Monday, August 24, 2015

Another grain of sand..

Conestoga Campground
White Sulphur Springs, MT

We arrived back at the campground
just in time to help with the ice cream social on Saturday night.
I think we've both gained a few pounds having free ice cream 2 nights a week :-)

About 11 o'clock that night I woke up with excruciating pain on my right side.
I laid there wondering..
gall bladder, appendicitis, or drat, another kidney stone?!
Two years ago I had one on my left side,
but I couldn't remember exactly how it felt.
Besides, that one started in my lower back
and moved to the front.

When I started getting nauseous from the pain,
George drove me to the local ER here in White Sulphur.
It's such a small hospital, we had to ring a buzzer to be let in..
..not an easy task to wait when I'm doubled over!

Since I was the only patient,
they quickly took my blood pressure (sky high from the pain!),
and got an IV going to administer pain meds.


As you can see the pain meds weren't kicking in yet :-(


The nurse on duty had to call in the doctor
who was staying at the hotel next door.
Apparently they have 'fill in' doctors on the weekends.
He came over and ordered a CT scan
to determine if another kidney stone was the problem.

They called the local CT tech in,
and he did two scans..
one with dye and one without.
Oh baby, that dye being flushed through the kidney
is much worse than having a baby!

They all confirmed that I had two stones..
one at the bottom of my right kidney,
and one in the Ureter.
That was the one that was causing such pain!
The doctor finally gave me stronger meds and I felt terrific.

Because of the one in my kidney they decided
I should go to Great Falls for further discussion with a Urologist.
Great Falls is 2 hours away, and since my pressure was so high,
of course an ambulance ride was recommended :-(

So...they called the ambulance to come get me.
By now I think I've woken up everyone in town :-)
It's about 4 am at this point, and I've had no sleep.
I'm in the back of the ambulance with a blood pressure cuff on my arm
and an oxygen sensor on my finger.
There were two EMT's, one driving, and one in the back with me,
who insisted on talking to me the whole 2 hours :-(

Anyway...we get to Great Falls hospital,
I'm put in a room, vitals taken,
and the ER doc on duty tells me that there was no reason
I needed to come up there!! Grrr...
He told me he would have sent me home with pain meds, etc. and let me pass the stone.
I can't even imagine what all this is going to cost us!
He told me the stone in my Ureter was likely in my bladder by then,
and the one in the kidney will be there for who knows how long.

George arrived about a half hour after I got there,
they gave me prescriptions and sent me on my way.
This was about 8:30 am by now.
Sunday the Walmart pharmacy doesn't open until 10 am,
so we sat around and waited :-)

Last night I passed the stone without incident or pain.
Now I have 3 prescriptions sitting in the drawer for the next time.

I did ask the doctor if there's anything to prevent these in the future, 
but he didn't give me any hope.
Not much can be done unfortunately.
Drink lots of water, which I do constantly through the day.
Nothing I'm eating or not eating causes them.
We don't eat much red meat, our sodium and calcium levels are normal.

I'm just lucky I guess!





13 comments:

  1. How horrible, but I'm glad you got thru it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's no fun, but I'm glad you got through it OK.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Owwww! , but I' glad that you are back home and better.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad to hear you are doing better! You may want to take some pain pills when the bill arrives!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was going to say how much I'd love to have ice cream twice a week but then I read the rest of the story and am so sorry for all you went through and the cost of that unnecessary trip to the second hospital. I'm glad you passed the one stone though. What will happen to the other one? I find it very hard to believe that they don't know what causes kidney stones. Why would the body make them? And what does it make them from? Really hope you don't have to do this ever again. I know you do too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bad thing about our insurance is if they don't admit you to a hospital they don't pay much on the bill. If you admitted they pay more!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That was one expensive grain of sand! Glad you got over it quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, gosh...so sorry you had to go through this...and all that trouble of having to go to the hospital...glad you are ok....I've had family members with stones and they say to watch caffeine, carbonated drinks, some leafy greens (spinach), dairy, and processed foods.

    ReplyDelete
  9. So sorry about your kidney stones! Hope you don't have to reach for those pain meds anytime soon!

    ReplyDelete
  10. My gosh girl, what an ordeal. Hoping this is the last of it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. You poor kid. Nothing like being in serious pain and getting hauled all over the country side. Hope your feeling better and don't have to suffer with any more stones anytime soon

    ReplyDelete
  12. At least the stone passed pretty quickly after your first initial pain. Hope that's the LAST time you ever have to go through this!

    ReplyDelete