolism. Bowel obstruction and other blood clots were also mentioned.

After a ton of tests, including x-rays, an MRI and a CT with radioactive dye, they still do not know what is causing the pain. They do not believe it is surgery related now, which is good. That was the main worry when I went in. I do have kidney stones but they are small enough to pass.

As soon as the radiological stuff is out of my system (3 days) they want a 24 hour urine catch – I get to pee in a big bottle. Yeah! I also have to do the dreaded stool sample because the doctor is almost positive I have Clostridium difficile bacteria in my intestines. I had a raging yeast infection for months that resisted all treatments before I started doing probiotic therapy on my own, so this does not surprise me at all. He also wants to test for E.coli. Been there, had that. Joy.

I am relieved he is so proactive about testing for this. After I give the samples, I start my probiotics again, which should help while we are waiting for the results of the cultures to come back.

While I hate going to the hospital or ER, I think this visit ended up being a good one.