Easy Passage at ETMC(Seattle Grace)

In our world of constant drama, yesterday didn't disappoint. Wade woke up hurting in his lower back, which could only mean one thing...kidney stones!

He's been having some back/hip issues for the past several weeks, but this was different. When I was pregnant with Wil(14 years ago), he had a kidney stone so he knew....who could forget that kind of pain...what was happening. I have never in my life seen someone in so much pain. He paced the floor for over an hour, moaning and groaning, until finally he threw up. The pain stopped for a short time. It was long enough for him to get a shower, so I could take him to the emergency room. On the way, the pain returned and hit him really hard by the time we checked in and waited over an hour. At one point in the emergency room, his shirt was soaked with sweat and I thought he was going to pass out. They finally saw him, hooked him up to an IV of fluid and pain medication, and he was feeling better.

That was when...Dr. McDreamy came in to see him. With my obsession with Grey's Anatomy, I guess I think that all hospitals must be like Seattle Grace. This guy was a little younger than McDreamy, maybe about Alex Careve's age, and was very handsome. I bet he was only an intern, too young to be an attending!

Back to Wade, McDreamy said that they really couldn't do much for him, but help him control the pain. They sent us home with lots of pain medicine. We made it home and he rested for several hours. At about 8:00, the pain returned. He threw up several more times and wasn't able to keep any medicine down to ease the pain. So at 11:00pm, we headed back to the emergency room. Thank goodness for Wade's mom. She came over and stayed with kids. By the time we got there, the pain had eased. The ER wasn't very busy for a Saturday night, so we didn't have to wait and there was no time for sweating, like before.

While we were waiting, the door to our room was opened. I heard all kinds of things, like a conversation between a nurse and someone from cardiology about a page not being answered, someone talking about an ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend and her sick child who was being brought into the ER. The nurse wanted to make sure she was gone before the child was to arrive. I felt like the girl, Ava, on Grey's Anatomy who doesn't know who she is but knows everyone else's business. That kept me occupied for awhile.

Until, in walks Meredith Grey. I'm telling you, ETMC-Tyler but be the basis for that show. Anyway, she was too young not to be an intern. To her credit, she was a fellow kidney stone sufferer, so Wade got some sympathy. They took him for a cat scan to determine the size of the stone and where it was located. In the meantime, his pain was back and he had the chills. I went out to the nurses station and guess who was there, Izzy Stephens, but I think she was a nurse. Anyway, Meredith Grey came back and told him his stone was small and very close to being in his bladder, which is a good thing. She gave him her remedy, which was to take a Vicodin and drink a beer. For her that might work, but we don't drink. I guess she expected us to go across the street and let Joe the bartender fix us up!! Except, the only thing across the street from ETMC is more ETMC.

Back to reality. We got home about 3:00am and he was able to sleep the rest of the night. I remember waking up at some point this morning and seeing the sunlight through the windows and thanking God that he had made it until morning without pain.

Bless his heart. I felt so helpless when he was pacing and was so in so much pain. It's very difficult to see someone you love hurting and not being able to stop it. He can now honestly say that he can sympathize with child birth.

There was one little thing about this experience that was disappointing, I never had the chance to run into Dr. O'Malley or Dr. Yang....

Sandy C

Bug Tussle?

Today Wade and I attended a wedding. It was a very nice afternoon ceremony. As nice as a ceremony could be in Bug Tussle, Texas. I promise only in Texas could you find a town called Bug Tussle. I'm not sure if it's actually a town, more like a community. I saw no official signs pointing us in the right direction, only handpainted signs that I figure the families of the bride and groom painted to let people know they weren't driving off the end of the earth. When we finally arrived we found a very small church in the middle of a pasture. It probably had seating for 75 people. They must have invited 200 and everyone showed up. We were a few minutes late so we had to stand in the back along with many other guest. The church was located directly adjacent to cattle working pens...I'm not kidding!! When we walked up the sidewalk there actually was a dog laying down like he was a full fledged member of the church. When we left he had made his way to the cattle pens. I am not sure how all that's connected and it shouldn't have seemed odd...we were in Bug Tussle, Texas.

Anyway, the bride and groom were very attractive, as they should have been, and it was a very nice ceremony. Afterwards, we waited in the foyer area for the wedding party to take pictures. It was so crowded that I was actually being pushed out the door by two women who were visiting about the ceremony and all the people they knew. I had to lean against Wade or I'm sure I would have ended up outside on the sidewalk with the dog. I also had never seen so many people taking pictures. There was a professional photographer, but I promise at least 20 other people had digital cameras flashing and there were 3 or 4 video cameras. There surely won't be a shortage of quality photographs. The reception was being held in the "fellowship hall". This was really two connecting rooms that together were smaller than our bedroom. The cake was beautiful, or what I saw of it, anyway. I couldn't see any of the other food because of the crowd. Wade visited with a few people he knew and then we left before the reception started. I can't imagine what a crazy scene that was, trying to get the wedding party in that small space. I had visions of the old movies were teenagers tried to stuff as many people as possible into phone booths. Those are the pictures I would like to have seen. I wonder if the dog got any cake.....only in TEXAS!!!

Home from Bug Tussle,

Sandy C