In Sickness

My dog has kidneys of steel!!

I know, because Sunday night I was hauled off to the hospital. Yes, only hours after I put up my post about my new dog, I was lying in an ambulance on the way to the hospital in the kind of pain that keeps you from caring about anything or anyone except peace. It felt like someone was inside me twisting my guts. Had someone pointed a gun at me and promised to put me out of my misery, I would have blessed them.

Home alone

The dog was left home alone. I did remember to put out a little bit of food and some extra water. But in the back of my head I thought either I would be dead soon, or back home. I figured food poisoning. I had just tried something new, a frozen dish that steamed via microwave, and thought it had either gone bad or never really steamed enough. I ate around seven, felt ill by nine and was in agony by ten.

At the emergency room

First, ambulance rides are nowhere near as fun as they look on TV shows.  Inside the emergency room I was asked pointless questions and just wondered which answer would be most likely to make them put me under.  I had remembered to bring my insurance card, under the fear that I would be tossed aside without it, but I was never even asked. Fortunately this was my local hospital, they had me in their records, and they just went to work. Finally they gave me DRUGS!! They put something in my IV that initially gave me the weirdest feeling, shock to the head, shock to the nervous system, an urge to vomit only I had nothing inside to come out. Then peace, as numbness hit my stomach.

Pain totally occupies the mind. I am lucky I remembered my own name, or the number to call for the ambulance 911. I meant what I said about blessing the guy with the gun. Once the pain was gone I could think again.  In an hour or so I was ready to go home, worried only that the pain might return once their meds wore off.

But E R doctors being what they are, this one sent me for a CT scan before he would release me. And at 2 a. m. he came in, sat next to me, and told me he had bad news.  He too had believed it was some kind of food poisoning, but the CT scan showed an obstruction in my bowels. It had to be cleared up ASAP, otherwise it could damage or even kill parts of my intestine.

More suffering lies ahead

No matter how good I felt, I had to be admitted.  By 4 a. m. I had a naso-gastric tube. I won't even try to describe that, it was not as bad as the other pain, but it had it's own debilitating effect. Then I was taken to a room, attached to a suction device, and left to let the tube try to clear the obstruction by suctioning things up through the intestine, through my stomach, into the tube and out in a jar. By the way, I could have nothing, not even water, by mouth.

I have grossed you out as much as I intend to. Let's just say I was reduced to tears by the surgeon who, after sixteen hours of suctioning, wanted to keep me on another night "just to be sure."  God bless my nurse (I am nominating her for an award) who not only calmed me down, but talked to my primary physician who overrode the surgeon (would you believe it) and had the tube taken out.  I was finally released three hours ago, thirty-eight hours after I entered the ambulance.

Return home

I came home expecting the worst. I couldn't have lasted a fraction of that time. I opened the door to the room where I left her. She threw herself at me (remember, I have only had this dog for two week) and made it clear she had to go out. Because there was no mess in the room. Zero.  The food had been eaten, the water dish empty, but no mess on the floor.

My sister, who I had been trying to reach since they put the tube down my nose, finally called me, just a little too late to help. No matter, my super dog is a super trooper.

Give a good dog a name

I am still trying to name her. The contest is still running. Give me a good suggestion, and receive a set of my books, Pull, Die Trying, and Being God.