Between a Rock ... And a Very Hard Place

I had such good intentions ...

Copied my photos onto my computer ...

Mentally grouped them into 3 mediocre posts ...

And on Thursday began again ...


And here I am 3 days later - yet again - a slothful blogger ....


BUT! I have an excuse ... a note from my doctor, if you will.

I FINALLY decided to 'listen' to what my body was trying to tell somewheres about 8:00am on Saturday. I wasn't liking what it seemed to be shouting at me. A NEW and completely different pain than I have ever experienced before - and I HAVE EXPERIENCED A LOT OF DIFFERENT PAINS ....

It was in my back, on the left side of my spine where the thoracic region gives way to the lumbar region. I adroitly came up with 'kidney troubles' something that was new for me. Probably an infection, I thought - just lump it in with the other 4 infections I was fighting at the time.

And promptly ignored it ...

...


... until I could ignore it no longer.

It felt like a really bad 'stitch in my side'. I thought that maybe I was straining a muscle sitting at my desk (it was now one in the afternoon) so I went to lay down, get comfortable and read for awhile.

No matter how I placed my body in my bed, that 'stitch' kept hurting. It was a minor buzzing irritation. An hour later it had become a rather LOUD irritation. And an hour after that it was screaming at me "Get me to the hospital, you fool!".


So - both my boys took me to the ER.

Things were looking up - I was actually able to pee in a cup ... given 30 minutes to have a go at it ...

Had a CT scan of my kidneys ...

And a relatively exceptional experience with getting my IV put in. They have a hard time getting IV's in me - and Gary had warned them of this in advance and asked if we could get their best person to to the jabbing, and the in-and-out searching when the vein is not hit, and for the slipping the IV plastic tubie through the needle after finding that very elusive vein. I generally am poked and prodded on average 3 times before a proper IV is 'installed'.

The nurse had identified a perfect vein on my foot to use as her last resort try - she said it was 100% doable, but would go for the top of my hand first.

And whaddaya know? She hits oil on her first attempt! Things are looking up!

They give me some pain medication and leave - for parts unknown.


We were waiting around for the doctor to come and give us the results, if any, of the CT scan.

We waited ...

and waited ...

and waited some more ...

And then something happened. I thought that stitch in my side hurt? A little voice in my head whispered "Oh, honey, you ain't seen nothin' yet".

And then some nasty, mysterious little hospital bed bug started stabbing me in the side with a very large butcher knife. Over and over and over.

I tried to ignore this and took photos with my phone for my infamous 'toe shot' but was in so much pain - my toes were not cooperating. They would splay out in pain, curl in pain, pretty much whatever toes can do, they were doing it as each slice of the knife hit:




I had taken my 6:00pm morphine, which you would think would help with this uncomfortable situation, but it was doing nothing.

And then things got worse ...

Way worse ...

I believe I was at an '11' on the pain scale of 0 - 10 having only being to a '9' at any given point in my lifetime before this. My theory of the '9'? My thinking was if I ever said I was a '10', some vengeful god would look down upon me and say: "You think you are a '10'? I'LL SHOW YOU A '10'" and then do exactly that. So I was never a '10' ...

... oh, until about 7:30 and, man - I was a mess! Couldn't control my breathing, writhing in pain, half delirious with pain. Gary, THREE times went out and spoke with someone about maybe giving me more pain medication. They were waiting on the doctor, but a nurse (that lovely lady that hit my vein on the first try) came in and watched the show of me writhing in agony saying she was sorry but there was nothing she could do. "I think the stone is moving" she said while watching me like I was some sort of lab experiment.

It is a bitty 2mm piece of sand for heavens sake! How could this be causing me such trouble?

Eventually the doctor came in, I got more pain meds and they hooked me up to saline for fluids and an IV antibiotic since I also had an infection and said after they were done, I was free to go home to pass the stone in the comfort of my own abode.

Things went smoothly from there - and I was under the sneaking suspicion that the stone had stopped moving since I was not on any amount of pain medication to make me either incredibly happy or incredibly high - so I would have still felt the knife stabbing ... it would just be less intense.

An hour later they unhooked me, gave us a stack of instructions including my favorite: drink till you want to puke - CONTINUOUSLY therefore peeing a lot, added 7 prescriptions to the paper pile, and sent us on our merry way.

I drank fluids continuously during the night, making me have to pee every half an hour, thus getting no sleep. And kept up the forcing fluids regimen all day today. Other than peeing like clockwork every half an hour and having a pretty severe stitch in my side, nada.


Nothing.

No writhing in pain.

No moaning in pain.

No clenching every muscle in my body in response to the pain.

Therefore no passing of the 2mm bugger.

And ... I AM TERRIFIED.

They sent me home with wimpy drugs, and I have experienced how fun it is when the little sucker is moving and I am really not looking forward to passing this thing ....

... but


.... THE WAITING IS KILLING ME!

Maybe tonight will be the night ... one can always hope because you want to get it over with, but at the very same time dreading that pain again ... an odd mixture of feelings.

So I wait ...


and I wait ...


and I wait ....