Journal
Doc: "You have a small bowel obstruction."
Me: "No way!" (That's what my patients get. I don't have that.)
Doc: "Yes, and it's not how we expect it to look. The radiologist is reading it as an adhesion, not a lesion. We need to get you to a hospital for a surgical consult and further evaluation, immediately."
Things moved fast from there. The nurse came in to place a NG tube for decompression of stomach contents. Let's talk about this traumatic process... WOW! I have placed many many gastric tubes, and I knew it looked uncomfortable. I had no idea the amount of pain that came with it! It felt like a knife, sliding up and down in my throat, every time I swallowed, talked, or moved my head. I have a whole new level of sympathy for my patients that have to get one.
I was transferred to St. Luke's Baptist Hospital in San Antonio's medical center. That was my first-time riding in an ambulance as a patient. Again, a new appreciation for feeling what my patients go through.
The rest of the night went as expected when you're in a hospital...no rest, in pain for a long time before someone came to help me and being poked and prodded.
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