I woke up in the middle of the night every night for about a month in the worse pain of my life. I come to find out that I have had been living with a gall stone floating around my gallbladder. I went to different doctors and they recommend that I wait as long as I can until I go into the hospital because they will most likely just take my whole gallbladder out. Well, I waited until the day I felt like I was going to die and had to be rushed in the emergency room.
We had small children in the car and had to wait until someone came and picked them up, so I had to walk into the emergency room of Trinity Mother Francis by myself. I felt like I was going to pass out right there due to the massive pain throbbing through my body. The lady behind the desk had me simply sign a few papers and sit in the crowded waiting room.
They got me back to the first lady who asked me a few questions pretty fast. Being a Friday night, the hospital seems like the popular place to go. After about a half an hour of horrible pain and the most uncomfortable chairs, they finally wheeled me into a small curtained room.
Sitting in an extremely cold room on an extremely hard bed hearing everyone around me, is not something I want to do on a Friday night. I do not understand some people’s reasons for going to the emergency room. That day I heard so many people coming in and out of the curtained rooms. So many people were complaining about sore throats or weird coughs. Seriously?
Why don’t you go to a walk-in clinic so that the emergency doctors can help people with real emergencies? It took a long time for the doctors to come because it was so crowded. Finally he was able to give me a pain medication and something for my nausea. After a couple hours I had to get a sonogram to see what the problems were.
They had discovered a stone, as I had thought. The surgeon came and talked to me. He was very descriptive about what was going to happen and the good and bad things about getting the surgery done. He was extremely polite, which by the end of my visit I realized that was not the case with most doctors.
After about six hours of the pole sticking in my back I was admitted to my room. The nurses were extremely nice and helpful. I had once written about having a child in the Trinity Mother Francis and I had complained about the nurses being rude and short with me. But when I was in this much pain the women were understanding.
When I needed help they were quick to come and help me, even if it was just using the restroom. I always feel silly when I ask questions that I am sure they have heard a ton of times, but they did not make me feel dumb or wonder why I am asking things.
Once I had been lying in bed not sleeping for about nine hours I was sent down to where they were going to perform the surgery. I was not so excited when I saw that it was back to the small closet sized curtain rooms.
My gallbladder has calmed down, at this point and my surgery was not on the top of the list. I saw many people wheeled into the room and quickly rushed out to surgery. I understood though, I wish they had sent me back to my room and more comfortable room for the four hours I sat there. The drama and gossip of the down stairs nurses did keep me quite entertained.
The second surgeon that came and saw me and later did the surgery was extremely short to me and “matter-a-fact” but he did a great surgery, and I guess that is what matters most right?
The next thing I know I am being wheeled back to the surgery room. I was greeted by smiling faces and surgery masks. The next thing I know the surgeon is in my face asking if I was ready to go home.
I could not think of anything but rolling over and going back to sleep. After he quickly told me what happened and what I could and could not do after the surgery. I had no idea what he was saying, good thing he went and talked to my husband also.
Only a few hours after the surgery I was being sent home. Recovery was one of the most frustrating things because I could not pick up my children and had to have people watch me for almost a week, because of the pain medication I was on. After the first week at home it was time to revisit the doctor.
Once again I saw the first surgeon and he was extremely nice and told me to go back to life as normal. I feel great now and I am glad that I had the surgery done.
Besides the waiting around everything went quite smoothly, and the people were extremely nice and helpful. They were very willing to work with us financially because we do not have Medicaid or insurance. The payments were more than we could afford so they helped us make payments that we could afford to pay.
I was very impressed with Mother Francis and I will be going there again if an other emergency happens, but I may just call an ambulance so I do not have to sit and wait in the emergency room for the doctor to prescribe the person in front of me cough drops from Walgreens.
