Our weekend Part II (the bad part)

So, in the midst of preparing lots of food for our Halloween party, I wasn't feeling very well. Last year I came down with a cold the day before the party, this year I wasn't quite sure what was wrong. It put me behind schedule a bit in preparing the food.

Friday night I had a lot of pain in my lower abdominal and lower back. I finally fell asleep around 1:45am and then woke up in pain again at 6 Saturday morning. When I woke again I realized that I had felt this pain before just over a year ago. It felt the same as when I was diagnosed with a kidney stone. That's right - the stone that I was told would probably just sit in my kidney for the rest of my life and not bother me again.

Luckily I didn't have much pain on Saturday and was fine Saturday night until everyone left. Then I started to hurt just a little bit. But I woke up Sunday morning in intense pain and for about an hour, thought I could deal with it before breaking down and telling Justin that I needed to go to the ER.

Luckily for us, we went at just the right time because no one else was there. We didn't have to wait at all once we filled out an admittance form. They got me hooked up to an IV pretty fast and soon I was given a couple pain killers and an anti-nausea medication. Ah - pain killers are a good thing.

Last year when I had the kidney stone problem, Justin was out of town for work. I woke in the middle of the night and drove myself to the hospital. I had to wait for almost an hour before they finally called me back and got me some pain killers, but then they stuck me in a hallway where I would be "out of the way" and it seemed that everyone forgot about me. About an hour and a half later I had to ask someone walking by if I was ever going to see a doctor. The doctor came by, told me I had a kidney stone, gave me a prescription for pain killers and discharged me. No one actually checked me out or did any type of X-ray or scan to make sure that was what the problem was.

This time I got a lot of attention. They checked to make sure that I didn't have a ruptured cyst and then sent me for a CAT scan to see if it was a stone and if so where it was. It seems that the pain was from the stone moving from my kidney to my bladder. And lucky for me that Justin was home because the pain this time was far more intense than last time. It made me sick to my stomach and there was no way I could have driven myself.

Today I am home, taking pain killers and trying to stay very hydrated. Justin stayed home today too in case I need him (because he is so wonderful). My classes today were canceled and I don't teach on Tuesday so I have a couple more days to rest and (hopefully) pass the stone this time.

We are very glad that the pain didn't really hit too hard until after our Halloween party was over.