My unexpected ER visit

Early on Thursday morning, I was talking to Rob, who was on a business trip in Chicago. My parents and sister were staying with me, for which I was profoundly grateful. I felt a sudden, sharp, jabbing pain in my stomach and told him I had to get off the phone. I couldn't focus on anything else. My first thought was that it was a really bad bladder infection, or maybe just really awful gas. But nothing I did affected it. The longer I stayed with the pain, the more it felt like my stomach was being eaten from the inside. Was it cancer? Ectopic pregnancy? I didn't know, but I couldn't move, it was just before 7 am, and I was the only one awake and downstairs.

My cell phone was close by. I called Rob back and told him that something was really wrong. He said, "Wake up your mom!"

I followed orders. I crawled to the foot of the stairs, looked up, and knew there was no way I was going to make it up to the second floor. I could hardly speak, but I gathered a few breaths and yelled. Josie came out first and asked, "What's wrong?" I was still obeying orders and said "Wake Mom up!" My parents came out, saw me, and started to get ready to take me to the hospital. Josie stayed at home to take care of the girls and get Elizabeth off to school.

I got dressed with help and got into the backseat so I could lie down. It hurt to sit. It was unbearable to move.

By the time we got to the hospital, the pain had subsided a bit, and that worried me. What if it really WAS gas?? ER copays are not cheap. And I would have felt tremendously guilty for causing everyone around me such worry and inconvenience.

Over a period of a couple of hours, they ruled out bladder infections, gallstones, and appendicitis. They put in an IV and gave me Fentanyl. Oh, Fentanyl -- it went straight to my brain. My thoughts were perfectly clear, but my head was spinning and I couldn't speak or open my eyes. Thoroughly unpleasant. It did nothing for the pain for about 20 minutes. Then, when the dizziness leveled off a bit, the pain was substantially lessened.

I was able to move enough to clamber into a wheelchair and go get an ultrasound. I couldn't see the actual ultrasound, and the tech must have been legally unable to tell us what she saw. She wanted me to lay on my side for a few scans, and that hurt quite a bit. Then back in the room to wait.

The doctor came in and told me that I had an ovarian cyst that had burst. It was 3 centimeters in diameter. He prescribed painkillers for the next few days and said, "We'll give you one more dose of pain meds and then send you home." Before I could say, "No, I don't need more Fent--" they had already put it in my IV. I felt the dizziness blossom in my brain, tempered a bit by the anger I felt at getting more of that awful medication.

I felt fine for the rest of the day -- just sluggish. A little pain, but nothing compared to what it had been. And every time I sat down I would fall asleep. But I got little sleep at night. The next day was the same, though I nearly fell asleep during Where The Wild Things Are. Saturday I felt a lot more tenderness, and I wondered if the Fentanyl had been in my system for that long. I tried not to take too many of my prescription painkillers; I would have, if I'd felt the need. But I was more interested in where I actually stood and how my body was doing.

I slept for 10 hours straight on Saturday night. By Monday I was just fine.

The doctor said that it was unusual for a woman who has never had cysts to suddenly get one and have it rupture -- strange, but not unheard of. I wonder, will this happen again? If it does, do I go to the ER? I'm not quite sure how to handle it.