Tums

At the advice of a triage nurse via my primary care physician I went into the emergency room on Sunday. The doctor couldn't tell me the source of the pain, but she was able to determine that it isn't a gallstone or anything to do with my liver.

One possibility is that it might be an ulcer. They gave me a prescription for Prilosec, which would help an ulcer. If this doesn't help she mentioned some other, more invasive tests that could be done.

Everyone at the hospital was pretty nice and I didn't feel as if I had to wait too long.
One funny thing happened. My nurse requested a urine sample from me and since I was hooked up to an IV I had to do it standing beside the bed. She left the room to give me privacy, but then came in with a cup of ice water. She realized I was peeing and apologized, but didn't leave. Instead, she placed the cup right beside me, apologizing the entire time.

Overall the Prilosec seems to be helping, though I have had occasional bouts of what has easily been the worst pain of my life, lasting about 30-45 minutes.(which isn't necessarily saying much. My previous most painful experience was when I hurt my foot and couldn't walk on it for a couple days).

I'm not really much of a swearer unless it is in jest, but I was surprised to find my reaction to these bouts of pain is to swear up a storm while clutching a pillow.
I seem to remember reading that when we swear out of pain or anger, it comes from a different part of our brain than other language, so perhaps it was an instinctual reaction on my part.

I'm bored of laying down, but it seems to help. My new issue of National Geographic came today, which I am very excited about. I am wanting to try and take advantage of my time in bed. I've been trying to get into the TV show 'Lost', which I was never able to do before, but this time has been holding my attention.