It seems I can write blogs but, I cannot look at my own

page. It’s blocked.

I did my tinkle sample and just saw the doctor. He offered me pain meds cause I rated it at 8 when I got checked in but, I demurred, for now.

They are going to take blood 🩸 and give me a CT scan. Oh the joy. Maybe I should have said, “yes,” to the pain meds. It hurts.

I’m wearing two masks. They made me put on a disposable surgical mask 😷 and I put my blue tie dyed one over it. There is no pillow on this bed I’m on but, the back is raised up. The doctor was nice. I didn’t catch his name. ER pillows: another victim of COVID.

Oh goody. They took half a gallon of blood out of me or, so it seems. It’s 5:38 pm. They told me it’s going to be about an hour to get to the CT Scan and then one to four hours for it to get sent to and read by a radiologist. I think they send the images to the main, huge AdventHealth in Orlando. My nurse, Jose, gave me the TV remote. I guess I will flick on the news in a few minutes. At least I have a private privy and I don’t need a walker to get there like I did the last time I was in this hospital.

It’s 5:48 pm. I’m in CT Scan World. That was fast.

That was the new fancy one. There was a patient order confusion and they moved me to the older, less cool scanner. I still felt like part of me was going through the Star Gate. It’s 6:04 pm. So, things are buzzing along.

I had a horrible thought. I hope I don’t have a tapeworm. Am I being paranoid? Hospitals can make me paranoid. I was halfway convinced my orthopedic surgeon was going to turn out to be a raving, scalpel-wielding lunatic about an hour before he cut my knee open. I think he might be kind of a lunatic but, a high functioning, manageable sort. I think all surgeons tend in that direction. I mean, holy crap, look what they do for a living.

There’s no way I’d do that for a livelihood. Like I always say, “Gimmie a dusty mummy any day. No goo for me.” But, I do eat raw oysters, go figure.

It is 6:50 pm. Another nurse, Sherry, I think, came in to give me pain meds. She said she came by but, I had been taken to get my CT Scan already. She joked, “You must be a VIP.” I thought, no, they want me to live so they can get that $1700 I still owe them from my knee surgery.

Sherry had to redo one of the blood samples. She didn’t have to poke me though. I still have that IV thingee in my arm. She also pumped morphine into me that way. Now, I have that song by the Stones stuck in my head: “Sister Morphine.”

I just realized I’m hungry. I guess that’s good. I also got meds for nausea.

I have a craving for au gratin potatoes.

It’s 7:05 pm and 49 degrees F, according to WKMG Channel 6. Sherry also took my blood pressure. She said, “It’s perfect.” It was 116 over something. I forget what the denominator was. She said it was slightly elevated when I got checked in. That was probably due to the stress of coming here. Now, I am married to this blood pressure cuff and the thingee that goes on my finger. It periodically comes on and takes my blood pressure.

Oh boy, I’m getting drowsy.

7:22 pm. Doc just gave me CT results. “You’re abdomen is perfect. No diverticulitis.” “Really!?! What’s causing the pain?” Could be stress or it could be a girlie problem. But, he said there were no masses down there. But, he did say I need to go through my primary to get to my OBGYN. So, this is good except that this pain is not imaginary.

Waiting to …,just signed paperwork. They said I can take my time getting dressed. They are so nice here. Of course, I’m about to fork over insurance info.

I’m a little confused about the bill because I thought the woman working in finance told me my total was over two grand but, when I looked at my paperwork it looks like I will owe $661.08. That’s cheaper than the $2,000 sinus infection I had that sent me to the Oviedo ER about six years ago. They gave me three scripts and told me what I already knew and they weren’t very nice about it. I hate that place. I went there one other time and I’m sure they are gonna kill someone some day.

Tonight I had a CT Scan several blood tests, my pee checked out a drug for nausea and morphine for pain and the before insurance cost was less than my sinus infection. That bill went into a pot and was chosen by a charity to be fully paid off. I was and, still am very grateful for that.

I will be even more grateful when I have enough money to pay all of my bills myself.

I am home, I got out of the ER around 8:00 pm, and am going to make food that I got at Publix in Altamonte Springs.

I’m starving. I think hearing that there are no masses in my abdomen erased some stress. It was going to be pure hell waiting until March to get the colonoscopy and it’s results.