Officially (as official as a personal blog of relative obscurity can be) I've missed posting today's blog entry because today is really tomorrow but I want to pretend I'm posting yesterday's posting as if it is today and NOT tomorrow. Clear as a Mississippi Mud Pie, eh?
Five hours at the local emergency room has left me lighter by 200 big ones. Dollars, that is! My daughter was experiencing moderate pain of an unfamiliar and lingering kind in her lower right quadrant. After ruling out the other possible suspects we thought doctors might investigate, such as bladder, kidney, and ovary, a trip to a health professional's office seemed the right thing to do. Especially once the mother of a friend, who just happens to be a nurse, concurred with our preliminary findings.
Unfortunately, there is this little thing called 'referred pain.' That means a growth out of check with the organs and blood vessels in one area of the body can travel routes via nerve endings and such and create pain in an entirely different part of the body. In this case, a hemorrhagic ovarian cyst twice the size of the ovary in which it's housed was the culprit. And, it didn't care to refer itself too awfully far.
Needle stick and blood draw. Cup o' urine. The orange iodine-contrast liquid. Blips and bleeps. The 'hot shot' moments before the CAT scan. A rare sudden-onset side effect. A mild allergic reaction which brought about a liquid Benadryl boost which took my young adult daughter by surprise and caused a brief panic attack. A bag and a half of saline solution and several copious bladder voidings later. And a confirmed diagnosis for a condition not able to be treated. It seemed like such a waste of insurance though we were glad to at least have a cause. I had to check myself when I began thinking that at least a surgical procedure would have made all of this worth it, and my girl would feel relief at the end.
It figures. Three out of five members in the Valdez household would agree that ovaries garner more than their fair share of unwanted attention. Two out of five would agree with the three out of five. Three females and two males. Guys and girls.
And not a one of us had to fork over $200 to find that out. Ugh!
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