Nightmare in the ER ( beware it's a long one)

Last Tuesday Borg came down with a headache. He gets them every so often and with some advil and a hot shower he can usually make them go away. Maybe once a year is so bad he'll need to go to bed and sleep through it. He never takes time off from work but he did Tuesday. So I knew it was bad. The pain lessened through Tuesday and Wednesday but it became worse on Thursday. He worked his day shift and then went back at 11 for his overnight. The phone rang around 1am. He was throwing up the pain was so bad and he was coming home. By 10 am Friday he couldn't stand it anymore. Off to the doctor. After waiting almost 2 hours to be seen the Dr tells him he wants him to go to the ER right away. His blood pressure was dangerously high. 168/118. He couldn't tell if the headache was causing the high pressure or vise versa. Off to the ER we go. Now the Dr is worried that he is having/about to have a stroke. Borg is only 38 and in relatively good health. He calls ahead and tells them he wants him seen asap and orders a CAT scan. We get there about 40 minutes later and the place is packed to the walls. He checks in and takes a seat. Within 10 minutes his face is so red I'm scared to death. I go to the triage area and explain the DR has called and please look at him. I get told he needs to wait. I ask the nurse to just look out the door and if he thinks waiting is ok then I'll gladly wait. Needless to day he was taken right in. His pressure was even higher now. The RN on duty tell us she talked to the DR and he never said he wanted him admitted. Well that's not what Borg was told at the office. I said to the nurse "why would the DR waste his time calling you if it wasn't a true emergency?" Didn't get the answer I was looking for trust me. So now we wait. About 30 minutes later we are brought to a stretcher in the hallway. Patients are lining the walls of the ER. A heploc for IV's was put in and he is left laying flat on his back with a light over head. He had to put the hood of his sweatshirt over his eyes they hurt so bad. And we wait. Dr comes by finally and Borg tells him the story. Dr orders a CAT Scan. Now a few years ago I (who never suffer from headaches) had this same pain. CAT was clean. The DR never looked at my neck. Which turns out to be where the problem was. So I tell the DR about my experience and would he please Xray Borgs neck just to be sure. He said if it was in MY professional medical opinion he needed one, he would ordered it.(can you hear the sarcasm) So they jack Borg up with meds and away he goes. CAT and xrays comeback clear. So good news no stroke/brain bleed. Next diagnosis is meningitis. Only way to find that out is by lumbar puncture. He finally after 5 hours in the hall gets a private ER room. And low and be hold a new DR is taking his case. Guess the old one (he was the jerk I had a few weeks ago) didn't like me speaking up. But That's OK I like this one better. Borg gets into position and the DR tries to find the spot but no luck. Borg is a really big muscular guy and it was impossible to feel anything. So by now it's after 7pm and no radiologist on duty to use a floriscope to find vertebra and get test done. But they start him on all the meds as if he has meningitis. Steroids, kick ass antibiotics and more pain meds. Borg was getting Dalautin (not sure of spelling) 10x more powerful than morphine we were told. Should knock out a horse. One shot did me in but not Borg the Big. Every 2 1/2 hours he was dying again. Now the decision is made to keep him overnight so they can have the test done in the am. I leave the hospital about 10pm (9 hours after we got there) and the waiting room is still packed. Borg has night from hell. Pain will not go away completely and night nurse won't give him pain meds as needed. I go back around 9am and his is having the lumbar puncture done. I went through the same thing when I was there a few years ago. Now we wait some more. Finally at 1 pm they send us home. Tell Borg to rest and follow up with new DR. Test results come back clean. So he took all this medication for no reason. And he still has a headache although not as bad. Now we still have no idea why his blood pressure was so high. Was this causing the headache? Was it a result of the headache? Thousands of dollars later we still have no answers. He is calling new DR in the am. Hopefully with ER recommendation he can get seen asap. I can't fathom going through all this and still not knowing why he hurts so bad. Hopefully we will get some answers this week. And to top it all off I came down with the flu. Trying to take care of him and myself is proving to be a challenge. All I want to do is sleep. We both need to get better soon.