Well it is almost 3am and I am sitting in the emergency department lobby of the University of Washington Medical Center. My night did not start this way. Let’s turn back the clock 7 hours...
Earlier in the evening I went to a friend’s home to ring in the new year. We were having a lovely time. Just eating snacks, chillaxin... everything was very cozy. Until I got a call from one of my other best friends. We grew up next door to one another and our parents still are next door neighbors.
The call went to my voice mail which then sent me a completely garbled text of the message. At first I thought she was asking if I would be coming to her house later for New Year’s Eve. But then I saw the word ambulance.
AMBULANCE????
When I hear her message she tells me her parents called. Saying an ambulance was at MY PARENT’S house.😳 I immediately call mom and dad. No answer. This is just after 8pm. My parents never go out. Well, they do but I had talked to them just at 5:30 and knew they were in for the night. I call again. Still no answer. I call dad’s cellphone...
He picks up!
But then tells me my mom is in an ambulance and he is following it to the ER. 😢
After dinner sometime she started experiencing excruciating pain in her side, then began vomiting. She couldn’t move so dad called the medic. He told me he would call when they got to the ER.
After making some calls (one to my friend to tell her what was happening and to thank her for calling me and one to my husband who was home sick) I sort of sat around a minute. I didn’t really know what to do with myself.The whole thing was very surreal. Thankfully another friend encouraged me to head to the hospital. His encouragement snapped me out of the surreal and I left to find my parents.
I made it to my mom’s room just after 9:30pm. She was not in a good way. She looked 100 years old and her face was totally distorted by pain and fear. And she was just making the most visceral moaning sound. I panicked at first because seeing my mom like that... it just felt like something I shouldn’t be seeing. But then I sucked it up and put on my big girl pants and grabbed a chair by the side of her bed. I sat with her, held her hand and told her she would be OK. That I knew it hurt, but that the doctors would make her feel better.
We were at the hospital a long time as the doctors administered pain and nausea medications and conducted diagnostic tests. Waiting for each test result took ages.
Then out of nowhere her pain went away!
A CT scan eventually revealed the reason why. It turns out mom has two rather sizable kidney stones! I had them once in my early 20’s. Hands down it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced and now mom was experiencing that too. The stones only cause pain when they shift. So the sudden end to her pain means she either passed the stones, or they just stopped moving.
While this obviously was a horrible physical experience for her... I am so thankful that she is OK and that her pain wasn’t caused by something more insidious.
So while it didn’t feel like it at the time, this New Year did start with the happiest news. My mama is gonna be OK.
Happy 2020 everyone. Love your people hard and without restraint.
xo -dfinney
🙏 While Kidney stones aren't quite something to sneeze at I'm glad it isn't something even more serious, and as a Nurse I can easily think of a hundred other possibilities. Lotsa love, 💞
Yeah, I have a friend who is a nurse at the hospital we were at. She is the one who called to tell me about the ambulance. I was texting symptoms and test results to her as they came in. First you think heart attack (when we knew very little) and then you think appendix, gallbladder, ruptured ovarian cyst, kidney stones etc...
Kidney stones hurt and one of hers is BIG so will likely need blasting out... but I am glad all that suffering was temporary.
🤗
Glad all is well,
🐠FinZ!🎣🐟
Thanks Undy. Me too. It was scary stuff but am glad in the grand scheme of problems that this is one that can be resolved.
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Oh my ! I know that was scary !
Glad your Mom is going to be ok though.
Happy New Year !
Thank you! Happy New Year to you. Two days out and things still seem to be Ok. It is a huge relief.
Roughnight Dfinm. Glad it wasnt something more serious. All thr best to mom
Thanks silverd. I am glad it wasn’t something more serious too. Humans are so resilient and fragile all at once. It is crazy.
Yikes! Glad it was nothing too serious, though at the time it must have been the worst feeling. All the best in 2020 @dfinney.
Thank you “another friend” for snapping me out of my indecision. I appreciate you a lot. 🤗
Kidney stones are pretty terrible... But it could have been much worse! Close call..
Oh yeah. They make you wish you would die. It is crazy something so tiny feels like being slashed with a knife from the inside.
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Thanks God she is OK now...
Me too. Thank you @ronaldoavelino. It was terrible to see her so fragile like that.
Stay healthy! Your daughter is too far away to rush to your bedside. 🤗
I am so sorry that your Mom went through this, do they think she passed the stones??
I understand that they can use ultrasound to try and break them up if she did not pass the stones.
The Mrs had Gall stones, and we went through the same terrible pain....Then nothing!
Apparently with Women after the third child you are very susceptible to Gall stones.
Let us know how she is doing....
They don’t know. Well the one on the right that hurt so much was 4mm. That one might have passed. Who knows. The one on the left that doesn’t hurt and was right up near her kidney is 1cm. That one will need to be blasted I am sure.
Weird that gallstones come after a third child. 🤔
So far mom is good. We talked yesterday. I need to check in tomorrow to see if she has appointments with the specialists yet.
Thank you. 🤗
We will keep her in our prayers...
I guess we should all be glad we live in this age, a hundred years ago....
Oh wow... I'm sorry you had to experience such a scare like that! I think you handled it well though. I'm glad your mom is alright... :)
It sucked. It was also kind of this weird moment of knowing in the next decade hospital visits like that are eventually going to become common. My parents are 73 and 76 so... they are getting to an age when shit is gonna start happening. But for today I am super glad she is better.
I know the feeling... My parents are at very similar ages. It's all part of life and getting older. Just try to enjoy your time with them as much as you can!
Oh my!!!! I am glad to know that your mom will be alright. But , oh my... you’re writing kept me very much in suspense and worried. ... you are as talented as Kerris.
I’ve been away from steemit for the entire day and night of Jan 1st, otherwise you know that i’d be here sooner. I am really glad to know that your mom is okay.
Take care, my sweet sis @dfinney 🤙🌺🤙
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Steemit breaks are good. I am just catching up now after 2 days.
Thank you for your kind words. I am glad mom is ok too. 💕
Take care always and drink lots of water.
Happy New Year to you too!