Monday, September 19, 2011

"Blinks, Blanks, Blackouts & Bladders..(Gall)............................"

Good Afternoon;
Well I'm sitting here at the St. Thomas Starbucks with the first coffee in over 24 hours!
Yesterday (Sunday) started off with a whimper that rapidly scaled into a scream when I woke up to a pain between my shoulder blades, that was soon overtaken by a pain in my abdomen that curled me up in a fetal position in tears. When it subsided in intensity for a bit, I recognized it as a gall stone 'attack'. I found that the pain seemed to come in waves varying from severe and continuous to short, sharp, and mind and eye blurring & one step short of passing out. If I stood up and stayed crouched over I found that I could move around with slow deliberate steps.

Getting my clothes and shoes on was a real fun time and took one hell of alot longer than usual. I took the $20.00 I had won the night before on a 'hunch' that told me to play Keno once for a buck then quit, (Which I did and a good thing too because I watched the next 10 games and my numbers came up exactly "ZERO" times!), and took a cab to the hospital ER.
The triage/admin. wait was only 10 minutes.....then I lay on a gurney for 3 hours, after spending 30 minutes trying to explain to an intern that I CAN NOT! receive the damn shot of opioid pain killer he insisted I needed, nor could I have morphine, an opiate. After the third hour of being moved and jostled and lying on my side the stones eventually fell out of the bile duct and back into the gall bladder. When I was told the doctor would see me in 2 hours, IF the radiology dept could get to me for a sonogram........ well, I removed the IV that was giving me fluids and the non-opiate/opioid painkiller/tranquilizer cocktail I eventually got the intern to administer instead, got dressed and left AMA and took the bus to the coffee shop for an hour or so.
I'm sore from the muscular spasming and my side aches, but not like earlier.

And just when I thought that the crap was done for the day...I had a blackout/grayout on the subway. I was on the way to Old Ct. station from State Center/Cultural Center. I KNOW I got on the westbound train, I KNOW this! I checked the sign on the train, the track it was on and the electronic signs on the wall of the station, listing the time and destination AND having flashing arrows that point in the right direction.
Alright....so how did I end up in Johns Hopkins Station in a half daze with no memory of switching trains? It was not a start and wakeup out of a blackout feeling, but a sort of semi-conscious vaguely aware sensation.

And this was a good 12 hours or more since I had left the hospital, long enough for the drugs I was given to have dissipated?


I have to run now, Jenn needs me to babysit Devin this evening, and I'm crashing there and watching TV. I don't think the Mifi is there so I may not finish this until Tomorrow.

Later............................Dave

Today, (Monday)

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