I wake up to a sharp pain in my side...something like cramps, but not quite. I am pretty sure there is something wrong with me, so I call my mom and tell her I am dying. That is how I communicate pain to my mother; she knows I am kidding, but she definitely knows there is something wrong. She suggests I get one of my soundly sleeping room mates to take me to the emergency room. I cringe at the thought of inconveniencing anyone about my mysterious pain. I am sure they'll just think I am crazy. My mom's friend, who is with her at the moment, suggests I wait a little bit. I pop in some Tylenol and wish that my Mom isn't in California about to run a half marathon in an hour. I talk to her for a little longer, convincing myself that it is just some mysterious pain that no one wants to hear about. As the pain begins to reside, I am glad I haven't woken up any of my room mates. I go back to sleep only to wake up a half an hour later to get ready for church. There is no pain, I am happy, and I leave to church at 9am better than ever.
10:30am
I am sitting in Sunday school listening to everyone talk about light. I am feeling anything but light as I experience a painful twinge in my side. I lean to my room mate, who I told about my mysterious pain on the way to church, and tell her that I think my pain is coming back. She just smiles. I think back to my past room mate and her mysterious pains and decide it is best to keep my pain to myself. So I sit there, trying to convince myself I am imagining it. Why I try to convince myself I am imagining it, I don't know; that would just provide more proof that I actually am crazy. Soon all I can think about is the pain, and I get up and leave with all my stuff. I know I am not coming back. ________________________________________________
So this is how it all started and this why I sit here in bed on a Monday afternoon instead of teaching high school. After leaving Sunday school, I had one of my room mates drive me home and then drove myself to the IHC Instacare. I didn't want to be that crazy person running into the emergency room with some unexplainable pain, and I didn't want to be that person who makes someone else come with them and support their claims about mysterious pains. After I got all checked in and they called my name, I explained to the doctor all of my wonderful symptoms. To my surprise, he didn't even come close to looking at me like I was crazy and within five minutes of sitting in his office determined that I probably had kidney stones. (kidney stone: noun, a hard mass formed in the kidneys, typically consisting of insoluble calcium compounds) After telling him how much soda pop I drink, he decided that that was probably not the problem. Instead, he attributed them to heredity. Thanks mom.
The pain just grew worse as I sat there, and the doctor explained to me that I was going to have to go to the hospital to get a CT scan just to make sure. He also said that they wouldn't give me any good drugs unless I could find someone to drive me. I tried to call my room mate and she didn't answer, so I called my good friend Darren, who was more than willing to offer his help.
From there I got a wonderful sharp poke full of drugs in each side, a bottle of Gatorade to fill up my bladder, a drive to the hospital, and an ugly hospital gown and a CT scan. Not only that, but I was dizzy and felt like I was going to puke the whole time.
Once we were done at the hospital, Darren drove me back to the Instacare, where right after I threw up, they informed me that, indeed, I was passing a kidney stone, and that there were several others waiting in my kidneys to come out in the years to come. The doctor informed me that it would be my "lot in life" to pass kidney stones. All I could imagine when he said that was someone several years down the road asking me what I do and me responding, "Oh, I pass kidney stones."
The doctor filled out three different prescriptions for me, gave me a funnel with a strainy thing at the end to pee into, and a container in a bag marked "biohazard" to collect my stone in once it had passed. Once it does pass, I get to take it back to the hospital so that they can perform laboratory tests on a little rock that has spent its lifetime in my kidney and urinary tract.
So I got on Google images and typed in kidney stone so that I could post some actual pictures, but pretty much they were too gross looking for me. So if you want to know what they look like, check them out yourself. Some of them looked like nothing less than a little piece of hell to me. Instead of providing you a picture of an actual stone, I will provide you a picture of where kidney stones are found in the body. Take note of how far it has to travel before it makes its way out. The doctor actually told me that the CT scan showed that the stone only had a couple of centimeters left in my body, so it better come out pretty dang soon.
Here ya go:
I would like to offer a special thanks to my many wonderful friends:
Darren, who drove me everywhere I needed to go, didn't think I was crazy, didn't make fun of me in a hospital gown, and who dumped my puke in the toilet.
Katie, who would've driven me everywhere if she could have and always made sure I was okay.
Chelsea and Shawna, who picked my car up from the Instacare.
And thanks to everyone else who was even in the least bit concernced.
I love you guys!
1 comment:
I love the graffic
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