I went to Immediate Care at Loyola in Burr Ridge Tuesday morning because I felt like someone was stabbing me in my right rib.
Which wouldn’t be a big deal in an of itself, except that it has felt like someone has been stabbing me in the right rib for about two months now, which makes it hard to think clearly and stuff.
And I wanted to go to Loyola because that’s where my doctors are and I have no idea where their actual ER is but their Immediate Care is kind of on my way to work.
And I’ve been having trouble working lately, what with the stabbing pain and all, so I kind of wanted to make it to the office. I thought that best case scenario I could stop in, get some help and maybe make it into to work for the afternoon.
Except when I got there, the doctor was all, “Why didn’t you go to the ER?”
And I was all, “Well last time I went to the ER, they diagnosed me with an ulcer, which was technically correct but not really the source of my pain at all, and then I spent a month with stabbing rib pain thinking an ulcer was causing it when it wasn’t. And I gave up tomatoes for no reason.”
And she was all, “Oh.”
And then she offered me a prescription for codeine.
And I was all, “Umm, ya, codeine doesn’t do anything for my pain.”
And then, with a very exasperated voice, she was all, “Well! I can’t give you anything stronger than codeine at Immediate Care!”
As my boyfriend says, “Immediate Care: Unless you’re in too bad of shape.”
She did give me a steroid pack. Which I thought was working. But now I feel like I’m dying again, so I don’t think it is.
I also tried to take two of the codeine she did give me anyway. The had the same effect as an M&M.
I want to cry a lot.
As I wrote in my FB comment, there could be a lotta things causing this – inflamed rib tissue or muscle tissue, lung problems, pancreatic problems (pancreatitis), liver dysfunction (hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver spasms, fatty liver disease, enlarged liver), inflamed appendix, kidney stones, UTI, pinched nerves, ovarian cyst…and that just scratches the surface. You might wanna seek out a hepatologist, since a liver disorder is the most likely culprit. HTH. Christos aneste!
Another thought, in case this hasn’t yet been explored: This could be shingles (assuming you’ve had chicken pox). Shingles needn’t always cause a rash or blisters. It can manifest itself in horrible pain without any dermatological symptoms.