A Wasted Day

 Beautiful weather here and I was happily working my gardens. I picked a bowlful of baby lima beans and discovered two smallish tomatoes that would work well on a BLT. I came back inside to awaken HeWho sleeps.

It was 10:30 and he has been sleeping until noon then complaining about feeling bad. I thought that maybe getting up earlier might make him feel better. For the past few days he has been complaining of abdominal pain. Vague pains and lack of appetite. I will admit that I am sometimes skeptical about his pain. He has a very low tolerance for pain and I find it annoying. I know, a bad character flaw on me.

This morning he sat in the recliner with a grimace on his face. I asked if he felt any better, then asked again louder. He asked me why I was yelling. "So you can hear me ....." He promptly told me he could hear me just fine. That little voice in my head said "No, you can't."

He said his stomach was hurting and I asked him pertinent questions about where and what it felt like. He was, once again, vague and went back to looking at the screen of his phone. That little voice in my head reminded me that it was Thursday and our clinic is not open tomorrow and I did not want to spend a weekend with HeWho is grumpy.

Then I suggested to him that he call the clinic to see if they could see him today. I was not sitting idly by when I did this, I was shelling beans. My mind was racing ahead to other chores that awaited me and I thought it might be helpful if he could make that call instead of me.

I bet I could have spit in his face and not made him madder! He jumped up and stalked outside. I continued with my task of shelling beans, being almost done, then ventured out to find the unreasonably angry man. I was hoping to hear him talking to someone at the clinic. I found him leaning on the hood of his truck with his head down. "Can they see you today?".

I was greeted with a scowling face and told he was in too much pain to call. So I called. Only one NP on duty and a very tight schedule. I was offered the option of going to the clinic associated with ours in a different city. They have someone to take all the walk-ins that happen and I made a tentative appointment for 1:45.

I had to shower, as I was pretty dirty from the garden and told him to get ready. I asked if he had an appetite at all and he said he couldn't eat, he felt terrible. We arrived and saw the nice young man that looked like he had just graduated. Every question asked would have him turning to me to relay his symptoms. I said that he had been nauseated and thrown up yesterday. He piped in with "this morning, too". He had not shared this event with me when I was interrogating him.

He was examined and appeared to have belly tenderness in general, but mostly in his left upper quadrant. But he jumped when he was examined in the right lower quadrant. I was quick to point out that he had no appendix. The poor young Nurse Practioner looked baffled. He ordered a blood panel and a CT scan. They drew the blood and sent us to wait while they called the hospital to see if they could work him in today.

The good news was that they could, but not until 5:00. It was almost 3:00 and I said good, we will take it. Then he jumped up and said he didn't want to. Let me preface all this by telling you that I had told the nurse I was his mother and we had a good laugh over how big a baby a man becomes at the slightest pain. After telling us he could not eat because he was nauseous, he said he had to have something to eat and was not going to wait around until after 5:00. The next appointment available was Sept. 4. So he told us all to just forget it, he would just have to live with the pain.

Sympathetic looks to me and I mouthed, "welcome to my world" as I followed him out the door. I was annoyed. I asked him if he wanted to find out why he was having abdominal pain and he said he just wanted to eat. He wanted breakfast, so we went to the Huddle House and he indulged in fried eggs, fried hashbrowns, sausage and biscuits and gravy. How's that for someone with belly pain?

He took the meds for nausea and has been in bed since 7:00. He didn't seem to have any problem shoveling down all that fried mess he ate, so now I have to wonder just how bad his belly hurts. If I was nauseous, I would have stuck to something bland and definitely NOT fried! But, that's just me.

I sound like I doubt his pain, or maybe his degree of pain. That is, no doubt, because I do. If he wakes me up to complain about pain, I will take him to the ER and leave him with a note pinned to his collar to call when he will be ready to be picked up. We all know I won't do that, but it is a good option.