Sunshine came out of the bathroom today and into our bedroom in utter agony. I’m a bit of a stoic and, actually, so is Sunshine. But even I could see this was not just female cramps or indigestion. I asked her, “Do you need to go to the hospital?” She answered without hesitation, “Yes.”

I drove Sunshine to the emergency room and her obvious distress put her on the fast track to being seen: But even so, from the time I got her signed in, to the time when her vitals were taken, to the minute or so that we waited for somebody to come fetch us, Sunshine lost consciousness while sitting in her wheelchair. I guess that 10 years of working in the medical industry (if not actually in the hospitals) prepared me better than average as to what was going on and what to expect: Quickly wheeled back to the nearest trauma bay, me describing symptoms and history, half a dozen people hooking up lines and leads, one doctor talking loudly to my unconscious wife. It was still all a bit surreal.

Within a minute, Sunshine was awake and responding. Fluid samples were obtained. Pain medication was administered. She was wheeled off to have an ultrasound, and (as I and the doctor had suspected) the results came back as a ruptured ovarian cyst: probably the most acutely painful thing a woman can ever experience (which was why Sunshine lost consciousness).

Anyway, after a while the pain subsided and Sunshine was able to go home… but not before she asked me to get a visual record of her heroic longanimity (note the tongue: phhhbbbt):

And this will be the first time Mom and Paul are hearing about this: They had left on a weekend vacation this morning shortly before all of this happened. The serious part of Sunshine’s ordeal was over too quickly to call them back as an emergency, and by the time the entire episode was over, Sunshine and I figured that we wouldn’t want to have them spending any more of their vacation worrying about us than necessary. So to all: Sunshine is all better now and will soon be running around the house doing cartwheels as per usual.