10:30 pm 02/24/2019

As my husband and I got off the car and I limped into the emergency room, my head and weight leaning against his shoulder, a wheel chair was immediately pushed over to invite me on. The painful expression and intermittent groans earned me an immediate attention after the insurance checkup. Soon I was in a room, stripped off the waist-upper, covered with a hospital blouse and a warm sheet before being put on tubes, medication and IV.  Nurses and caregivers hushed in and out. Then a nurse stood in front of a computer and started her routine questions.  In a weak voice, I answered and told the nurse the story of what I thought that brought me to ER. 

An hour earlier, as we were having dinner with two other families at my house, a pang of sharp pains suddenly wrenched me. I tried hard to conceal them, but the pain only grew stronger by minutes.  Apologetically I had to ask them to leave and go upstairs. Then came the outbreak of acute stabbing pains, throw-ups, and I knew I could not stay the rest of night at home like that.

The midnight hospital was empty and quiet, with occasional muffled babies’ crying from a closed room in a distance.  A young doctor named Brian came to see me. He listened to my story again, asked a couple of questions and then prescribed an ultra-sound.  But the continued vomiting, and the unstoppable pain after the two attempted pain-killers put me on an oxygen.   Apart from that, a CT scan was added on the exam list. 

As I wheeled to a CT room along the light-lit passage, a wind from the moving wheels breezed by. I tried to open my eyes to identify the area but then gave in to the refreshing breeze and to sounds from the grinding wheels over the smooth floor.  Life was on the move, and my hope of finding the cause of the pain was on the horizon.

Soon I was diagnosed with a 6mm kidney stone dropped to a certain area that caused the sharp pain. The doctor jokingly said that I tricked him, as the story I told him diverted his attention to the ovary. To add to his humor, he uttered some broken Chinese that sounded funny and made no sense. By the way, how could he tell that I am a Chinese?

When I got released, it was around 1:30 in the morning.  The street was deserted and void of cars, and the two pharmacies that we stopped by for a strong pain-killer and the other prescribed medication were closed.  Tired, weak and light-headed, I refused to try another one but  go home instead. Luckily, I had the rest of five hours sleep sound and painless.