Karen's back in ER again. This seems to be another intestinal obstruction, but it seems to be a lot more painful this time - either that or the nurse is just making a big deal about the pain meds. To my recollection it does seem like it's being given more frequently. This makes me a little concerned that this might be a much worse blockage than we've had in the past.
Karen had a bit of pain around 1 in the morning, but just enough to take naproxen (Aleve). She began to have some serious pain about 4 am, and an hour or two after that she became nauseous. We figured at this point there was probably some sort of blockage, but Karen wanted to wait and see if it would improve on it's own if she just went onto a liquid diet. We didn't get a chance to try it out because the pain became too much and we decided to go into ER. We arrived at Mayo Clinic Hospital a little after 9.
The way they usually check for a blockage is with a CT scan of the abdomen. While we got into a room very quickly, there was a very long delay in getting the CT scan - several hours. The contrast they make you drink before the CT scan has gotten things moving again for Karen at least once in the past, but due to her nausea they decided to skip it this time. We're still waiting on the results of the CT. It seems strange to me that they haven't put an NG tube in yet, this might be due to the long delay on the CT scan and the resulting CT scan review, but I believe it was something they have always done shortly after we've come in with a blockage. I guess they just aren't sure it's a blockage? Or maybe they aren't sure of what kind of blockage it is.
