Sunday, January 08, 2012

Recovery Phase

It's been just a little over a week since I went to the ER for my kidney stone adventure and while I'm feeling so, so, so much better than I was a few days ago (let alone last week!), but I still get tired very quickly. I'm sure it's because my body's putting quite a bit of energy toward healing up whatever damage was done by the kidney stone and the surgery, but wow, am I sleepy.

If I had the time, I'd probably take a day or two off and just relax, do some work at a leisurely pace, read, and rest, but I'm sure I've used up any sympathy time I have at work. Actually my co-workers have been great and really helped to keep my work moving along with very few hiccups. I'm grateful for that. It's a small team and everyone is busy enough on their own.

I did a fair amount of Green Ronin work yesterday and today, so I'm feeling good about that, but I have so much more to do that I feel a little lame for taking a break here at 5:00 on Sunday to go read some comics.

What's wrong with me? Relax, man!

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Absolutely Miserable... But Better Now

I arrived back from a nice Christmas vacation to see my family in Wisconsin, worked for a single day, then woke up Friday with a sore back. I thought perhaps I'd thrown it out on the plane and was just going to deal with it and go to work, but when a bout of neasea hit me in the car and the pain was steadily increasing, I turned around, woke Julia, and had her take me to the emergency room thinking I had appendicitis.

As soon as the ER doctor saw me standing at the counter in the exam room he said, "Kidney stones. I'd gurantee it." And he was right. They gave me some IV pain medication so I'd stop groaning and sent me off for a CT scan (I think) and it confirmed a 7mm kidney stone on my right side. He said it's not possible to pass anything 6mm or larger so I'd have to have a procedure to get rid of it. But, since it was Friday -- and the Friday before a holiday weekend, I'd have to deal with it using pain meds for a few days.

We picked up the perscriptions and headed home. The afternoon was mostly fine, but in the evening the pain came back with a vengeance and -- even through the oxycodone -- at about 11:30 when I knew there was no way I'd get any sleep, we went back to the ER.

Honestly, it felt like I didn't even have any pain medication in me. It was worse, way worse, than the pain from earlier in the day and by the time I was in the exam room for a few minutes I was pretty much unable to speak, moaning from pain punctuated with a scream every now and again when the pain really ramped up, and literally vibrating because it hurt so much. I can't actually tell you what any of the people looked like who were talking to me, taking my blood pressure, and trying to get another IV in me becasue I had me eyes closed the whole time. All I know is that when you make as much noise as I was the ER staff moves fast and even other patients take note. Or at least that's what Julia tells me. She said at the worst of it we had a couple people in the room and a few more hovering at the doorway to see if they could help.

Anyway, once the IV was in and they'd pumped me full of "the most powerful painkillers they had" I calmed down and then we waited and waited. I was on a stretcher and loopy from drugs, but Julia had to spend a good four hours sitting in a very uncomfortable chair, doing nothing, during prime sleeping hours (midnight to 4am), plus, she had to watch me be in pain, so I'm sure it was no fun for her at all.

End result? They sent me home with more/different painkillers for a few days.

"A few days" turned out to be five, then six days. We had the pain under control, but the drugs made me miserable. I slept or stared into space most of the time because I couldn't concentrate enough to read or even really watch TV. It was... difficult. Again, I'm sure Julia was having a blast, too.

The other big problems with the pain meds was that they pretty much stop your gut from moving things along. So even though food wasn't particularly appealing to me, after a few days I couldn't actually take anything new in because nothing was going out. Ugh, what a miserable feeling... to have for daaaaaaays!

Monday was a holiday, so we scheduled an appointment with a urologist for Tuesday. We thought it was going to be when the stone was removed, but it turned out to be a consultation and the earliest I could get the stone removed was Wednesday. That was difficult. I'd really thought Tuesday was as long as I was going to need to wait and to have the doctor say, "We can probably squeeze you in tomorrow," was really, really, deflating. Miserable.

So finally, Wednesday morning, still drugged up, unable to eat, unable to go to the bathroom, exhausted, and ready for all of this to be done, I go in the procedure. I thought it was a fairly simple, outpatient operation, but no one had really prepared us for what it actually was. I hadn't thought I'd be under a general anesthetic, but I was, I hadn't thought there'd be much of an aftereffect, but there was, I hadn't thought there'd be so much peeing blood, but there was. BUT! the stone is now out and I'm off the pain meds (even though I could use a little bit to take the edge off, but no way!). My back and side is a bit sore, it hurts to go to the bathroom, but I have something for that, and really the most distrubing thing is looking in the toilet after I pee. Not a good thing to see. Sorry if that's all a bit gross for you, but it's really not a pleasant experience and I really hope none of you have to go through it. And I certainly hope I never have to go through it again.

I remember at one point asking the emercency room doctors to "just cut it out of me." I was serious.

Okay, so, happy new year!