Romancing the Stone

Let me tell you about my interesting early morning activities.

As I wrote in the last entry, yesterday I was feeling pain in my left lower abdomen. I thought it was gas so I forced myself out to buy some gas relief medicine. After taking it and some aleve I felt a little better, but I still went to bed early (for me) at 10 PM. No problem. I fell asleep quickly.

At 1:30 AM I got up to pee and when I went to lay down again - WHOOO HA - major pain in the same area. So as I lie there wondering what the &^*(&^*(## was going on, trying to decide if I should ignore the pain and go back to sleep or get dressed and drive myself to the ER.

I dislike hospitals as a general rule but since this was not the first time I felt this way I decided to go to the hospital. This at 2 AM this morning.

So I sat down with the triage nurse and told her what the problem was. She dutifully took my information and told me they'd call when there was a room available in the ER.

Ten minutes later I'm sitting on a stretcher in a curtained off section of the ER in one of those air contitioned hospital jonnies.

After giving four vials of blood and a half pint of urine, a nurse or aide took me down a long corridor to the x-ray room where two pictures were taken.

Once back in my "room" in the ER, it was not long afterwards that the doc came in and told me what I and the triage nurse had suspected. I am the (not so proud) owner of a kidney stone, urine cups, filters and three perscriptions for pain medication. YEEE HAAAAAW

If I can't pass it through my system in the next few days, I'll be looking forward to my first surgery in 36 years to have the stone removed.

So a total of three hours later I get back to my apartment, wide awake. I emailed my boss at work to give him the reason why I won't be at work today or tomorrow. Though I'll know better once I see my regular doc and a Urologist tomorrow what the best course of action will be.

If this weren't bad enough, I got up this morning to get my prescriptions filled and my car wouldn't start. AAA came and tried to jump it but the problem he said was the fuel pump. So now I'm having it towed to the place I got the same problem fixed just about six months ago, because it's covered under warranty- 12 months or 12,000 miles.

Fortunately, my parents live close by and have another car that I can borrow, so I can get my medicine and get to my appointments tomorrow.

My Mom left work early this afternoon so she could take me to get my drugs. After we got back to the apartment we were talking and decided that she would take me to my appointments tomorrow. I'm taking percocet among other things and probably won't be in the best shape for driving, anyway.

Thanks, Mom