This day didn’t start out as well as some. We had a snow storm last night, so I had to get up early to shovel the driveway. I didn’t have time to eat breakfast, forgot my shoes and had to work the first half of the day with snow boots on my feet (in the office). When I looked at my salad, I noticed that I forgot to pack dressing. All those little things rolled off like water on a duck’s back.
After a trip to the bathroom, my day at work ended. I passed another kidney stone. I could end this post right now, and anyone who has ever passed a kidney stone would understand why this was not a great day, but I am not going to do that.
Getting home, I found that my driveway had been blocked by a snow plow; when I finally made it up the driveway, I got stuck on the ice, and just passing a kidney stone, I didn’t have much strength to get the car out. It is still halfway up the driveway, stuck real good.
When I got out of the car, I slipped on the same patch of ice my car was stuck on and fell in the snow. I never had my gloves on, and ended up hand first in three feet of snow. My door handle to the house had frozen when the temperature had dropped, so I had to resort to attempting to breath on the lock to thaw it out. When I finally made it into the house, my guts gave me a signal that another stone was on the way out, so I ended back in the bathroom, and passed another piece of the kidney stone. Oh My!
I passed my first stone about 5 years ago. The pain hit me about 4 in the morning, and at the time I had no knowledge to what was happening to me. At first I thought I was having an appendix attack, so I called the doctor, and they said to come in immediately. When I got to the hospital, I couldn’t stand up, the pain was immense. The doctor came in and gave me a shot of Demerol. Nothing happened. I asked the nurse what was going on, and she said that often, the Demerol takes up to 40 minutes to take effect. I waited 40 minutes, all the time listening to her immense wisdom as she told me that the pain I now felt was nothing more than the stone moving throughout my body, and the pain was nothing compared to the pain I will feel when the stone passes. “Passes?” I asked, dumbly. “Oh Ya”, she laughs. “Where does it pass?” I ask, even more dumbfounded. “Where do you think it comes out from” she asked me. And then she gives me the most horrendous analogy ever about kidney stones. “Imagine a sharp, multi pointed rock passing through a soft garden hose” she said. “garden hose? pointed rock?” I ask. And then a trip to the bathroom makes all this a reality. Another shot of Demerol and the pain from my stomach is numb, but the pain from my ‘thing that resembles a human garden hose’ is not. This was not a good night.
Two nights ago, I took a sharp pain in my ribs, and I passed it off as gas. I had all but forgotten about it until today’s trip to the bathroom. This time, no hospital visit, no Demerol, just a few Motrin, a trip home, and a two hour sleep. Still a bit tender and its not like I can put a bandaid on it, but at least I don’t have to put up with the witty nurse. Just saying
SightsnBytes 