It happens

Well it’s good to be home, I just walked in the door 25 minutes ago.  Still, I wish I wasn’t here.  This past Saturday I went to bed at my customary time, 12:30, but woke up a couple hours later, with my right side & groin on fire.  I walked around my apartment for a couple hours, hoping it would calm down.  When it didn’t, I called 911 and said I needed to go to the hospital.

They asked if I had a preference, I said Mercy Hospital, they’d know what to do.  He asked me if I had an idea what this could be, I said kidney stones (my last attack was 15 months ago) or maybe appendicitis. 

When we got to the hospital, Mercy wasted no time moving me to a bed (I was getting pretty loud by then) and stuck a morphine drip in my arm. 

The doctor came in, very kind, and said he’d read the notes from the ambulance driver and wanted to give me a CT-scan.  He said the radiologist thought it sounded like a urinary tract infection, but the doctor was convinced it was kidney stones, multiple ones.

Sure enough, a half hour later my doc told me he won that bet, it was in fact 3 stones, in various places with one “90 percent home” in my groin and blocking my urine.  He saw my belly was distended from retaining fluids, told me i needed a catheter but he didn’t want to do that, was afraid it would “aggravate the other stones” and cause further distress.  He said they were all passable (not requiring surgery) and just needed time.

They kept me there all day Sunday, then checked me into the hospital Sunday night.  I asked my nurse if I was staying until all three stones had passed, she said “No, the doctor is worried about your crazy high blood pressure.  You’re on medication for that, right?  Do you take it regularly?”   I wearily told her yes… ulp.  On Monday they must’ve taken my pressure 20 times. 

I was awoken early this morning and told I was being sent home.  I did protest a little, said I’d only passed one stone and wasn’t ready to go, but they said the others could take days.  They warned me I’d be experiencing ‘some discomfort’ once my morphine drip had worn off (darn it, love that stuff) and gave me a couple meds to take the rest of the week (oxycodone and Flomax).  

I haven’t exactly had a good history with opioids, I hope I don’t need them.

Anyway, sorry if I shared too much here—and to my blogging friends, I’m sorry I haven’t been around to read or comment on your latest pieces.  I turned off the comments here so people won’t feel obligated to say anything, I’m going to go lie down.  For now, the end.