The "PAIN" of it all!

Taylor began having some upper gastric pain a week ago Thursday night. I asked him if he thought he needed to go to emergency room, but he said he thought he would be okay and proceded to take a bath hoping that would calm things down a bit. I knew it was pretty bad when he came back out to the family room moaning and groaning after his bath. He's not a complainer, so when he does complain, I know he's hurting pretty bad. I made the executive decision (as a mom and also a nurse should) to take him in to the emergency room. I went back to change into appropiate clothing for the ER (out of my P.J.'s) and persuaded him to do the same (put some P.J.'s on). As I was getting dressed I heard some loud, racing foot steps and then the dreaded sound of "losing his lunch". Literally, since that was the last time he had eaten. I ran out to confirm my fears and assess the damage. Wow! Red lunch (gatorade) everywhere! Bless Dean's heart for staying behind to clean up the mess while I took him to the ER.

The ER experience was not a positive one to say the least. I think we had an intern taking care of him and let's just say he was ready to go home for the night. Taylor threw up one more time in the ER which was pretty handy so they could test it for blood. That is truly what it looked like. That red dye in Gatorade is a powerful thing! (Sorry - I know that is more information than you wanted to know) Anyway, it came back negative after testing it twice. They said the first time it came back "partially positive" which I didn't think was possible. Then the second test was negative for blood to which we were grateful. The urine test showed that he was dehydrated (No DUH!) He's thrown up twice and hasn't had anything to eat or drink since 11:00 in the morning. They gave him two liters of fluid, with some pain medication and an antinausea medication and sent him on his way. They gave no attention to the specific pain he was complaining about. They didn't order an ultrasound, they didn't mention the abnormal blood work, which they told me was "okay", only to learn later that he had a elevated white blood count (usually indicative of infection). We had arrived at the ER at about 10:00 pm and returned home about 1:00 am. Taylor slept until about 4:00 am at which time he came upstairs to take another bath to ease the pain which had returned after the pain meds wore off, which was then followed by another vomiting episode. So frustrating!

Well, by Monday his pain is still coming and going and a visit to our doctor was in order. It was there where I found out his white blood count was high in the ER and the doctor seemed puzzled as to why they weren't concerned about that and why they didn't order an ultrasound of any kind. Our doctor thought it could be one of three things. Pancreatitis, gallbladder or an ulcer. He ran some blood tests to rule out pancreatitis and that came back negative, which is great! He had an ultrasound this morning to rule out gallbladder, gallbladder looked good but his spleen is enlarged which we knew from the ultrasound tech but I chalked that up to his Mono he had a few months ago. Well, the doctor wasn't sure about that and has referred us to a GI doctor and we hope to get him in this week. Put this has been a much better week and he is starting to feel better. So....Not sure what to do now. Go to the GI doctor or don't go to the GI doctor? That is the question.

Note to self ....bag the ER and just wait to take him to a real doctor, to get real help. GGRRR!!

Although, I really shouln't knock the ER. It's the same ER who saved his life when he inhaled the pin. This visit however, not quite as successful. :(