Every day, something new

I am sipping soup right now. It wants salt. I don't really have the energy.

I'm wearing a new bracelet, which I want to remove but have not the energy to do either.

I learnt a lot of stuff today.

I spent five hours in the Emergency Room learning that kidney stones hurt more than one can possibly imagine.

I learnt the nearest hospital is walking distance.

I learnt that Morphine is, so far as I'm concerned, a shitty drug, because it didn't really kill the pain, just sort of made not care enough to complain about it. Fentanyl was much better, but 100, of whatever units they were using lasted about an hour. Even at that it only moved the pain down the scale from 10, to about 3 1/2. Mind you, I'd have been willing to pay a lot for doing that.

For those who don't know the scale, 1 is no pain, 3 is painful discomfort, 10 is the worst pain you've ever experienced in your life. I was compos enough to say if this wasn't a 10, I didn't wan't to imagine it.

Maia was a Trouper. She deserves a medal, to be mentioned in dispatches, to have statues erected. Maybe the statues are a bit over the top, but she was great. She (and for much of it Alexa) stayed with me for the whole thing. About half of which I spent in a stupor of drugs and pain, so entertaining I wasn't.

I woke up with a painfully full bladder. After I emptied it I was still a bit unhappy, since it felt as though I'd gone far beyond the designer's specs. Then I decided I needed to get up, because I was feeling restless. In short order I was making noises of great distress. Maia asked if I needed to go to the Hospital. I allowed as it didn't seem to be appendicitis. Ten minutes later I decided she was right, and writhing around at home was a stupid sort of stoicism.

We looked up the hospital (ok, Maia and Alexa looked up the hospital. I did things to try and distract myself, like watering the chive seeds in the cutting grape.

Off we went. Happily at 0745 on a Sunday morning there isn't much of a crowd. Being in a public place I was a trifle more restrained, though I was in obvious distress. Kidney stones, it seems, have some fairly recognizable symptoms, and I was diagnosed before they were done taking my vitals.

The nurse who stuck me was great. We had a small discussion on where they were going to stick me (nurses love my veins. They are large and the lack fat makes them easy to see) Given my state of distress, I didn't want it in the elbow, and no way I was letting them stick me near bone, given the excruciating attempt when I was at Walter Reed.

A few minutes later the doctor looked at me, and a few minutes after that the drugs began.

Maia called Alexa who brought a pair of socks and a blanket for me, crochet and breakfast for Maia.

I talked to the nurse (there were several) about meds, she said to call for more if I needed them. I thought about it when the tech took me to the CT Scanner. I really wished I'd done so when she spent 2-5 minutes on the phone, after I was done.

Doctor Greenberg said the scan showed a 3mm stone.

And the waiting began. I might have been let out sooner, had a couple of auto-accidents not come in. I wasn't all that happy about not getting a new dose of drugs the last time I asked. I did notice (I think) the actual passage of the stone.

When all was said and done I'd had Fentanyl, morphine and three bags of IV fluids.

I do know, now; some two hours after I got home, why they prescibed Vicodin. I am having spasms, which head up to high 8, low 9, on the pain scale. I hope they don't last.

So that was my Sunday.

Respone to all, on the subject of Kidney stones

Because I got so many comments (thank you) and I am not really up for making sure everyone gets a specific response.

The nurse said it was as bad as childbirth. My only thought on the matter was... if childbirth is this bad, I don't see how the race survives.

Drugs are a Godsend. I said it when they first hit (which was wonderful, not fun, merely wonderful) that I couldn't imagine how people got through them without drugs.

I became intimate with the pain scale when I the Reiter's was at it's worst, which was nothing compared to this. That was a grinding misery. This was, well it's in a league all its own. Which led to some drug reaction chuckles (Recalling how pleasant, in a relative way, a 3 is). I do recall apologing to Maia a few times. She didn't understand, me I know she must have been miserable in a different way because there was nothing she could do to help. Being there made a difference, esp. when the drugs were less than speedy in forthcoming.

Thank you all for the sympathy. It helps.

I am exhausted. I am now going to take a hot soak and eat some ice cream.