Bill Is In the Hospital

Bill in the Emergency Room last night

Bill is in the hospital. 

Late yesterday afternoon he complained about an arthritis spill he took that got stuck in his esophagus.  He tried for an hour to loosen the pill.  I looked up on the Internet how to handle this situation. One of the suggestions was to drink warm water or tea. I made a tea for him and he felt the pill loosen.

Bill goes to bed much earlier than I do. Last night he went to bed at around 7:30 PM. His bedroom is in the basement, directly beneath my home office.

At about 10 o'clock I heard a tapping sound on the floor beneath my chair at the computer where I was finishing up some online Scrabble games.

I didn't know where the tapping was coming from.  At first I thought someone was trying to break in from outside.  Then I thought of Bill.  I left my desk and went to the top of the stairs that lead to our finished basement.  There was Bill on the floor moaning and struggling.  He had a bucket near him in which he had thrown up blood, a LOT of blood.  

Not to make this about me but I immediately started to shake (as I am now just writing about this).  I descended the steps and asked him what was happening.  He struggled to tell me that he had passed out when he went into the bathroom to throw up and now he was throwing up blood.  Again, a LOT of blood.

I immediately called 911.  Bill managed to put some clothes on and I helped him up the stairs to our garage.  Within five minutes I could see the lights of the ambulance coming down our drive.

The ambulance was the size of a Hummer, lights flashing but no sound (thank goodness, no need to wake up the neighbors at 10:30 at night).  

The EMI guys went through their protocol in asking Bill certain questions.  His name, what year is it, etc.  Poor Bill, he was in such pain and still vomiting blood.  He was trying to reach the bucket but one of the EMI guys told him just to do it on the floor of the garage. Thank goodness I was able to clean up that pool of blood when I returned from the Emergency Room several hours later.

I don't know what I was thinking but I rode along with the EMI guys in the ambulance that took Bill to the hospital.  I should have followed them down in my car.  Later I had to call my neighbor Barbara and asked her to bring me back.  What a neighbor I have.  Barbara has her own medical problems and here I wake her up in the middle of the night.  What WAS I thinking?  Bless her heart.

At the hospital, the folks in the emergency room quickly took control of the situation.  Bill was still in a great deal of pain. 

I don't want to make a novel out of this and I have to go down to the hospital this morning to see Bill but I wanted to let everyone know who cares about us what happened last night.

The doctors who examined Bill think that his esophagus hemorrhaged from taking too many anti-inflammatory pills, which Bill does take.  They stabilized the situation last night.  Today they will perform and endoscopy to see the extent of the damage to his esophagus.

Folks, to tell you that I was shook up last night would be an understatement of the grossest sort.  Bill and I have been together fifty-two years.  I literally cannot imagine my life without this man who I have lived with since I was twenty-two years old.  But again, I have to avoid making this about me. But last night Bill expressed to me his main concern was my welfare if he wasn't around. That's the kind of man he is, thinking of my welfare.  Well folks, I'm going make sure everything is taken care of for Bill and get him home as soon as possible. 

I'm off to the hospital now to visit him.  I'll update when I can.