Such was the case this past Thursday. By the time Mark came home I had started whining that it was twinging. He reminded me that I did have a muscle relaxer or two and some pain pills left over from when it happened last year. I took the pills but the phone kept ringing and I kept getting up to go to the computer to check his calendar and enter appointments into the scheduling system. And the pain was escalating.
Usually when this happens, I wait for the pain to reach 11 on the one-to-ten scale before heading to the emergency room. By that time, it's typically after 10 or 11 PM and I'm in too much pain to sleep. Toughing it out is the economical choice. An ER visit is almost always $500 or more, even if you have insurance. But my previous experience tells me that this will get much worse before it gets better - so this time we decided to go to the ER around 8 PM. The pain was only about a five.
We decided to go to the same ER that we went to the last two times this happened. The logic of this is that they can just look in their records to see what they did the last time and then do it again. Even though we passed two other hospitals to get there, we figured it would save time in the long run.
By the time we got there, the pain had escalated to a six on the one-to-ten scale. We didn't wait long before the doctor on duty came in, made sure I wasn't having a heart attack and sent the nurse back in with a valium. That really helped me because as long as I didn't move, I didn't hurt. Then she came back with my discharge papers and a couple of prescriptions. That just couldn't be right. No one had injected me with anything and I still hurt if I moved. She explained to me that the doctor had prescribed some valium and some codeine and suggested that I buy some over-the-counter Motrin. This wasn't what I came in for. But it would be important to remain calm and polite.
"We drove past at least two other hospitals in order to come here. We did that because you've treated me for this before and I thought you could look up what you did the last time and just do that again. Every time I've had this problem, and it seems to be an annual event, I've been given an injection. I do not want to be sent home still in pain."
The nurse said she would let the doctor know. Within minutes the doctor on duty returned.
"Do you really want to have your body injected with narcotics?", he asked.
Without blinking I answered quite simply, "Yes".
Was this a necessary question? Would I sign on to pay $500 or more for an emergency room visit if I could fix the problem with something from CVS pharmacy? I'd taken a muscle relaxer and a codeine before going to the ER. They hadn't helped. I wanted to feel better...then and there. Not next week. I wanted to be able to sleep. I didn't want the stabbing pains keeping me up all night. An injection of a narcotic drug will fix it? Sign me up! Clearly this doctor had never experienced level 11 pain.
The nurse came back with not one, but two shots of something. I needed a wheelchair to leave. But I slept through the night and I was fine when I woke up in the morning - although I admit that waking up did take a bit of extra effort. But it confirms my belief in better living through chemistry.
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