{Oh what a night}

You know how I mentioned pain in my upper right abdomen?  It got kind of intense last night, so around 11:30p I drove myself to the hospital.  I didn't want to drag the babies out of bed and the daddy had to work in the morning, so I went solo.  On the way there (in a wicked storm) I realized I'd be checking in precisely at midnight...Friday the 13th. 
I got to the ED and they processed me right away.  I peed in a cup, had a EKG and a chest xray within 15 minutes of walking through the door.  I actually let myself think this might be a quick trip.  Ha!  I got settled into my room and had an IV in, monitors on and blood drawn pretty fast. 

Nurses were great and the doctor was too.  The thing is, they were so un-busy, I think they forgot I was there.  I heard the ultrasound tech call three times for me.  Finally, I got down there.  When it was time to be discharged the nurse got so wrapped up in an American Idol convo, I sat for an hour before I started pulling off leeds to get her attention.  I had my IV half way out when she came in.  She came in and apologized profusely, which I think was warranted, and I got out of there. 

The tests basically said nothing.  There is no reason for the pain I'm experiencing.  Or at least nothing they could see.  Xray-normal.  EKG-normal.  Bloodwork-normal.  Liver/Pancreas/Gallbladder ultrasound-normal.  They do think what's going on IS my gallbladder and they want me to get a HIDA Scan to check the functional state of it.  They couldn't order that in the ED though.  They think its full of sludge, making it inflamed and painful.  They just couldn't really see that on u/s.  I have that appointment on Monday, so we'll see what he says.  They mentioned it could be something else in my abdomen, but they didn't see anything in any of my tests. 

The whole 4+ hours I was in the ED I didn't get cell phone service.  I was discharged and as soon as I hit the service barrier at the front hospital entrance I got a couple text dings.  The first text "get home as soon as you can.  alarm went off and I'm guarding the babies with the shotgun".  Uh what???  Once I re-read the text I tried to call the daddy.  No answer.  Are you fucking serious?  You send a text like that and don't answer when I call? 

I finally got through to him.  He woke up at some point to see if I was home yet and in the process of texting me to see what was going on, he heard voices in the back yard.  He got up to check it out and the alarm went bananas.  He grabbed the gun and the babies and about the time he got the gun loaded ADT had called 911.  ADT called within 30 seconds of the alarm going off and they had the police on the way within a minute.  The sheriff got here about 15 minutes later. 

We don't know what happened.  The cops didn't find anything.  Here's what we think happened.  When I left to go to the ED I set the alarm as I was leaving.  We think I accidentally set it for "away" instead of "stay".  When its set to away the motion sensors come on and trip the alarm when they...you guessed it...detect motion.  So, as soon as the daddy came into the kitchen to check things out, boom. 

As for the voices outside, that's the scary part to me.  Why were they out there?  The daddy said they didn't sound like they were trying to be secretive.  He said they were loud, like drunk people wandering around.  We're on a corner lot at the back of our subdivision way out in the boonies.  One way in and one way out.  Just woods behind us.  I'm not sure what someone would have been doing back there at 3am.  I don't want to think about it, actually. 

So what now?  According to the daddy, guns.  More guns and lots of trips to the range so I can familiarize myself more with them.  Its been years since I shot a gun.  According to me?  More security, fencing in the back yard much sooner than anticipated and a front door with more deadbolts.  I just don't get it.  We live in a nice, friendly, family subdivision.  I realize being this close to that cesspool that is Ft Bragg we'll get some spill over, but its ridiculous to not feel safe in your own home. 

So that's how our Friday the 13th started, hopefully yours is much better.