Though I have to say I am happy it didn’t turn into a lost weekend (or worse!). I have been having some very uncomfortable abdominal pain (lower left side) for about 10 days, but as I tend to get a lot of discomfort down there due to the hernia, and the adhesions from multiple operations, I mostly just live with it. But the past couple of days it was getting much more painful, even when taking a deep breath, so I decided to head over to Emergency.

Of course because PET scan time is coming up (the last one was in December 2016) part of me was fearing The Worst. Not to mention that I was remembering another time I’d gone to Emergency with serious abdominal pain and it ended up with me having an emergency op to remove an infected ovary. So before I could leave the house I had to make a few preparations (mostly cat related) in case I didn’t come home that evening. But I was wishing with all my heart that my Saturday evening would be spent at home, Netflixing with all the cats on my lap.

Peter kindly came with me. We met near the taxi stand and on the way I reminded him about the cat feeding schedule, where to find all my passwords, etc, in case I ended up having to stay in hospital (or worse!). Even how to access my bank account in case of, you know, The Worst. And all the while I kept trying to stay calm.

Once at the hospital I got poked and prodded, and the doctor said she couldn’t find any evidence of an obstruction. I asked if it might be hernia related and she asked where the hernia was. I have to admit I lost a bit of confidence when I had to point out the balloon of flesh protruding from my belly button. But just to rule out anything serious she ran blood & urine tests and I got an abdominal x-ray taken. THEN we had to wait three long and stressful hours for the results to come back. They were all normal.

Of course this was a relief, but the doctor still had no idea what was causing the pain and said I should get in touch with either my GP or Oncologist. I asked about having a CT scan done and she said they wouldn’t do that in Emergency unless they considered it an Emergency Situation, and she seemed to think she had ruled out any serious cause for my mystery pain. I dunno, it felt a bit like she was passing the buck. A couple of years ago a similar instance occurred and they at least did a second x-ray with a contrast agent for comparison. So I guess I’ll call both my GP and the Oncology department on Monday and see what they say about all this.

Anyhow, although I wasn’t left entirely at ease at the end of my lost day at the hospital, I was happy that my earlier wish had come true and I got to spend Saturday evening at home covered in cats.