So, Sunday, March 22, I had been working with my parents at a show all day (they do concessions at fairs, carnivals, etc.) . At around 5 pm, I got super tired and needed to go home and rest, so, I took the boys and my little sister Sydney and we headed to my house. It was about a 30 minute drive and about half way through, I started having this pain in my left side. I did my best to stretch it out, twist, all that I could do (while driving) to try to ease the pain, but it got worse and worse. At this point, my eyes were watering from the pain (good thing I had sunglasses on cause I was trying to NOT let Syd and/or my boys know anything was going on).
As I pulled into my house, the bump I drove over going up on to my drive way just about "did me in". It sparked this horrible SHOOTING pain up my back. It was agonizing. The kids got out of the car and ran in the house, but I just sat there for a momoent, gained my composure and honked for Syd. When she came outside, I casually said, "I think I'm gonna go across the street to my doctor's office and get some pain killer for my back." ( I live RIGHT across from the Hospital, where my doc is located, so that wasn't THAT big of a "truth-bender") I just didn't want to freak her out, and ANYTHING health-wise tends to. I asked her if she would mind watching the boys for a while and that I was going to call Nate and have him come home to be with her and them.
By the time I checked into the ER (a whole 10 minutes later), I was crying hysterically. I told the woman at check in that I had a history of Kidney Stones (one with each pregnancy and then one right after I had Connor) and that I KNEW that this was another one. I know this pain! Because I was only 19 weeks and 1 day pregnant, I had to wait in the ER with 50 other people. If I had been 20 or more weeks pregnant, they would have sent me straight up to Labor and Delivery and helped me immediately! But, no. I waited (impatientally).
At around 7pm, when Nate finally got off work and could meet me there, in the ER, I was almost screaming in pain... STILL in the waiting room. He held me and let me cry, but he was getting pretty upset that I was still waiting for help.
When I was finally sent back to a bed, my nurse started an IV and gave me some pain killer. (By this point, I was literally rolling around on my bed like a crazy person and SOBBING. It was quite embarrassing, but I couldn't help it...)
THANK YOU TO MY NURSE FOR FINALLY BRINGING VICODIN! :)
I was in "Happy Town". The doctor came in and said that he had gotten all my results back and it DID look as though I had a kidney stone... there was blood and "particles" in my urine (ew) which meant stone. (the "particles" were tiny pieces of flesh that were being scraped off the inside of my kidney!) He said because I was pregnant, that he would prefer to NOT do anymore testing (like CATscan, etc.) because of the dangers to the baby... which was fine with me. I knew it was a stone and my urine tests pretty much said that too.. That was enough proof for me. He listened to the baby's heartbeat, which was totally normal, and sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin.
2 days later, I was no longer in need of pain killer. The stone had "passed" (ew, again) and the pain was GONE! (So we thought) Well....Friday night, the pain came back. I took one of my Vicodins from my previous "episode", but it didn't help. The pain was SO bad. So, Nate took me back to the ER. This time was less of a wait... we got checked in, traige'd and in a bed in less than an hour. My nurse immediately came in, gave me a Vicodin (the one I had taken had worn off by now, since it had been over 4 hours since I had taken it). The Vicodin was just NOT cutting it tonight! The pain was SO bad that when my nurse came back in to check on me, she brought me Morphine as well. THANK YOU NURSE ( a g a i n )! For the first time in HOURS, I had NO PAIN. ZERO PAIN. It was such a nice feeling.
They sent me in for a kidney ultrasound (which actually DID hurt cause she was pushing on my kidney) and once again, we waited. Over an hour later, the doctor came in (a different doc than I had had previously) and said that my urine, once again, had blood and "particles" in it and that, on the ultrasound, they had found a substancial-sized stone in my kidney... they came in and drugged me up one more time with Morphine and sent me home. I was totally okay during the night. I think I woke up around 4am and took another Vicodin... but, the pain during the day on Saturday was pretty much non existant!...... then, came Saturday night. BACK TO THE ER!!!!Seriously. I cried. I did NOT want to go BACK to that stinkin' ER! I was pretty much embarrassed to go back. Seriously, to face all those people again... they were gonna think I was a hypercondriac or something. But, I had to.
Since my last visit to the ER, the night before, my blood sugars (yah, I have Gestational Diebetes, too) had been around 200. My blood sugar is suppose to be below 90 before I eat and NOT over 120 after I eat. I was having fasting sugars of like 150-170... and then, after I'd eat, they'd be OVER 200, even with my insulin! When you're in any amount of pain, your body automatically, naturally raises your blood sugar. I'm not sure why exactly, but it does. I had no choice but to go back to the hospital and get help, once more, since my Blood Doctor was already out of the office for the weekend... I called my midwife and she said I should just go back to the ER because, with sugars like that, it could do damage to the baby.
So, you know the drill.
Check in. Wait. Triage. Wait. Bed. Wait. IV & Pain killer. Wait. Tests. Wait.
MY DOCTOR THIS NIGHT WAS THE LAMEST MAN I'VE EVER MET.
Seriously.
Nate and I are still laughing about him. I told him why I was there. That I had been diagnosed (or whatever) with a kidney stone, yada yada.
He then says this.. these are his exact words:
"Your urine test came back positive for blood and particles and I saw your ultrasound photos from the other night, which showed a stone in your left kidney... but, I'm sure that the pain you're having is from a pulled muscle in your back because kidney stones don't hurt... and if it were the stone causing the pain, you'd have blood in your urine."
...WHAT?!?!?....
This was the most confusing statement ever. So, let me get this straight. First of all, there's blood in my urine, which you get from kidney stones AND my ultrasound SHOWED one, but that's not where my pain is coming from... it's a pulled muscle? And, second, if the pain WERE coming from my kidney stone, which you JUST said "don't hurt", I would have traces of blood in my urine?Um.....WHAT THE HECK!? C'mon.
Nate and I couldn't help but laugh. What a LAME doctor. Anyways. We were just glad to have a reason to laugh through the circumstance. So, I've been home now (no more ER trips) but my kidney is still KILLING me! (or, should I say, my "pulled muscle".) I have an appointment with a Urologist in the morning who's going to do even MORE tests to try to find out WHY this stone isn't "passing" and what I/he can do to prevent any future ones. My appt. is tomorrow at 10:30. Please say a prayer for me and Baby Chase? It would be REALLY nice if the doc would find a way to make this pain go away. I'm not a big fan of popping Vicodin when I'm pregnant (or, when I'm not, for that matter.) Thanks everyone! I'll let you all know what the Urologist says.
