Thursday, May 3, 2012

Good News ~ Bad News

The Good News
While painting a piece of furniture outside yesterday afternoon, a car pulled in ~ much to my surprise and delight, it was Casey!  He could only stay for the night and left at 6:00 this morning.  We went out for dinner and I snapped this photo.  He thought it was much too close, but I love his smiling face.  It had to be a record for short visits, but I'll take that kind of surprise any day!!!!

The Bad News

I spent the afternoon in the Emergency Room today.  Mom and I went out for lunch and I had only finished about 1/4 of my meal when I began to experience an uncomfortable feeling.  I was having a difficult time swallowing and was having discomfort like something was stuck midway down. I sat and waited for this to pass, but it was NOT going away. I packed Mom up in the car and decided I needed to have this checked out as it was not only not going away, it seemed to be getting worse and I could barely talk and couldn't even swallow my saliva.  So, off to the ER I went.
They immediately thought it might be an Esophageal Bolus, which pretty much is food lodged in your esophagus.  They did an EKG to rule out anything heart related, put an IV in (that's always such a joy), and asked a lot of questions.  In the meantime, I was throwing up backed up saliva many times.  After some time, I started to cough and that made me throw up and I dislodged whatever was blocking my esophagus.  I immediately felt normal again.  They apparently were going to use some type of medication to make the food dislodge and go down.  If that hadn't worked, then a GI Dr. would have been called in.
After humorously thanking me for doing his job, the ER Dr. suggested I see a GI Dr. in the near future for a scope, told me to take prilosec for a week and made me drink a horrible, thick, chalky, awful tasting cocktail to sooth my throat and esophagus.  He then released me. 
It was not a pleasant experience and I hope it doesn't happen again.  Everyone in the ER was really nice but I was happy to be released with a fully working esophagus, to get Mom home, and to see Jake!! 

3 comments:

martinealison said...

Quelle aventure dites-moi!...
Je suis heureuse d'apprendre que tout est rentré dans l'ordre à présent...
Gros bisous à vous

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

Uck---no trip to ER is fun, believe me!
I am glad to know that you are okay, even after all the not fun.....please take care Audrey.
Sounds like you had good care at the facility.
No more excitement for a bit, okay? ;-)

XXOO~~
Anne

Deborah said...

How frightening. I am so glad it was not your heart...that's what I was thinking when you began your story. Also glad you went to the ER. Brawn Man can empathize with your pain...after this last radiation, his esophagus was quite inflamed and even hiccups caused great back pain. Take care, my friend, and DO follow up.
**kisses** Deb