The Madigan Visit

On Tuesday morning, November 14th I started having chest pain bad enough to feel the need to make a 45 minute trip to madigan Army Medical Center.

Ray drove us to the hospital and I got checked in at the ER. We waited no more then 10 minutes before I was brought back to a room to be examed. (Anyone who has ever spent time in a regular hospital ER understands that waiting less then 5 hours to be seen by a doctor is nothing short of a miracle).

Ray helped me put on one of those always fashionable hospital gowns and assisted me on to the hospital bed. Just as I was getting comfortable, Doctor #1 came in to talk to me. After giving him my life story he left the room. Nurse # 1 came in to make sure I was warm enough. I also gave her my life story and a urine sample. Nurse #2 came in shortly after, again asking for my life story.

Now, let me take a minute to stop and clarify for you. When I say they wanted my life story what I mean is that they want to hear everything about my Sickle Cell Disease from the time I found out I had it. They also want to know every detail about how Sickle Cell usually affects me when I'm pregnant, which to me is the most medically dumb question you can ask someone who has never been pregnant before!

Okay, by this time I've told my life story to about three people, not including the nurse that checked me into the ER and the one that took my vitals. By the way, at this point I still don't have any medication in me, so I am doing my best to answer all these questions while still in pain.

Next to visit my ER cubby is Doctor #2, followed in my Nurse # 3, Nurse #1 and Nurse # 2. While Nurse #3 started working on finding a vein to insert my IV, Doctor #2 started asking more questions. At the same time Nurse #1 and Nurse#2 began checking my belly and fighting over who was going to listen to the baby's heart. At some point Doctor# 1 came back into the room and I found myself being asked questions from all directions.

This wouldn't seem like such a bad thing except for the fact that one of these people that were talking to me just happen to have an IV needle headed straight for my arm.

"Uhm, excuse me, but my wife is getting an IV in her arm right now".

Everyone in the room seemed to pause in mid-sentence as I did my usual scream for pain as the IV was inserted into my arms. The other nurses and Doctor#2 seemed to remember they had better things to do and promptly left the room.

As my IV was being secured Doctor#1 started talking to me about pain relief options.

"Well, we are going to put you on some fluids in a moment and then get you started on some morphine."

"No!!!!", Ray and I both shouted. "Michelle is allergic to morphine."

"Oh. Well, yes, I see now on her arm band. Okay, so no morphine. So, what can you take?"

After listing my drug history which would make any diehard drug addict envious, the doctor and the nurse left my room with the promise to return with some good drugs.

I wish to pause for a moment here to give some much needed praise to my husband. You know that part in the wedding vows that says, '...for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health...'? Most couples go through these vows with the hope that they never have to experience the poorer or sickness part. Of course we all know that at any moment any one of us can be faced with the possibility of seeing someone we love in pain because of a sudden illness. But for someone to go into a relationship and enter a bond of marriage fully knowing that a sudden illness in their spouse is not only a possibility but a regular occurrence takes a level of love and strength that I never knew was humanly possible until I met Ray. And for that reason alone, Ray will always be my hero.

So, where was I? Ah yes, the drugs came and soon I found myself in "La La Land", blabbering away about random pointless things and not remembering much of what went on or what I said. By the time my crisis was under control it was about 7 pm. We had spent the entire day in the ER. I was given the okay to go home and on our way home we stopped at the Olive Garden for dinner. After eating my soup and then loosing my soup in the bathroom, Ray thought it was best to get our dinner to go.

At home we settled in on the couch spending the evening eating pasta and watching Food Network. Despite the doctor trying to kill me with Morphine the day turned out to be just another average day in the life of the Mattingly clan.