Ulaven_Demorte
Non-Prophet Organization
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2006
- Posts
- 30,016
This story begins on this Saturday past.
Just before heading out of the office to go grab some lunch in midtown Manhattan I was overcome by a sudden stabbing pain in my left side around toward the back. First let me say that only one other time in my life have I experienced pain that was so intense that I immediately started feeling nauseous and thought I would vomit. That familiar metallic taste in the mouth, severe perspiration, and excessive saliva that usually is the precursor to tossing one's cookies all over the place. After a few minutes the pain subsided and I felt well enough to trek over to Bread and Honey on 8th Ave. to grab a bite.
BIG MISTAKE.
As I walked back into my office my left side lit up again like I'd just been shivved in the kidney with a hunk of barbed wire. I dropped my lunch on the desk and grabbed the waste paper can underneath and dry heaved into it for a couple of minutes. After settling into my chair I started feeling better again. I was uncomfortable, but not in a huge amount of pain and so, being the stubborn person I am, stayed to finish my day at work.
By the time I got home in the evening I was still experiencing some discomfort interspersed with short periods of stabbing agony and a new symptom, the constant urgent need to take a piss, but when I did it reminded me of every television depiction of the old man with prostate trouble standing at the urinal begging for just a few drops. But instead of heading to the hospital I took two ibuprofen and went to bed. Miraculously I slept through the night and woke up feeling good, no real pain, still a slightly urgent need to take a piss though. But hey, no pain! So I decided to head back into work.
BIG MISTAKE #2.
About half way into the hour long drive to NYC the stabbing pains started up again, at one point I had to pull over to avoid throwing up all over the inside of my SUV. But being the stubborn dedicated person I am still I pressed on to work. I lasted about 1 hour total before making the call to my Director letting him know that I was leaving work to go to the ER. But did I drive myself to the nearest hospital? Nooooo.. I drove ALL the way back home in agony and called my wife about 10 minutes from home to let her know that I needed her to drive mt to the hospital as soon as I got there.
Overall I was Super impressed with the ER staff. I expected at least an hour long wait or more before being seen by anyone. Instead I was whisked off to a bed and was being diagnosed and treated within 15 minutes (the requisite paperwork had to be comleted first. (thanks to the wife for filling it all out). Within 25 minutes they had an IV in and were pumping me full of pain killers, anti-spasmodics, and anti-emetics to handle the pain, spasms from my kidney trying to expel a stone, and nausea. The nurse in the ER told me that this was the closest thing a man could have Pain-wise to giving birth. Fifteen minutes later I was feeling no pain and was on my way for a CAT scan to determine the size and location of the kidney stone that they suspected was the cause of my troubles. It turned out to be a 4mm stone lodged about 90% of the way to the bladder. Since it was small (they said anything smaller than 10mm will usually pass on it's own without the need for a procedure) the doctor decided to prescribe me vicodin for the pain, and anti-emetic for nausea, and flo-max to relax the smooth muscle of the ureter and help the stone pass easier, and the fun part, a handful of strainers to filter urine through to try to save the stone for analysis. I was out the door with prescriptions in hand (and still feeling no pain) in less than two hours.
This morning my "panning for kidney gold" was successful and I'll be on my way to see my Primary Care Physician to drop off the sample to be analyzed later this morning.
tl/dr: I was in crippling pain on Saturday around lunch, held off on going to the hospital for almost 24 hours, had a quick ER visit on a Sunday, and found out I had a kidney stone. But the pain has "passed" now. heh..
Side note: I don't understand how people can get hooked on Vicodin. I take one and all I want to do is sleep. What the hell fun is that?
Just before heading out of the office to go grab some lunch in midtown Manhattan I was overcome by a sudden stabbing pain in my left side around toward the back. First let me say that only one other time in my life have I experienced pain that was so intense that I immediately started feeling nauseous and thought I would vomit. That familiar metallic taste in the mouth, severe perspiration, and excessive saliva that usually is the precursor to tossing one's cookies all over the place. After a few minutes the pain subsided and I felt well enough to trek over to Bread and Honey on 8th Ave. to grab a bite.
BIG MISTAKE.
As I walked back into my office my left side lit up again like I'd just been shivved in the kidney with a hunk of barbed wire. I dropped my lunch on the desk and grabbed the waste paper can underneath and dry heaved into it for a couple of minutes. After settling into my chair I started feeling better again. I was uncomfortable, but not in a huge amount of pain and so, being the stubborn person I am, stayed to finish my day at work.
By the time I got home in the evening I was still experiencing some discomfort interspersed with short periods of stabbing agony and a new symptom, the constant urgent need to take a piss, but when I did it reminded me of every television depiction of the old man with prostate trouble standing at the urinal begging for just a few drops. But instead of heading to the hospital I took two ibuprofen and went to bed. Miraculously I slept through the night and woke up feeling good, no real pain, still a slightly urgent need to take a piss though. But hey, no pain! So I decided to head back into work.
BIG MISTAKE #2.
About half way into the hour long drive to NYC the stabbing pains started up again, at one point I had to pull over to avoid throwing up all over the inside of my SUV. But being the stubborn dedicated person I am still I pressed on to work. I lasted about 1 hour total before making the call to my Director letting him know that I was leaving work to go to the ER. But did I drive myself to the nearest hospital? Nooooo.. I drove ALL the way back home in agony and called my wife about 10 minutes from home to let her know that I needed her to drive mt to the hospital as soon as I got there.
Overall I was Super impressed with the ER staff. I expected at least an hour long wait or more before being seen by anyone. Instead I was whisked off to a bed and was being diagnosed and treated within 15 minutes (the requisite paperwork had to be comleted first. (thanks to the wife for filling it all out). Within 25 minutes they had an IV in and were pumping me full of pain killers, anti-spasmodics, and anti-emetics to handle the pain, spasms from my kidney trying to expel a stone, and nausea. The nurse in the ER told me that this was the closest thing a man could have Pain-wise to giving birth. Fifteen minutes later I was feeling no pain and was on my way for a CAT scan to determine the size and location of the kidney stone that they suspected was the cause of my troubles. It turned out to be a 4mm stone lodged about 90% of the way to the bladder. Since it was small (they said anything smaller than 10mm will usually pass on it's own without the need for a procedure) the doctor decided to prescribe me vicodin for the pain, and anti-emetic for nausea, and flo-max to relax the smooth muscle of the ureter and help the stone pass easier, and the fun part, a handful of strainers to filter urine through to try to save the stone for analysis. I was out the door with prescriptions in hand (and still feeling no pain) in less than two hours.
This morning my "panning for kidney gold" was successful and I'll be on my way to see my Primary Care Physician to drop off the sample to be analyzed later this morning.
tl/dr: I was in crippling pain on Saturday around lunch, held off on going to the hospital for almost 24 hours, had a quick ER visit on a Sunday, and found out I had a kidney stone. But the pain has "passed" now. heh..
Side note: I don't understand how people can get hooked on Vicodin. I take one and all I want to do is sleep. What the hell fun is that?
