Monday, August 15, 2011

A Kidney Stone . . . PAINFUL!!!

It's amazing how quickly a weekend can change. I had such a great weekend! I had friends over to play Euchre on Friday, Saturday Kaden and I went to the zoo with friends and then at night I had friends over for my Euchre and a fire, and then Sunday Kaden left in the morning for his overnight with Daddy and I had friends over again that night to play Euchre. (We are a tad Euchre obsessed right now, ha!)

When I was on vacation a few weeks ago I had what I thought was a UTI and had my doctor call in a prescription since I was on vacation. I felt better by the time I got home but then the weekend following vacation I started to feel sick again. I woke up with terrible pain in my lower back one night that literally left me screaming and crying in pain. I fought my way through it and eventually fell asleep. After talking to my doctor and a few friends we came to the conclusion that my UTI had probably become a kidney infection. I have no insurance so I was very hesitant to go to the doctor so when a friend said she had meds she never took from her kidney infection I ran with it. (I know, not good!) After a few days I was feeling better so I figured the meds did their job.

I have to admit the past few weeks I have not been feeling myself but I kept chalking it up to the stress at work right now. That and I have an extremely high pain tolerance! I would occasionally have shooting pain in my lower back but it wouldd go away pretty quickly. And it was so random it was not anything that I was concerned about.

Until last night . . .I went to bed around 11 and an hour later I was wide awake with extreme pain! No matter what I did I could not get comfortable. I kept thinking if I could fall asleep it would be better when I woke up but I could not fall asleep. Then I started throwing up and the pain just kept getting worse. After four hours of this I realized waiting to see my primary doctor when they opened was not an option, I needed to go in now! So at 4:30 I got up and got myself somewhat presentable and drove myself to the emergency room.

On the way there, I called my Mom so someone at least knew where I was. I think I downplayed the pain to her because I really just thought it was a UTI. I have to say the hospital did great. Within 15 minutes of getting there I was in a room and seeing a doctor. As soon as they confirmed I could have someone give me a ride home they gave me pain meds and nausea meds through my IV. Although they relaxed me I was still in so much pain. The doctor told me I had no kidney infection or bladder infection so he wanted to have a CAT scan done to check for a kidney stone, I thought he was crazy! Thankfully they were pretty quick about getting me in for the CAT scan and within a half hour he came in to tell me I did indeed have a kidney stone. I was still somewhat shocked! At this point my parents were on their way to pick me up so the nurse gave me another dose of pain meds in hopes that I could sleep when I got home.

It's been a long day and I was not able to sleep much at all because I kept waking up from the pain. I had four prescriptions to fill, two of them being for pain. The good news is that I passed the stone this afternoon. It was crazy to me to see such a teeny tiny litle thing and know it caused me so much pain, unreal!

It was a very strange feeling to drive myself to the emergency room and spend the first two hours there alone. It really made my single life hit home to me and made me very sad. At the same time though I am thankful because I know that there were SO many people that would have some if I would have made that phone call. And maybe part of it is I need to be willing to ask for that help when needed.

So right now I am looking forward to a good night sleep. I am still in a bit of pain because apparently my kidney was inflamed but in a few days that should be gone too. And I can't help but laugh, my Dad has had four kidney stones and my sister even had one so now I really can look at them and tell them a kidney stone is indeed worse than childbirth.

Thanks for loving me today everyone. Between the phone calls, texts, emails, messages and visits there is no doubt in my mind that I am one well loved person and that is a blessing!

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