Not a UTI...Again

Well, let's just say I've had a most interesting week. I'm not even sure where to start with this story. I'll skip some and start with saying I had a high fever and UTI symptoms on Monday. Went to the doctor and got antibiotics (they "dipped" my urine and it was positive for a UTI). Tuesday I had quite a bit of pain in my abdomen. I figured it was from the UTI, took lots of ibuprofen and continued with life. If I didn't take the medicine every 4-6 hours, I was in a lot of severe, debilitating pain until the medicine kicked in. Whatever, Old Man is out of town for a funeral. I have 5 kids. No time to think about it.

3:00 a.m. I wake up in lots of pain, get the ibuprofen, heat up a rice bag, lay down and wait for the pain to subside. It's severe. Pain in th lower, right side of my abdomen. Sometime during that hour of nausea induced pain I thought. Duh, appendix. Idiot. Around 4 the ibuprofen kicks in enough I could go to sleep. At 6:00 a.m. the kids wake up, and I get on the computer to check. Yep, lower, right side of abdomen - appendix. Crap. At 7:30 the pain was so severe again I knew I couldn't wait to go to a clinic. I call my friend, Heather (who just happens to be a nurse and lives 2 miles away) and ask her if she can take me to the ER. Her 14 year old son comes to babysit and we go. Trust me, if I've had 5 natural births and I'm in enough pain to go to the ER I am in PAIN. Heather says I was gray when she arrived.

At the ER, the doctor immediately suspected kidney issues rather than appendix. Mainly because I'd had the UTI. I had 2 CT scans and he was right. Kidney stones, not appendix. The big problem was that it wasn't just normal kidney stones. Apparently one had lodged in the lower part of my ureter, just above my bladder. They said it was a rather large stone - 6 to 6-1/2 mm (if it's 3 mm you can pass it, 6 - no).

Surgery was scheduled for 5:30. The plan was to go in, blast the stone with a laser, use a "basket" to get it out and put a stent in from my kidney to my bladder to let the infection in my kidneys drain. Nice. Fun. Just the way I imagined spending my day (did I mention we were supposed to go to the zoo?).

I'm sure you know my state of mind at this point. Heather is with me at the hospital with the baby. A 14 year boy/man is taking care of my other 4 kids and his sister at my house (disaster in the making - junk food, tv, mass chaos!). Don't get me wrong, he's good with the kids, but still... I send Heather home with Little Bit and ask her to return in time for me to nurse Little Bit before surgery. I've been in touch with Old Man all morning. He's a little stressed. Nothing like being across the country for a funeral and having your wife get hospitalized. I was worried about the meds and nursing. I don't know how many times I said, "I'm nursing. Make sure the meds I'm taking are ok. Or tell me!" The other thing I said was that I had 3 priorities - obviously getting me healthy, the nursing issue and I did NOT want to be hospitalized over night. Let me outta here! Oh, in all of this, I hadn't eaten since dinner the previous evening. I was starved!

Old Man started sending e-mails. Pretty quickly he had alerted the church and was talking to my parents. I didn't feel like talking much at all, so am thankful he managed it. Heather was the other contact for people.

Surgery outcome? Well, they went in and did not find any stones. At all. None. The supposed 6 mm one was a calcification that is normal. I had a couple others they thought and they weren't there either. I was home last night around 9 in severe pain again. Different this time though. Heather, my friend and nurse stayed the night. She suggested I should take ibuprofen in addition to the narcotics. Ahh, good old ibuprofen - it helped.

Oh, and the UTI I had? The ER doc seems to think I never had a UTI. It was all just kidney stones and my kidney was infected.

I do have help until Old Man gets home. I've had wonderful friends here to take care of the kids, clean up the house, someones bringing meals. I slept like a rock this afternoon.

Now I want NO MORE STRESS for the next year. OK, God?