Nov.02.01

Man oh man. Yesterday landed me in the emergency room. Can you believe it?

I stayed home yesterday because I had a cold. I felt bad, but it was just the typical cold-y feelings--sore throat, tired, stuffy head, etc. What really sealed my fate though was when I decided to skip my morning cup of coffee. I've been trying to quit my coffee habit for awhile, but I've come to love and rely on my morning cup so much! But I figured that since I already felt crappy, what would it matter if I felt a little more tired or cranky from caffeine withdrawal? Perfect, right?

Well, no. Just before noon, the headache came. It started out as a normal caffeine withdrawal-type headache, but then it just got worse. And worse. And worse. I took Tylenol, I tried to sleep, but nothing worked. Finally, by around six in the evening, I was howling in pain. C. was out looking at a house without me, and his cell phone was off. I left him an incoherent message, something about hoping he was coming home soon because I was in real pain. When I hung up, I was starting to realize that I could no longer wait for C. I needed help. Who to call? I called about four different people, no one was home. Finally, I called my doctor friend S. in Ann Arbor. By this time, my head was pounding horribly, and I was sobbing and nauseous. I was scared. She asked me some questions about my symptoms and determined that I was probably having a bad, bad migrane. While I was on the phone with S., I threw up twice. Horrible. She said she'd call some of our friends and see if anyone could take me to the hospital.

C. got my cell phone message and finally arrived, scared and harried. We got to the emergency room and waited a long time to be seen. By the time I'd gotten through the paperwork and talked to a triage nurse (which took about an hour), I was starting to feel a little better. We waited some more, and still no one called us. After a long while, all I really wanted was to go home and back to bed. We decided to go, and told the paperwork lady that if I felt bad again, we'd just come back. I just couldn't take that waiting room for another minute.

Well, obviously I'm okay today. I know it was probably foolish to not get looked at by a doctor, but I figure I can just go to my regular doctor if I have to. Unless you're bleeding or otherwise dying, the emergency room seems like a real waste of time.

Let's hope that never happens again, shall we?

square - hip