And Twelve Hours Later the Answer Is...

...I don't know.

That's basically how yesterday went at the Emergency Room. My youngest daughter got sick on Monday morning at school with what appeared to be some sort of virus. Fever, vomiting, etc. She still had the fever on Tuesday and started complaining about a pain in her lower abdomen. My wife took her to the doctor yesterday morning. After three hours there they thought it was probably a virus but she could have appendicitis and they couldn't run the blood test that could confirm it there. "Just go to the ER. We'll phone ahead and let them know. You'll be in and out in no time." So my wife took her to the ER. They got there at noon. I left work early and got there at 5:15. I had it easy. We got home last night at 11PM. The ER was an absolute zoo. There was no full moon last night but today is a new moon so maybe that had something to do with it. Of course the fact that we were lucky enough to go to the ER on the day they rolled out their new computer system didn't help. Hospital ER's also operate on a different time scale than the rest of the world. You have to remember to do the conversions. 30 minutes = 2 hours, as in "we should have the results in 30-45 minutes". It's the same conversion factor that the airlines use.

They couldn't draw blood at first because she was dehydrated from being sick and they couldn't find a vein. Finally they got her stuck and started an IV. Blood tests, urinalysis, a CAT scan, two doctors and almost twelve hours (not counting the two at the doctors office) later they discharged her and we went home. Still not knowing what the problem was. We did however confirm that it wasn't appendicitis and she had the benefit of about eight hours of IV fluids to rehydrate her. For that it was worth it. Better safe than sorry with your kids. But boy oh boy what a system.