You know, I am really really really REALLY tired of hospitals.
My Dad isn't in any sort of life-threatening danger, but they're keeping him at least overnight, maybe longer. He's been having what he describes -- and I quote -- as "stomach pains" for 5-6 weeks. Really bad, doubled-over-on-the-floor pains. He's been having a hard time eating and keeping stuff down for almost as long.
Well, in listening to him describe his "stomach" pains to the ER doctor, they're nowhere NEAR his stomach, except in the sense that they're located IN his abdominal cavity and not, say, on MARS.
His "stomach" pains are way way way down in his lower abdomen, pretty much where things hurt if your appendix is misbehaving. I know, I know, I *know* that Dad isn't good with medical stuff, but I'm a big believer in precision in description, especially when it's pains occurring in your damn body.
He's had CT scans and X-rays and ultrasound over the past 4 weeks (and again today), and his appendix is fine. Not enlarged, not kerplooey, just fine. He's had an endoscopy within the last 2-3 weeks, and everything was fine there, too. No tumors or undigested bubble gum in his lower intestines.
His kidneys, they discovered today, aren't functioning as well as they ought, BUT they're also very dehydrated, because Dad hasn't been able to keep food OR water down for a while. But that's easy enough to deal with, and when I left him, there was a nice fat iv bag of saline dripping into his veins.
So -- every fucking test that can be run has been run, and there's nothing turning up. This is maddening. He keeps spiking a fever, which the doctors think actually might be unrelated to the abdominal pain; he just developed a very sore throat in the last 24 hours, and he could have a virus of some sort.
This is maddening. He's in terrible pain, just in that one very specific area, but the doctors can't find the cause.
I'm home now (obviously) and far less stressed, now that I have things straight. I had been assuming it was actual stomach (i.e., upper abdominal) pain, and if that were the case, coupled with a high fever, that spells much much badness. But as things are now, I'm much less worried and more just frustrated b/c of the inability to pin down what in the hell is going on.
My money is on alien baby in GI tract. Only *one* doctor out of the 4 that saw him today thought that was funny.
I'm exhausted, because it's just so fucking *draining* dealing with this. I'm very very seriously considering going to bed in about half an hour.
Thanks to everyone for the unspecified-abdominal-pain~ma.