The kidney stone that moved into our home to stay...

Monday, January 21, 2008

"The severity of the pain is no indicator of the size of the passing kidney stone. This pain is often described as the worst pain a person has ever suffered even by women who have given birth. It is reported to be more painful than gun shots, surgery, broken bones, or even burns.”

Yeah, so that’s the fun I’ve been having for the past two weeks. It all started on January 5th. I was on a shopping trip with my sister in law. I woke up feeling a little down, but decided that I wasn't too sick to go window shop for a little while. I headed off to my brother's house, stole his wife, and off we went for some retail therapy. We had been at the store for about fifteen minutes when I started to get really cold. I figured it was just the weather and wrapped my jacket a little tighter. I went to go to the bathroom and to my chagrin, couldn’t. Then an acute pain grew in my lower back. The pain grew more intense and I broke out in a cold sweat. By the time we got halfway through the store I had to sit down and rest. Allison decided it was time to get me home.

We headed out of Little Rock at rocket speed with only a stop at a convenience store for Motrin and at Sonic for a cranberry slush. It was probably a little late to try the cranberry juice, but hey, I was desperate! We got to their house in Cabot and I plopped myself down on their couch to let the Motrin take effect so that I could drive myself home.

About thirty minutes later I headed out for the 25 mile drive home. It probably wouldn't have been too bad if I had been in my car, but I was driving David's 1992
stick shift Ford pickup truck. Every time I had to push in the clutch to change gears I felt like someone was shooting flaming knives into my lower back and side. By the time I got home I had chills and rigors. Within two hours my fever had reached 104 degrees and I was absolutely miserable. I asked David to go out to my car and bring me the bottle of ibuprophen that was in the glove box. He looked, but told me it wasn't in there, so I had to take Tylenol, which isn't nearly as effective. We didn't get my fever under 101 degrees all night, and I was so exhausted from the rigors I could hardly walk. David told me that at one point I must've been hallucinating because I was talking all crazy. I vaguely remember that, but not really.

The next day, which was Sunday, we headed to the weekend clinic so I could get some antibiotics for what appeared to be a raging kidney infection. The doc examined me and took a urine sample which confirmed what I already knew. Don't you wish you could just call up, give your own diagnosis and order your antibiotics over the phone? It took us about three hours to get done at the clinic, and by that time I was wiped out.

We left there and went to Mi Ranchito (our FAVORITE Mexican restaurant) to pick up a to go order to eat at home. This is when David almost met his death at the hands of his wife. While he was in the restaurant I opened the glove box on the car to look for the ibuprophen that he didn't find. It was RIGHT THERE! All that was in the glove box was a box of bandaids, the owners manual for the car, three napkins and the unopened box of ibuprophen. He let me suffer all night because he wasn't willing to spend five more seconds moving the box of bandaids to get to the pills. I could've killed him. When I showed him where they were he said, "you must've just put those there." What!??! AARRGGHHH!

My mom has a theory about men and children when it comes to finding things. She is convinced you have to have a MATURE UTERUS to perform the most basic of searches with success. Do you think I could buy one of those for David for his birthday? Oh, wait a minute, that's why he has ME, right?

Well, it took three days on the Cipro, but I finally lost the fever. The pain in my back and side never completely went away, so I knew there was more to come. I went back to the urgent care clinic on Sunday, January 13, because the pain had gotten worse. The doc then decided that I probably had a kidney stone, prescribed pain meds and more Cipro, and sent me home. I knew at that point that the worst was yet to come...

Fast forward to Friday, January 18th. This was my baby brother's birthday, so Allison and I had spent the day emailing back and forth trying to plan a family dinner to celebrate. I got off the computer at 3pm and got in the car to pick Katie up from school. Then it HIT! The most blinding childbirth pains cannot compare to this pain! I managed to drive to the school (1.3 miles each way) and get Katie, but was bawling before we made it home. I called Mom, and she headed our way. I called the urologist on our health plan, and his nurse kindly told me that they could get me an appointment on March 5th... Lotta good that would do! I called our family doc, and his secretary told me that if I could be there by 4:10pm they could see me. It was 3:58pm. When mom pulled in the driveway I had both kids and myself in my car and buckled. She drove me to the doc, and after almost an hour of writhing around in pain the doc came in to see me.

The first thing the doctor said when he walked in was, "So, you're feeling a little urgency and burning, huh?" WHAT!?! This had NOTHING to do with urgency and burning! I felt like I was giving birth to the spawn of Satan himself! I think the look on my face said it all. He ordered a shot of Demerol and Phenergan, and sent me home to pass the kidney stone. Believe me, I counted the minutes (the nurse said it would only take 15 minutes) until the drugs kicked in! It actually took about 24 minutes before the pain lightened up, but it hadn't gone away an hour later, so mom told me to take one of my Mepergans. Wow... Sweet drug induced haze! I was finally able to sleep. Katie left for open gym and came back at 9:30, David came in at midnight. I don't remember any of it! I was totally knocked out.

Saturday I got up and felt a little better. The pain wasn't gone, but it was a lot less. I decided to go to the ER on Sunday after a cup of hot chocolate sent my bladder into spasms. They did a CT scan on me and found that I had a 5mm stone somewhere between my kidney and my bladder. They just told me to take my drugs and wait it out. It's now Monday, and we're still waiting. I know it's going to hurt! We figured that a 5mm stone is about the size of an English pea. OUCH! Hopefully I'll live through this week!

1 comments:

  1. Amy said...:

    AUGH!!! I am so sorry to hear taht:-( I hope you are doing better! keep us updated....