ER Adventure

Last evening, beginning around 8:30 p.m., Bev began to phone us every 10 minutes or so. For over an hour. She claimed that something was horribly wrong with her because she had excruciating pains in her stomach. She told us that earlier in the day she had developed a terrible cold – yes, this cold suddenly appeared out of nowhere – and she could not stop coughing. We spoke several times to the night nurse at the assisted living place, and she finally recommended that we send Bev to the hospital to be checked out. I think she was tired of listening to her whining.

Now, before you think I am being callous, let me remind you that Bev has cried wolf over and over again in the past. I cannot even remember how many times Jim rushed to her house only to realize that she was just overreacting and wanting attention. Jim’s sister had been to visit Bev Friday afternoon, and insisted that she looked and acted completely normal when she was there. (And I use the term “normal” very loosely!) I suspected that perhaps she was simply lonely last night, so at first I suggested that Jim or Debbie go sit with her for a while to see if that helped her to feel better. To make a long story short, neither Jim nor his sister had any desire to go assist their mother. In fact, they were bickering over the phone about who would have to tend to the ailing woman. Finally, Jim agreed, very begrudgingly, to do the hospital run with Bev. As soon as the two got settled in at the emergency room, Bev’s stomach felt instantly better. Jim stayed with her until the wee hours of the morning – well past his 10:00 p.m. bedtime.

The doctors at the hospital ran numerous tests, cat scans, etc. Probably a redundancy of many of the exams Bev had during her gastroenterologist appointments recently. So, her primary physician found nothing wrong with her, the gastro guy found nothing wrong with her, and now the hospital has found nothing wrong with her. I believe that my mother-in-law’s episodes of pain could quite possibly be psychological in nature, but no one in the family agrees with me. If a doctor does find a problem with her, I would gladly admit that I was wrong, and then, hopefully, they can make her well. But if there is no physical cause for all of this, then we should figure out a way to get her anxiety under control. Either way, the sooner we discover exactly what the issue is, the more sleep we will get around here!