More excitement than I needed

[mdlbear]

Woke up at around 6am (as I often do, even though the alarm is now set for 7:30 now that both kids are out of school) and the flower_cat told me that I should get her up around 7am so she could call Kaiser to see whether she needed to go in to the ER. She did. I emailed mr_kurt to say I'd be getting in late, if at all, and packed a bag of books and magazines for the waiting room while the Cat prepared her going-to-hospital bag. (Why, yes, we have done this before. Why do you ask?)

The immediate symptom was intermittant rectal bleeding -- it turns out it's been going on for nearly a week, but it "wasn't convenient" to do anything about it during Westercon (and emphatically not at the San Diego Kaiser), or over the weekend. In any case, she didn't appear to be bleeding much, and didn't have a fever (which would have indicated an infection). Her energy level was very low this morning, though, so in to ER we went. We figured that the problem was most likely due to hemorrhoids, with a lower probability of a return of her diverticulitis from a decade or so ago. That could have been bad, but it was a lot less likely.

So they hooked her up to an IV (her pulse rate was way up, and her blood pressure down), did a rectal exam, and ordered blood work. Turned out her potassium level was way down. The ultimate diagnosis was, as we expected, hemorrhoids. Two litres of IV later they let her go, a little after noon.

... so her prescription for potassium has been doubled, she's on a different antacid, and she'll be getting a call from Surgery to schedule getting the (large) hemorrhoids removed. We already had a supply of Preparation H suppositories laid in. We had a delightful lunch of appetizers and salad at the Elephant Bar Restaurant (a winner -- that one goes on the repeat list), and I made it back to work (just barely) in time for the 2pm meeting.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Yeesh, somebody *else* getting ready for surgery?

*warm fuzzies* hang in there. At least, unlike poor jenkitty, she'll be able to eat without it causing pain... it's the *other* end that's going to be, umm, interesting. (My dad went through this a while back. No fun.)

[mdlbear]

We'll be OK; with even a modicum of luck it won't be nearly as bad as last May's hernia surgery and its aftermath. As I said, we've done this sort of thing before. (If we keep practicing maybe we'll get it right? Maybe I shouldn't go there...)