Miss Katie has had some difficulties these past two years.  Her behavior deteriorated and then improved, a couple of times.  Yesterday when I picked her up for lunch, she was agitated.  It was like she was being pushed from the inside.  We got to the mall, I ordered some subway for us and then she started crying, just sobbing.  I put our lunch in her backpack and we headed to my house.

When we got there, she seemed okay but didn't eat much.  Then she wanted to go back to her house, so I bundled her back into my car and drove her home.  When we got there, she just sat and cried again, sobbing.  Her urine smelt awful and I wondered if she had a UTI.  I went home and tried calling some pharmacies to see if they could help, nope.  One pharmacist suggested Katie should see her family doctor who not only doesn't work weekends but usually has a two week wait to see anyone.  Plus she was in pain now.

I checked Emerg wait times and decided on the Grey Nuns Hospital because it was close to her house and had a relatively short wait time, 3 hours.  Last month a man died in the same emergency room after waiting for 8 hours to be seen by a doctor and I was actually nervous about taking her there.  Katie seemed okay in the waiting room, trying to engage everyone she could see.  She had bloodwork done which caused a lot of screaming (her) and crying (both of us).  I had even thought to bring some water so I kept getting her to drink and I managed to get a urine sample for them.

The wait wasn't too bad, about 3 hours and we were taken in to see a doc.  Katie started crying when we got to the room, she was no longer distracted (which I only figured out later).  The doc checked Katie over, she cried a lot and was screaming, ordered gravol, toradol, and a CT scan.  The doc said Katie's urine sample was fine, so they were going to check her abdomen.  So the nurses started an IV, more screaming and crying, more bloodwork because one of the vials clotted.  I was surprised to see that the meds worked, Katie settled down and I felt guilty because I hadn't realized that Katie was in that much pain.  Then the nurses gave Katie some ativan for the CT scan and Katie relaxed even more.  

She had her scan, laying still for the scan, which shocked me.  The results, Katie has an ovarian cyst and I wonder if it has been bothering her for awhile which would explain the behavioral issues which come up once in awhile.  She was in pain and didn't know what was going on or how to tell us, which takes me back to all behavior is communication.  When I took her home she was like a drunk poor girl, unsteady on her feet from the ativan.  I helped get her ready for bed and left her with her caregivers.

She has an appointment for an US this week and some pain meds.  We'll see what the US shows and she may need an MRI which would require a lot more sedation.  I had an ovarian cyst in my forties that required surgery to remove, so I guess we'll see what happens.

Update.  Katie is okay and I'm taking her for her US scan this morning.  When I called her house yesterday, she was crying again.  Apparently she had been fine, telling her caregiver her story of what happened, but when a new caregiver came, Katie told the story all over again and started crying.  I feel quite bad that I didn't realize what was going on with her.  I had no way of knowing, but I still feel like I failed her somehow.