Adventures at the ER

Josh woke me yesterday morning with a rapid heartbeat and the shakes, although no fever. He has been complaining of stomach pain and generally not eating or drinking for the last 4 days. So being finally freaked out about it I took him to the Doctor. They decided that perhaps we should go to the Pediatric ER at General for an xray. So off we went. (The biggest mistake was that I was too hurried and nervous to eat beforehand myself, so made do the whole day with just a couple granola bars and a glass of water). Well the ER doctor did not think his pain warranted an xray because it was "not localized", i.e. not appendicitis (good news, but not surprising given the lack of fever). What they did do was blood work, and put him on IV to rehydrate him. To ward off evil thoughts, and to distract us, I read to him (and we worked on a crossword puzzle), and it made the time go faster. I had an evil sinus headache, so what I really wanted was to have him move over in the bed so I could take a nap with him. (Actually, the nurse said that its not unusual for that to happen). Josh asked lots of questions and found out about IVs and monitors and such. After the first 500 ml of saline he finally got some color into his cheeks and perked up a bit. Enough to be able to stand without feeling light headed. I had a discussion with the doc about what symptoms to look for with real inflammatory bowel and or irritable bowel syndromes. It was not terribly busy so I wonder if that's why he spent time to explain things...Or maybe doctors are better at that stuff than I thought, esp. if you ask the right questions and act ignorant enough. He gave Josh instructions about what to start eating (clear liquids, bland foods etc.) and sent us home. The final diagnosis (although it sounds like a symptom) was "non-specific abdominal pain". It was a very long 5 hours...at least to me, and I was exhausted when I got home. I guess he was too, but I'm not sure he expended the emotional energy I did. Especially the part about worrying about work, even though I knew that was in good hands. Well, I hope to not have to do that again soon.