So since I've been off of my anti-inflammatory meds (colchicine and no otc painkillers), after a while I finally started to crash. Lungs mostly. The pain in my chest just got overwhelming. By Monday I was freaking out, because I always get a bit worked up thinking that I can't breathe (even though my actual pulmonary function is fine) so I called the Rheum dr, who just said, "You should go to the ER and get checked for clots." Well boo to that. She didn't even suggest upping the prednisone a bit more and seeing if it helped. Well I just didn't like that. I did not go Monday. I did not go Tuesday, though I skipped work. Then Wednesday, I went in to work, and then left early and came home to discuss the pros and cons of the ER. One, I wasn't getting better. At all. Two, they could do all sorts of tests and checkups. Three, maybe they would know what to do about the pain without destroying my (supposedly) precarious liver situation. The cons are the cost, the wait, the fact that ERs are full of whackos. So I went in. I got in at like 4ish and of course didn't leave till midnight. They checked everything out, and basically, it is the lupus crap. Of course. But my ER Doctor (who was a youngin....hence the DH reference) checked out my liver enzymes and told me that even with the very slight elevation that I had, I could probably still be on OTC meds. He went to the University of Pittsburgh, which is the top liver transplant center in the US, and they had patients with severe cirrhosis and other issues that could still take Tylenol. But, in the interest of not angering my rheum, he wrote me a script for just oxycodone, without the tylenol part (when it is both it is Percoset). While I was still in the ER he gave me some dilauden (and boy was THAT fun wooooo) and then just a couple of painkillers for the night before I got the prescription. So then got home around 12:30, so no work on Thursday, but the drugs helped a lot. I have to find a pain specialist and do my best to get the pain levels under control. So we'll see how things progress over the next week.
Other highlights of the ER:
-my blood sugar being stuck in the 40's and then everyone tried to force feed me a horrible sandwich.
-some young (teen?) girl screaming "don't touch me! I'm not 18! Where is my mother!? I'm going through withdrawal don't TOUCH me!!!" and then proceeding to punch a nurse (we think)
-some guy my dad went to high school with who is ALWAYS there because he is an IV tech, came in a chatted with us a lot. Weird.
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