About sixteen months ago I was in a bike accident and I got hurt fairly badly.  Nothing too broken, though; just a dislocated shoulder and a honking big internal hematoma (hard, blood filled sack.  Trust me, don’t image search it).  I was told the hematoma would be absorbed by my body and I’d be right as rain in several months to a year.  Hubby asked the hospital if it was possible I had a hernia and the hospital said no.

After a couple of weeks, he was still convinced I had a hernia.  I went to an urgent care clinic, sat there for hours and hours and was told to go home and rest, it was just a hematoma…the CT scans from the ER didn’t show a hernia.

A year went by and I wasn’t feeling much better, but I told myself to relax.  It was just a large hematoma and something so big   might take quite a while to go away.  I started exercising and felt a lot of improvement in my shoulder, but that was the only improvement.  About a month and a half ago I really started to hurt again…well, I’ve been hurting a lot since the day I crashed, but it was starting to get unbearable.  I couldn’t sit, couldn’t stand, and couldn’t lie on my left side.  But I kept positive…I thought “finally!  My body is absorbing this damned thing and I’m going to be okay!”

Two weeks ago I went to the ER because the pain was so bad.  I sat there for three hours before they were able to get me to triage where a nurse took a look at me, poked my swollen pelvis and asked if it hurt.  Then they had me go back to the waiting room where I sat for another four hours before they could get me to a room.  Once in a private room, they gave me a gown and I gratefully shucked duds.  A nurse came in and did a second, more thorough exam.  I was barely able to hold back the tears by this point, but my stubbornness prevailed.  I laid there for another hour before a doctor came in…

And did a third exam on me.  He pulled.  He poked.  He prodded and pushed and…I swear to god this is the truth, he had me look over my right shoulder and cough!  Stubbornness be damned, that hurt like hell!  Tears started to fall, but I managed to stop them.  Mainly because crying hurt.

That’s when he said it.  ”You have a hernia, but no signs of a hematoma”.  A hernia?  ”Yes, a hernia.  It’s a classic case, we won’t need to do an ultrasound or anything like that.  Are you in pain now?”  Am I in pain?  How about I kick you in the teeth and ask if that hurts? Of course I only wiped my eyes and croaked out “yeah”. The good Dr. asked if I wanted some ibuprofen for the pain. “Nope.  I have tons of that stuff in my purse.  Silly to pay for a pill.”  Did I want something stronger than ibuprofen?  ”Well, yeah.  I actually do.  But I’m not going to accept it.  I don’t have insurance and I can’t afford a $40 pain pill.  Thanks, though.”  He left the room to call surgery to see if they could get me scheduled.  He came back and said the surgery department would call me within a week with my surgery date,  and that I could go home now.  But, he cautioned, “if you are in severe pain, come back.”  Severe?  Like so bad I can’t sit for more than 10 minutes at a time…like for the last MONTH? “No…Have you ever had a child?”  Yep!  ”Did you have an epidural?”  Yes.  ”Ah.  Well.  Then you don’t really know the pain of childbirth, but if you feel THAT, come back.”  And that was that.  After I picked my jaw up off the floor I slowly got dressed and waited for the nurse to bring my discharge papers.

And here I am.  After some false starts, some phone calls, and a friend pulling some strings, I was able to get my surgery moved from the end of May to tomorrow.

They are going to fix a hernia I didn’t even know I had.  Hubby has been saying for a year and a half it’s a hernia, and I blew him off.  The hospital blew him off…Poor man was right this whole time!  The original ER from 16 months ago missed the hernia (or such is the theory of this other hospital) because the blood from the hematoma obscured it.  Well no wonder it wasn’t getting any smaller or less painful!  They think I had it all along because short of the initial accident, I don’t remember feeling  anything exceptionally and suddenly painful.  I guess that makes some sense.

I’m a little scared, but ultimately very relieved to be on the road to getting better.  FINALLY!

This post has taken me a while to write, and as I mentioned, sitting for too long causes a good deal of pain.  In fact, that’s exactly why I don’t update as often as I’d like.  Maybe in a month or so, after I recover, I’ll be able to post a couple times a week.  Here’s hoping, anyway.

Thank you, all my wonderful friends.  You’ve been supportive and awesome and I love you!  And thank you, Hubby, for encouraging me to go back to the ER and for not letting go of your hernia theory, even when I was calling you paranoid.  I love you and I appreciate you.

I’ll update as soon as I can post-op.