Emergency Room - Part Trois

Another week has gone by and this one was just as eventful as last week. For starters, Tary and I were getting ready for bed on Monday night when Tary started feeling an intense pain radiating from the right side of her back. Thinking that it was just normal pregnancy aches and pains, she took a warm bath hoping that the pain would go away. Instead, it continued to get worse. She called her doctor and they told her to go to the ER. We hopped in my car and we rushed to LGH. That's 3 visits to the ER for those who are counting.

There were tons of other people at the ER. I never understood why there are always so many people there, especially at midnight when we arrived. It felt like forever for Tary to get admitted. The receptionist was taking her sweet time entering in Tary's information and getting her paperwork. Thankfully, someone from the maternity ward came with a wheelchair and brought Tary over to their area.

They had Tary change into a hospital gown and then hop on a table. The nurse attached several sensors to Tary's abdomen. One measured the frequency and probably intensity of contractions and the other measured the baby's heartbeat. Thank God that Baby Trinh was fine through all of this.

The nurse tried to take a sample of Tary's blood from her wrist. Fail. That left a bruise. The second attempt was more successful. They were checking for signs of an infection (e.g., elevated white blood cell count). Our ob/gyn came and performed some tests and hypothesized that it could either be a kidney infection or a kidney stone. Tary and I have no experience with either scenario so it definitely was scary.

The ob/gyn gave Tary a pair of Percocets for the pain. Fail. He then gave a dose of Dilaudid. Fail again. It didn't help much with the pain and I felt helpless as I watched Tary cringe throughout the night. The whole time, I sat in the glider next to the table. We had to wait until the next morning for an ultrasound to check for kidney stones. We tried to get as much rest as we could but it was a very long night.

The next morning, a nurse came and wheeled Tary down to the ultrasound area. I followed close behind. The ultrasound didn't reveal anything in either the kidney or the bladder. After the tests, the nurse wheeled Tary to another room which was larger than the one we had the first night. Back I went to the glider.

It felt like forever but they came back a few hours later. They moved Tary to yet another room but this time, she had a roommate. A new nurse came and tried to stick a needle in the back of Tary's hand to start an IV. Fail. It's a common theme, huh? And that left a bruise too. Smartly, the nurse knew when to call in more experienced hands so she grabbed another nurse. Nurse part deux took a look and immediately called for another person. Nurse part trois came and was able to get the IV started in Tary's forearm. They fed some fluids and antibiotics through the IV to help pass the kidney stone and to fight off any possible infections.

In the afternoon, I had to go home to feed the boys and to get my laptop. While I was at home, Tary called me with wonderful news that she had finally passed the kidney stone. She immediately started to feel better. I rushed back to the hospital and got to take a peek at the stone. It was pretty buff.

They had Tary stay another night just for precautionary reasons. My friends S.Y. and his brother came to visit and bring some dinner. It was nice to see them and I was glad that Tary was doing much better. I tried to stay as long as I could but had to leave for the night. I missed my wife.

Tary got to come home the next day. It was great having my wife back home and feeling good again. It was really the scariest thing we've ever been through and I thank God that Tary and Baby are doing pretty well. A nurse told us that compared to kidney stones, giving birth would be much easier. Obviously I can't vouch for that but for Tary's sake, I hope that she was right.