Stoned

Yesterday was one of the worst days of my life. I woke up in the middle of the night with pain in my right kidney, which happened two weeks ago, but this time it didn’t go away after 15 minutes. I barely slept the rest of the night and ended up taking a warm bath in the morning which made the pain nearly disappear, so I went about our day not thinking much about it.

We stopped at a nearby Chevy dealership where I test drove a few cars. I ended up really liking the Chevy Cruze 1LT in the new 2013 color, Atlantis Blue, which has a purplish look to it. The features (bluetooth integration with my iPhone, radio integration with my iPod, the ability to stream Pandora from my iPhone directly through the radio, a rear camera for backing up, just to name a few) were impressive. The only two downsides – even with the turbo engine it’s not as peppy as my Jetta and there are no heated seats unless I upgrade to leather and personally I do not care for the maintenance on them, not to mention how hot they get in the summer. So that’s a bit of a bummer but the car isn’t out of the running just yet.

As we were leaving the dealership the pain in my kidney came back with a vengeance. We went home so I could use the restroom, but instead of heading to more dealerships I called my doctor and booked an emergency visit. After examining me she sent me off to the hospital for some tests (blood, urine, and a CAT scan) to figure out which of the three possibilities I had – shingles, appendicitis, or kidney stones.

For the CAT scan I had to drink iodine (plus get it via an IV) which wasn’t bad (it tasted like water) until, for whatever reason, after drinking the 4 glasses I began to throw up. Luckily there was enough in me for them to do the scan and learn that I had a kidney stone in my left ureter which was blocking the urine from my left kidney which was making it swell.

My doctor called me at the hospital and recommended I fill the prescription she gave me for pain pills, and go home and drink a gallon of water which I knew was never going to work because I was still throwing up. So after some deliberation I went to the emergency room so they could put me on saline drip to restore my fluids, and give me some anti-nausea and pain meds. Oh my, those pain meds were wonderful! Love those narcotics! I was writhing in pain all damn day until I got those meds around 6 pm.

We ended up staying in the emergency room for about 2.5 hours and left with four prescriptions – two pain killers, anti-nausea pills, and something to help the urine flow more freely so it can push out the stone. None of the CVS pharmacies by the house were open by this time so we had to go out of our way to a 24-hour location and wait a half hour for my prescriptions to be filled. We didn’t make it home until 10 pm.

All I took when we got home was the anti-nausea medication and drank a little water because I wanted to see whether the pain would come back after the medication from the hospital wore off. Eventually the pain did return, so I took a pain pill which helped me sleep as I was getting up every 15 minutes to pee. In the morning I took another anti-nausea pill and pain pill but I haven’t really eaten since yesterday morning because I still feel rather sick, plus now I’ve got a pretty bad case of acid indigestion.

My body has trouble consuming too many liquids at once so it’s tough trying to drink the amount of water my doctor recommended. I’m not even sure at this point if I already passed the stone or not. I read that once you pass the stone you get instant relief but I haven’t experienced that, plus I still feel sick, so I’m not sure what’s going on. I’m trying to drink more water than I usually do but not too much as I’m afraid I’ll throw up again. I’ve also eaten a few crackers so I can take the medication that helps the urine flow. I haven’t taken any pain medication since this morning since I want to be able to tell if this thing is gone or what since I’ve been straining my urine like they asked but I haven’t seen anything resembling a grain of sand which is what the emergency room guy told me the stone would look like (it’s 2.3 mm).

There’s still a little pain/discomfort in my pelvis, so I’m guessing the stone has moved further down which is why the back pain is nearly gone and my kidney doesn’t feel swollen and tender.

I’m not sure what I’m doing to do about work tomorrow, but I’m leaning towards taking a sick day. I’m supposed to see my doctor for a follow-up visit and I’m super tired because I haven’t eaten much or had a decent night’s rest in two days, so it might be best if I allow myself another day to fully recover. I haven’t even used half the sick days we get a year (6 total) so I don’t feel too guilty about it (for some reason I always feel bad calling in sick).

In any case, that is NOT an experience I ever want to repeat because the pain is agonizing and they don’t give you any relief in the hospital until they figure out what’s wrong which takes forever! I’ve never been in so much pain in all my life. I couldn’t sit still and the only way I can describe it is like having the worst menstrual cramps ever but inside your kidney. I just wish I knew what I could do to prevent any further stones from developing. I have a bad feeling the Xanax could be partially to blame but without it I can barely sleep at night.

Ugh. What a crappy pissy weekend! I really wanted to spend my Saturday test driving cars since I don’t want to be driving mine without a functioning air bag and then this had to happen. Oh, and I can’t wait to see the doctor bills for all those tests, emergency room visit, and drugs. I swear 2012 has been the year of unexpected big expenses – the furnace, my car, and now medical stuff. Someone make it stop!