Dear Family & Friends,
Karen had another bad night, becoming "the usual". Actually, it started yesterday afternoon, when ibuprofen was no longer controlling the pain at all. Called the clinic, the Dr. on call returned our call, and we asked for the "stronger pain meds" that we'd been offered on Tuesday. Dr. on call was not our GYN, so we had to repeat everything in the recent history for him. After which he said, while scanning the sono, he said it shows results unchanged from previous readings. Also said it's not good to mask pain if that masking keeps you from getting help when needed, so he would call in some naproxsyn but if the pain broke through that or any nausea, chills, bleeding happened, we should go to the ER.
We fell in at 10:30, and I hoped for a better night. Not to be. Woke me up at 1:17 to help her get her medication, she hurt too much to get up and needed advice on whether to take another one, though it was well past the accepted time. I got one for her and since the instructions say to eat some and not to lie down until 30 minutes after taking it, we went in the kitchen and did all that. Result: up for one hour and a half, at the end of which she was near-asleep and I was headed back to bed, down for the count, or at least 6-7 hrs, I hoped.
Not so fast, Daddy Bear. 5:30am she wakes me again, she's been awake and in sharp pain, plus nauseated, shaky. This is the exact conditions under which a trip to the ER was ordered by Dr. We had called Rachel against that possibility the previous evening, and so she and her Dad were ready to drive within a few minutes and came and got everyone. We headed for the ER expecting to be sent to surgery.
Nope, not today. Instead, we do a CAT scan w/ contrast. Lots of good news came back: no lymph node involvement, the mass is "nice and solid, no variations in density". No subseptums as previously described on ultrasounds. Meaning, fluid cyst, and since there is nothing emergent, they gave us a script for narcotic pain meds and sent us home to keep our Tuesday appt with our GYN where options will be discussed. Rachel will keep all the kids but Paul, Karen will try to tough it out without getting the narcotics, so Paul can continue to eat.
At home, we slept for an hour, and then the pain came back, pretty sharp. Then it faded for an hour, and then came back. I just went to the pharmacy and dropped off the script, just in case her determination gets burned through by the pain, as it has burned through every pain killer we've tried so far. Gotta cook supper and go pick it up before 7.
Gotta run.
Love,
--Steve
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