She’s Not Going To Make It

She had come into ER at two PM. She lay on the examination table for five hours crying, screaming, begging for help. Finally around nine PM they had done an MRI. She was bleeding internally, it didn’t look good.

“She’s Not Going To Make It.” She was lucid enough to hear the doctor.

“Are you family?”

“Kelly shook her head. “A friend. She called me saying she needed to go to the ER.”

“We want to send her down to the city. She might have a chance with an operation. Otherwise we don’t think she will last through the night. With the storm over us the Medi Flight can’t get off the ground.”

“I’ll drive her down. I can have her there in an hour and half.” Kelly was watching her friend. They had given her a pain med and she had stopped screaming and crying.

“Not a good idea without EM people watching her. We won’t be responsible.”

“Waiting here for the storm to pass isn’t helping.”

The pain med they put in her IV helped and she was listening. She offered her opinion, she was positive trying something was better than doing nothing. “Kelly can drive me.”

“We called for an airplane as the helicopter isn’t flying in this weather.”

The clock was ticking and the time was closing in on one forty in the morning. The ER team loaded her onto a gurney. “You cold?” One of the attendants asked as he noticed she was shaking all over.

“I’m freezing to death.” The drugs kept her from feeling the pain but didn’t block the cold she was feeling.

She was already covered with several blankets. He covered her with two more.

As they wheeled her out to the ambulance it was drizzling. She smiled, “Feels good on my face.”

A short drive to the airport and she was loaded into a Beechcraft turboprop, ambulatory plane. They left the clouds and rain behind almost immediately after takeoff and it was a smooth ride to Wily Post Airport.

An ambulance was waiting. Integris was close to seven miles away and at that time of the morning there wasn’t any traffic. It was a short time later they wheeled her into Integris.

The examinations and questions started as the staff quizzed the ambulance crew how she did on the flight. She was calm and carried on a short conversation. She seemed to be resting easily.

Then the Dr. questioned her. “Where do you hurt?”

She motioned all the way across her stomach from side to side and then just below her belly up to her breasts. “All of it hurts.”

“On a scale of one to ten how bad is it?”

“About a six or eight now. Before they gave me something for the pain it was a twenty.”

“I’m not going to give you any more pain medicine right now. They need blood samples and I want an MRI. Do you know what that is?”

“Yes.”

Do you have any screws, or surgical attachments in your upper body?”

“No.”

“Okay, blood first and then we will stick you in the tube and see what’s going on.”

Thirty minutes later the doctor was back after she had been scanned. “We are going to put a marker in your blood and run you through the MRI again.”

“Okay.” She had no idea what they found or didn’t find but she was beginning to seriously hurt again.

Another technician came in with a machine. “Sweetie, I’m going to do an ultra sound.”

“Okay.”

Thirty minutes later she was closing up her equipment. “How you doing?’

“I’m really starting to hurt again.”

“The nurse will be in and take you up to ICU. They will fix you up once they get you settled in.”

“Okay.”

Forty minute later she was in a bed in ICU and a nurse was inserting a needle into a vain and then taped it down. She hung up two bags to the intravenous tree. “You should start feeling a little better shortly. We are going to fill you full of antibiotics. Are you warm enough? When you came in you had six blankets on you?”

“I’m cold.” She had a sheet and a blanket covering her.

“I’ll bring a couple more blankets.” The nurse left and within minutes was back with two warm blankets.

“Better?”

“Oh yes, thank you.” She was starting to get warm again as the warmth from the blankets soaked in.

“Okay, you rest and get well.” The nurse put the control pad in her bed with her. “The call button is the big one at the top.”

“Thanks.”

The next day the lady found she was on a water diet only. She also found out she had pancreatitis. And what she had was nothing similar to what is described in the medical journals. The doctors asked her the muti questions normally associated with pancreatitis. Did she smoke, did she drink, had she been partying excessively, along with dozens of other questions which are normally associated with pancreatitis. She didn’t do any of those thing. They were stumped as pancreatitis doesn’t spontaneously happen. There is always a cause leading up to the reason it happens. Maybe an infection from her appendix? They asked if she would consent to an operation and removal of her appendix?

“Is it infected or diseased?” She responded.

“No.” Was their answer.

“I’m not giving up a healthy appendix.”

The next day she was subject to another ultra sound as the doctors were hoping to find what caused the pancreatitis as there is always a cause.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” She asked the technician as she was being scanned.

“Twins, a boy and a girl.” The tech responded with a grin.

“Find anything?”

“I’m not supposed to say anything to the patient as the doctors do that after they look at the scans. Besides your pancreas still has some infection, you look good. I didn’t say that.”

“Thanks, I won’t tell and I’ll look a little pleased when the doc tells me.”

“Get well. You’re improving pretty fast. They will probably kick you out of here by Friday.”

“I might get better if I had something to eat besides ice chips and water.”

“They should have told you. A pancreatitis infection means no food.”

“I needed to lose some weight anyway. Thanks.”

By Thursday they allowed me jello and pudding along with some of the nastiest tasting Ensure I had ever tried to swallow. Friday meant another ultra sound before they released me. I asked the Doc about pain pills because it was still there. He asked me where I picked up my prescriptions and I told him Costco. He wrote something in that tablet of his and I “assumed” it was a prescription for pain pills.

Kelly had drove up to pick me up and drive me home. We swung ten miles out of the way to Costco and there wasn’t a prescription for me. We headed home. A hundred and twenty miles later I wanted only one thing. To lay down in bed and stop moving. I was sick and I hurt. Excedrin, Tylenol, Advil wasn’t helping that much. I hurt but damn if I was going back to the hospital and it was around eight O’clock Friday evening. No doctor. I toughed it out over the weekend surviving on milk, pudding, and Excedrin. Anything else hurt my stomach.

Monday I saw my Dr. and she was reluctant to prescribe any pain meds as she hadn’t received the data from Integris and had no experience with pancreitis. She had no idea what would make it better or worse. If Integris was right, the infection was gone but I was still healing.

It took me a week after I was discharged before I could eat Cream of Wheat and or Cream of Rice. Anything besides milk, jello, pudding brought the pain back. For two weeks I was on a soft food diet. Quaker Oats was added to the menu.

Tired, weak, the third day after returning home I needed milk, jello, and the aforementioned cereals. I drove to Walmart, got a handicap cart, got what I need, checked out drove home, and collapsed in bed for a couple hours. Beyond tired, it had been years since I had pushed that hard to finish a job. Another thirty minutes I wouldn’t have made it home. (Walmart is only four miles from me, short drive)

It’s been a month since Kelly drove me to the hospital suffering the worst pain I had ever experienced in my life. I’m still not back where I was before the attack but I’m making progress. Last Thursday I made the trip to OKC VA for an appointment. Collapsed when I got home but I made it. Today I was down at Cordell, (sixty mile round trip) to appear in court as a witness. Did better with that short trip and court was canceled after I arrived so in and out of the court house helped.

A couple of the nurses mentioned to me there is no worse pain than pancreatitis. I’d almost agree with them except Jean died from cancer. I watched helplessly as she slowly slipped away from me. Pancreatitis there is a treatment if caught soon enough and the body isn’t wasted from alcohol, drugs, or smoking. I’ve never done any of those things and I can’t help the doctors if they couldn’t figure out why I had it. Thus I was curable.
Cancer, no matter how clean a life one has lived, no matter how healthy they are, a cure is still up to God, not us mortals. I will love her for all eternity. Came darn close to going home but God decided I needed to hang around a little longer.
I might possibly get the medical bills paid in five or six years, provided I live that long.
I am not asking for donations nor will I accept help from anyone here. All of you are a great bunch of people but most are struggling just to survive. The term “starving artists” applies to so many on this channel.
Hugs People
Barb
Life is a gift. Cherish it until it’s time to return it to the one who made it for you.