My First ER Trip

I’m 30 years old and never went to the emergency room until yesterday. Luckily I’ve not encountered many emergencies. Usually it can wait until normal business hours. Or, at least, I decide to wait.

I posted a few days ago about having food poisoning last weekend. Well, I don’t think getting it twice in one week is normal. Plus there was an instance (or two?) in January…

• It always follows the same pattern (out of the small sample set I have):
• Mid to lower back gets achey
• Feeling of pressure builds on the right side, making me feel like I need to crack my back. Nothing seems to relieve it.
• The pressure and pain builds, knotting the muscles and spreading throughout my right side.
• I start feeling nausea and queasy, sometimes dizzy.
• It mounts and mounts until I feel like throwing up. The pain peaks about then.
• I throw up multiple times and pain starts to subside.
• I’m left feeling sore in my back and throat.

We thought it was food poisoning because on two occasions it really made sense. We’re talking full meals returning. Labor Day weekend I got sick late at night and everything from lunch on came to say hello.

But Friday night (err, well, early Saturday mornin) was different. I never got to sleep as I fitfully tried to lay in a way that didn’t kill my back. Then the nausea and vomiting took over (cue crying baby).

I was emptied out. I hurt all over. I was sore and tired. But the pain didn’t subside.

We aren’t talking some little wimpy pain either. It was comparable to the level of intensity of my early labor. I knew something wasn’t right. My breathing was labored and shallow. So around 5:30am hubs tok me to the ER.

I was hooked up in several ways – blood pressure, heart monitor.

I had blood drawn, peed in a cup and had me venture through Mickey space world. Seriously CAT scans make you feel like aliens kidnapped you!

Their preliminary thoughts were issues with my right kidney. Thankfully my organs look fine. They said it probably just back spasms. I couldn’t be prescripts any muscle relaxers or pain meds due to breadtfeeibg. So I need to attend to it as it starts (example: take ibuprofen and lay down)

Oy! Always something, right? I finally got home and slept 4 hours (after being awake for over 24 hours)… Yet my mind is worried about the lovely bill for my “emergency” and about the blog and emails.

Thank goodness it wasn’t an emergency trip for my daughter, right?

My bed is calling for me~

((Wow, I was way too tired still when I initially wrote this on my phone. And maybe the pain meds still were in my system. I’ve tried to um, fix up some of the errors.))

Darcy Zalewski

Darcy is the founder of “Life With Darcy and Brian,” where she combines her love for education, board games, and crafting to create engaging learning experiences for kids. Her creative projects and writing have been featured in outlets like The Toy Insider, CafeMom, Mom.com, Parents.com, Country Living, and The Pioneer Woman.