Weekend Fun

I have a really good excuse for not writing this weekend. I was in the hospital. That's right, the hospital. I didn't spend my holiday weekend shopping or barbecuing or partying like some people did; I spent it begging for pain medication.
Apparently, this has been a really lousy week for my body. On Thursday I was diagnosed with a sinus and kidney infection. I mentioned to the doctor then that I was having really bad stomach pains as well, and she said it was probably just from sinus drainage. (Never mind that the stomach pain started before the head cold.) So, she gave me a shot of antibiotics and a prescription for more to take at home, and I went on my merry way, albeit slightly less than merrily.

Friday night, not knowing at the time that I had a stomach ulcer from hell, I decided to have a little drink before bed. Let's just say it involved alcohol (bad) and orange juice (even worse).

Saturday I woke with a pretty bad stomach ache, but it was town yard sale day, and the kids were super excited about buying other people's junk to further trash our already disastrous-looking playroom. So, I took a shower and got dressed to take them yard-saling, but by the time I got downstairs my stomach was hurting so bad that I told David he would have to take them.

He wasn't gone five minutes when I called his cell phone and screamed, "You've got to come home!!" He walked in the door, and I put on one of his t-shirts from the clean laundry pile on the couch (admit it, you have one, too), stuck my feet in his crocs that were by the door, and got in the van. David and the kids weren't even all the way in the other door yet, and I was in the van - sobbing - ready to go to the ER without the slightest thought as to what he would do with the kids.

Fortunately, he keeps his wits about him a little better than I do, so he made quick arrangements for someone to come and get the kids (they were only 2 blocks away, thank God), and then he raced me to the ER. So I could sit in a wheelchair and wait. Then sit on a gurney and wait. Then sit in an exam room and wait.

In the end, they admitted me and ran all kinds of expensive, shouldn't-have-these-done-when-we-don't-have-insurance tests to rule out scary and serious stuff, and finally settled on an aggravated stomach ulcer. After a little over 24 hours, I was able to take my embarrassingly unshaven legs and washed-but-not-dried-the-day-before hair and head out of the hospital wearing David's clothes because it's what I had arrived in. It's amazing how much more self-conscious one is when not writhing in pain; the crocs that are 3 sizes too big for me didn't seem so ridiculous the day before. (I bet there's a spiritual lesson in there somewhere if I take the time to look.)

So, while I didn't get to spend the weekend partying and having fun, I did get to spend some quality time with my good friend Demerol, so I guess it was not a total loss.