Rolling Stones Aren't Satisfaction

As all stories, this one must start at the very beginning. Coming home from any trip always has the same to do list: a) do all laundry and b) get to the grocery store for milk and other necessities. At the grocery store, I noticed rhubarb in the vegetable section. Bryan has gone on and on about his dad's rhubarb plant he remembers as a kid and always wants strawberry rhubarb pie. Here was my big chance. I picked up a few stalks of rhubarb and strawberries. Once home, Bryan got busy cooking dinner and I got busy making dessert. At last my pie was in the oven, and about an hour later was smelling delicious. When it was finished to perfection, I pulled it out and sliced up two ginormous pieces for Bryan and me. The same thing happened the next night, and the following night. Thursday was Bryan's day off, and it has become customary to go to Bruchi's to get cheesesteaks for lunch. We arrived at our destination, and when I got out of the car, I had a sharp pain in my back on my right side near where you'd imagine your kidney to be. It was really odd, as it hurt pretty bad and made me feel like I needed to use the restroom. After ordering, I couldn't help it. I had no choice but had to go use the public facilities. But when I got there, nothing happened. Huh?! The pain was already gone so I didn't think too much of it. We got back home and I went back to work. About an hour later, I got another sharp pain in my back. Bad enough I lost my concentration for a few moments. Then another half hour later, I got more pain. I did some calculations, and realized maybe it was just cramping. Darn. After another half hour went by, I got yet another pain. This time, Bryan made the offhand remark that maybe it was a kidney stone. I smiled, yeah right. But curiosity was killing my cat, so I looked up the symptoms. Oh no...the first symptom of a kidney stone is sudden sharp pain in your back where your kidney is located. Makes sense, as that is where the stone first enters your ureter and causes all the grief I was about to encounter for the next 72 hours. The website I found also listed foods that were high enough in oxalate to cause a stone. Guess what was at the top of the high-oxalate foods (which were listed highest to lowest)? Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! Rhubarb. My love affair with the pie was shouting its sins from the rooftops. After researching it, I mentioned it to one of my co-workers, who let me know she'd never had one, but several in her family had and it was very painful. I nodded in agreement, but somehow had the will power to continue working. Until the next attack. At that point, work was no longer worth it and I cried uncle. I got comfortable on the couch with 4 bottles of water and started chugging. I noticed standing and laying were the best positions. Sitting caused my ureter to be pinched which becomes painful quickly. Thursday was a sleepless night. Friday I got up, showered and had no pain. I wondered what exactly that meant, but maybe I'd gotten enough water in my system to get the stone all the way down to my bladder. I started working and 5 minutes later I was on the bathroom floor, crying. The pain was unbearable. Standing hurt, sitting hurt, laying down hurt. I found laying with my head on the cool bathroom tiles, on my stomach allowed my kidney some rest. Then the worst happened. The pain became so bad I wasn't able to keep anything in me. After 4 hours of not getting fluids, I knew it was time. I called Bryan at work. Luckily he taught me a trick to get directly to his phone so I didn't have to put courage in my voice when I called. All I said was I need the ER now please come home and hung up. He was home in 10 minutes and drove me to the hospital. I honestly don't know how I made it. The ER's parking lot was tiny, hence packed. Bryan had to park about 30 yards away. It was pouring rain, and I took tiny baby steps all the way to the ER. Bryan kept saying he'd carry me, but I knew if I got in that position, I'd heave, and maybe pass out (passing out may have been a good thing though). The guy at the front desk was very nice and got a hospital dog tag attached to my wrist pronto. The triage nurse saw me within a couple minutes. She was able to give me something for the nausea (although that wasn't my problem; the pain was. I needed a pain killer to keep from having the nausea, but she couldn't give me that). Then I laid on the dirty waiting room couch, off in the corner, moaning and crying. I'm sure everyone there thought I was possessed. It took over an hour for a bed to become ready, and then I was taken back. The bed was much more comfortable, and an IV was stuck in me right away with fluids. Pain killers came when a doctor was assigned to me and he gave the okay. The morphine made me feel very strange, but the pain didn't really subside. I had two pains, the stone in my ureter and the pain in my kidney from my ureter being stopped up. The kidney pain was worse than the stone pain. The doctor was concerned I had something worse than a kidney stone, so ordered up an x-ray, a CT scan as well as an ultrasound. Ultrasound came first to make sure I didn't have a failing appendix or diseased gall bladder. The tech made a comment about my kidney, then asked if I had fallen recently. I said no, and then she asked if I'd been hit. I said no again, but the look she gave Bryan...too bad she doesn't really know him. He can't even squish a spider! The ultrasound came back negative, so the doctor went ahead with the CT scan. The x-rays were hard to do because I had to stand with my arms up which made my kidney angry. The CT scan was worse. I had to put my arms over my head, and take in a deep breath. The first breath wasn't deep enough so I had to do 3 scans instead of just 2. By the time they wheeled me back into room 18, I was exhausted. Yet all I'd done was lay around looking like I was dying. The results from the CT scan said I did have a kidney stone and it was 3 mm. I know tiny, but in the world of kidney stones the doctor said it was actually quite large. Since I didn't have a fever, or infection yet, he sent me home because there was nothing else he could do. But at least I had pain killers now, along with Flomax to help ease my ureters, and antibiotics to keep from getting an UTI or a kidney infection. Friday night was sleepless again and Saturday was downing pain pills all day. By Saturday evening I was feeling pretty good. I started thinking the stone was in my bladder. I was wrong again. Sunday morning I woke up at 12:30 am to the most pain I've ever experienced. My kidney was spasming, and my bladder was having a fit. I could barely stand up, let alone walk to the bathroom. I cried and cried, worried I would get sick again and have to go in. Bryan begged me to take more pain pills, as I had read the instructions wrong and wasn't taking enough. "Don't make me suffer" I cried out pathetically. In that moment I didn't think Bryan could understand the level of my suffering. It was awful. When he finally got me calmed down, I took another pain pill and tried to lay still. Later when Bryan called from work, I told him to still come home as I was in huge amounts of pain even with the extra medicine. When he finally made it, the pain was just starting to subside. I decided to be a tough guy and brave it out. Later that morning, the pain had one final attack. I called Bryan again, just to hear his voice so I could rationally think about my decision. Then the pain went away, just like that, and the stone passed. Unfortunately, the residue of my angry kidney has not worn off, and I'm still paying for that one. I've been in and out of bed all day, trying to do some work, but not succeeding at too much. Then I have the crazy idea to do some laundry, and maybe even sweep and vacuum as the dog hairs are starting to annoy me. I need to learn how to say STOP and help yourself by being lazy. At least lazy enough to watch the movie I DVR'd just for that reason, and to drink a few more bottles of water. And maybe have Bryan take me grocery shopping, but not to buy rhubarb. Definitely not rhubarb.

And more...

When we walked the Golden Gate Bridge we saw some dolphins out in the bay. I snapped some pictures but they were so far away and the bridge moves SO much that I couldn't get a clear pic.

Some more...

San Francisco, more to come...

Rain, Rain and more RAIN!

A couple weeks back we went out to Grays Point. The rain was relentless as you can see in this picture. We took our only pic of the light house when it stopped pouring for about 10 seconds. The next week we went up to Bonneville Dam and checked out the hydroelectric plant. There isn't any pics of the outside of the dam because it was once again pouring rain, big surprise... I knew it rained a lot here but it is getting old.