So last Thursday, July 15th, I took my kids to the park. When we got home and ate lunch around noon I started to have a pain in my groin area. I just thought that it was annoying and that I needed to visit the ladies.
NO RELIEF.
Then I though I must have pulled something.
NOPE.
Then my back started to hurt a bit. I began to be a bit worried. I texted my brother who had to have his appendix removed and he began to implore me to go to the hospital. I agreed.
Luckily we are surrounded by friends from church and I just had to pick. Luckily one of those friends works in the Radiology department of a hospital and luckily he was home.
I drove up and told the kids to just walk in and tell them that mom needed help and had to go to the hospital.
(In about 4.5 hours my pain went from annoying to unbearable to excruciating!)
JOHN WORLAND my medic rushed me to the nearest hospital and correctly diagnosed me as having a kidney stone(s)- eventhough we weren't sure for hours later. He helped me get checked into the hospital and soon after Ryan arrived. Good thing too.
I was begging for drugs like crazy and crying and vomiting. They couldn't move fast enough!!
I wanted to DIE! I am not kidding. It was so overwhelming and so painful that I just knew that I couldn't endure much more. I knew I wouldn't die but boy I wanted to.
So they finally gave me Zofran for my nausea and vomiting and some Fentanyl for the pain. This was no help! After three injections of Fentanyl they finally got the idea that it wasn't working. On to the Toradol- now this worked long enough for me to get a CAT scan but wore off in the middle of an uterine ultra-sound.
PAIN!!!
Finally, I was given Percecet/Oxycodone for my pain and Fenegrine for my continued nausea and vomiting. The doctors never told me what was going on and I was in and out of sleep. My pain decreased but I could manage and by 10pm the nurse came in to tell me that they were discharging me and that I had a kidney stone. No one told me how big the thing was or where it was located and I knew if I went home I wouldn't pass this on my own.
As the nurse gave me the prescriptions and discharge orders I began to cry. I knew Ryan was leaving in a few days and that if I went home to do this alone with my kids to take care of I was in for some trouble. But I was tired and I didn't fight them so I went home.
From Thursday, July15th- Sunday, July18th I went between my bed and the bathroom. I ate no solid foods because I just would vomit it up anyway. What liquids I tried to ingest I only was able to keep 1/2 down and so things were bad. I was even vomiting up the meds that I was supposed to take.
At one point the Oxycodone wore off while I was asleep and I had this dream that I had been shot. When I woke up my right kidney was killing me and no matter how I tried to sleep on a heating pad nothing made me comfortable.
By 3:30pm on the 18th I had finally convinced Ryan that the ER was better than Urgent Care even if it was $250. I just had to get back to the hospital! It was killing me to be in pain and killing me more to know we had no money for any of this!
Luckily, we had my sister come to the hospital to sit with me while Ryan took the kids to his parents' house.
Here we go again...Once I got through triage and into a room- right across the hall from my previous room- I told the nurse the deal. NO wasting time with all these narcotics that DO NOT WORK for me. Thankfully she listened DILAUDID...oh what nice juice. I finally could feel no pain. It was so glorious.
Luckily the doctor who was on Thursday night was on again Sunday. When he came in he proceeded to tell us what we should have been told by SOMEBODY on Thursday. Apparently I have two ureters off of my right kidney that then join back into a single ureter near the bladder. Not crazy abnormal but not normal either. He then told me I had a fever- code for infection- and that I would probably need another CAT scan - code more $$.
So after another CAT scan with dye indicator this time I was told that I had a 3mm stone near my bladder but that it hadn't moved...at all. STINK!
After 6 hours in the ER- again in and out of sleep- I was admitted so that they could watch the infection. WHEW! I should have done that on Thursday!
After a night of sleep and about 20 gallons of IV fluids Ouila! a kidney stone is born....
It looked like a bb or a fishing weight. Kinda crazy.
Unfortunately the passing of my little friend did not give me a get out of jail free card. NOPE! Dang infection meant another 24 hours of BOREDOM! Sitting in a hospital bed getting pumped with fluids and antibiotics.
(Hospital beds are a unique form of torture. NO way to get comfy unless all drugged up. )
So I just chilled out being weaned off of the pain meds and getting poked and prodded for 24 more hours. Until finally at 11am on Tuesday (July 20th) I was FREE. I nearly skipped to the car.
So I'm on the mend. Sore kidney, frustrated that the mail will soon contain a FANTASTIC medical bill(s) but overall I'm alive. And thankfully Ryan was in town while this was all going down and I escaped without surgery! So here is to the silver lining in this cloud.
Imagine 100 years ago or even 60 years ago I would be dead and that costs more that a hospital bill- I hope?
