The best laid plans….

I have to say the last five days have been rather “exciting”. Things were going along without many bumps and then BOOM! Two ER visits within five days!

The first happened last Friday night. Stu had some indigestion when we headed to bed, took a Prevacid and tried to sleep. But the pain continued to get worse and by 2 am he woke me and asked me to take him to the ER. He was 99.9% sure it wasn’t a heart issue but the pain was running at a level nine.

They did all the normal things to rule out heart issues and decided it was acute gastritis. A shot of Dilaudid and a GI cocktail (lidocaine & Maalox) made short work of the pain. Unfortunately they gave him both at the same time and with the less than two minute relief from the Dilaudid, we had no idea if the GI cocktail might have been all he needed. By 6:20 am we were headed back home. He went to bed and I eventually took a 90 minute nap on the sofa.

By Sunday he was back to his normal self, eating a somewhat bland diet (I made homemade chicken soup for him), and having no issues. Monday and Tuesday he worked in the yard other than the hottest part of the day. All was still good.

Yesterday he returned to the yard and while working around the blackberry bushes down by the barn, he got stung. Shortly after he was short of breath and a bit dizzy. So he came in, told me, and took two Benadryl. This was 2:30 in the afternoon. He took a quick, cool shower and stretched out on the bed. Within 15 minutes, he decided he needed to go to the ER. He was breaking out in hives, itching tremendously, and experiencing severe gastritis again.

We got into the car, opened the garage door, and he decided we needed to call 9-1-1. Now that made the day more interesting. We are in Fentress county and the ambulances are 25-30 minutes away. And their hospital is closed. Crossville is 25-30 minutes the other direction. After some discussion, we left and headed to Crossville and their ambulance met us.

Hives in all the warm spots, down his legs, under his chin, in his ears, and cover his hands including the palms.

Stu was in the ER by 4 pm but there were no rooms, he was in the hallway. Before he got into a room at 6:30 pm, there were two more hallway patients. At this point they said there were seven ahead of him. I headed home to feed the dogs, give them an outdoor visit, and then headed back around 7:15 pm.

On the drive back, there was the most amazing cloud formation I ever remember seeing. I grabbed a photo from the same spot where we had stopped for the ambulance.

Once in Crossville, I snapped another photo while at a traffic light. Wish I could have gotten a photo with the lightning in it. For those on Facebook, our local meterologist has a thread where people shared their pics. Amazing!

When I finally got back to the ER, Stu was sound asleep and I could see the signs that he had been given the GI Cocktail again.

Within another 15-20 minutes, the PA came in to check on him. An acute reaction to the hornet sting with acute gastritis from the Benadryl. The big shot of prednisone already had the hives calming down. After some discussion, he was sent home with FIVE prescriptions. We managed to get them filled between CVS & Walgreens and got home by 10 pm.

Needless to say, the pups were super happy to see us, but especially Stu. They had to sniff him, rub him, and check him all over before they’d go outside. LOL!

So here we are, the day after, the aftermath of it all plus the Prednisone has him feeling a bit tired. The swelling in his hand is much better and all signs of the hives are gone. We cancelled his bike service appointment today. No way was he up to riding it into Cookeville (in the pouring rain) today.

Today the #2doods are taking it easy, too.

Ciao for now!

Like this:

Like Loading...