This has been the longest week and it's still not anywhere near over. Starting last Wednesday, I felt some pain in my side and pelvic area after getting ready for work but decidied it was nothing to worry about and went to work. After work and some play time with the kids, I took a long shower to prepare for the following days vasectomy procedure. I did what I needed to and still had some slight discomfort but again, thought it was nothing more than just a stomach ache and that it would pass. Thursday came and went and the procedure went nice and quickly. The only thing I felt was the first couple pin pricks of novacain and in a matter of 25 minutes or so, the doctor was done doing his thing. I had some slight discomfort in the next couple days but it wasn't anything some vicodin and ice coulnd't take care of. All day Sunday I was fine without pain meds and was even ok without having to use ice until around 8pm. I started to feel some pain coming on so I took two of the vicodin and then ate a little something so I'd go to bed with a full stomach. I couldn't sleep with the pain so I ended up sitting up until a little after 1am playing Wii and trying to wait it out. Finally, at 1:15ish laid in bed because I was so tired and thought I could sleep through it. I dozed off a little but immediately woke up at around 1:40ish with so much unbareable pain and ran to the bathroom. I had this extreme feeling like I needed to pee but could absolutely not make anything come out. I waited until 2:30am to try and deal with the pain and made several trips back and forth to the bathroom trying to force something out. No dice.
The Emergency Room is one of my most hated places. It feels so bad having to take someone there because you know you are going to sit in pain and just wait until your name is called, all the while, looking at the dismay on other peoples faces and wondering what is wrong with them and if they are going to get called before you. I ended up driving myself there because I just couldn't deal with the pain anymore and I was scared to take more Vicodin. Meredith called my brother and he came over to watch the kids so she could join me in ER incase something serious was going on. While I was waiting for her, two nurses took 4 attempts at getting an IV in giving me some wonderfully nice bruises today. The first nurse appeared to be fairly new and commented on how nice it was that she could see my veins and it should be easy to get the IV needle in. I should have known. She poked the needle in and was fishing around with it trying to actually stab the vein, all the while doing this nervous kind of laugh to try and blow off the fact that she couldn't accomplish what she was doing. I moved a little because of the discomfort of what she was doing and it bent the needle. Scrap that one. She tried again with a new one and just plain couldn't get a vein. Enter nurses two and three. They gave up on my right arm and went to the left. Nurse two couldn't get a vein either but only tried once. Nurse three finally got the needle into a vein and taped the thing off but the location sucked. It was right in the crook of my elbow so I couldn't bend my arm at all.
Now that they got the IV in, they wanted a catheter to drain my bladder and get a urine sample whereas I couldn't pee. This was the first time I've ever had one and I hope I never have to have one again. They put it in and not even enough urine came out to run tests on, but did they take the thing out? No...I was left to sit and feel like I had to pee for the remainder of my time there. Mere finally showed up around 4am but by that time, I believe I was out with whatever pain meds they had injected into me. They took me off to do a CT scan of my kidney and bladder area and said it was definitely a kidney stone. Once back to the room, we played the waiting game and I was given some other pain meds that helped a bit. The final thing that happened before I got my discharge papers was the catheter removal. Now I have to tell you, if I ever recognize Aaron or Raymond or whatever the guys name was the removed it, I'm going to run up and kick him in the balls. He came into the room and told me that it was time to remove it. Great. I see him get the hose all coiled up and I tell him to let me know before he slides it out so I can take a deep breath and brace myself. He says ok, but then doesn't tell me. Not only does he not tell me, he grabbed a hold of the tube and freaking yanked like he was starting a lawn mower. All I could think of was Tom Hanks crippled over on the floor like in the Green Mile. I could feel his pain. Had I had the strength, I would have gotten up and shoved him but all I could do was sit there and wait for the burn to go away. The nurse finally came in and gave me my discharge papers and another prescription for vicodin and something called flomax to help try and break up the stone.
Around 5:15, I called my mom to come up and help out so that Scott could leave go. She came up and watched the kids which was a huge help and allowed me to drug up and just about pass out. The kids were good for her and once Mere got home, everyone was just about asleep. The next day, Mere took the kids to school so it was just me amd mom. I had taken some vicodin around 4am and was trying to wait to take more so we could go pick up my car. We finally went to get it around 10:30ish and when we got back, I ate a Tim Bit (equivalent of a DD munchkin) and swallowed a couple pills. With it I drank a full large glass of water. Within 3 minutes, I had to run to the bathroom and had vomited up all the water. We sat in the living room and mom my and I kind of took turns drifting off as we were both pretty tired.
Yesterday, I tried coming back to work to just deal with the pain. I waited until I got here to take my pain meds so I wasn't going to drive with that drowsy drunk feeling. Luckily, while there are things going on at work, it isn't full boar like its supposed to be towards the end of the month. I sat her and talked to a couple co-workers about what I was feeling and whatnot and then when everyone had left, I sat here, looked at my computer and dozed off. Had it not been for the weight of my head and neck muscles finally letting go, I probably would have slept longer but I think I was out for close to 30 minutes. One hand on the keyboard, one hand on the mouse, and facing my monitor, I looked just like everyone else here in cubbyland if you were to just walk by. Due to the vomiting and nausea I was feeling and both of those things being on the "return to the ER if..." part of my discharge paperwork, I decided to leave work and go back. I ended up sitting in the ER from 12:30 to 5:40 before getting seen. This again, is the exact reason I hate waiting in the ER. There were so many people there that looked like they were in less pain than I, and all I could do was sit there and question why the hell they kept getting called before me. Meredith had taken the day off to sit with me but had to leave finally to get the kids once it got towards the end of what would have been a normal day. I finally got taken in after a couple complaints and the nurse from Sunday night remembered waiting on me. She took a urine sample and had an x-ray done and then I laid there in the room for over an hour for someone to come back. I knew something like that was going to happen because one of the other nurses came in and showed me how the TV remote worked. I asked for a time frame and she said she really couldn't give me one. Great. Around 7, the nurse finally came in and told me that the stone was still there but couldn't answer how big it was or really why the pain had moved up higher into my kidneys. She gave me a new prescription and told me basically to wait it out and keep up with the flomax so hopefully the stone would drop into my bladder.
Today is Thursday again. There is a busy weekend coming up with Brewer Days and a geocaching picnic event and I just want this stupid stone to drop so I can enjoy the weekend with the kids.
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