To the ER...but Home Again

Today we "celebrated" the clot being gone by making a 4-hour visit to the Auburn Medical Center ER, where this whole thing began nearly seven weeks ago.

The gall bladder pain, described in the previous post, got to the point where it hurt her, even when she was lying down. That was the signal that Dr. Spens' nurse said should trigger a trip to the ER. (Of course the issue of pain is complicated by the fact that Bettie cannot accurately relate to us the severity of it.) Better to err on the conservative side, since we can't be sure. That's what we did.

In the ER, Dr. Spens visited us and told us the strategy: "We'll scan the gall bladder and be sure it is OK and the drain is properly in place. If all is OK, we'll assume that the pain is from the drain itself. After all, it is a piece of plastic rubbing on her insides and that is bound to cause some irritation. I'll prescribe a pain killer to help, as the drain needs to stay in for another two weeks."

And that's how it turned out. She's resting comfortably in the family room as I write, looking forward to Friday night pizza. Me too.