My ER Adventure

Friday morning I emailed in sick to work (again) because of abdominal pain that became crazily, scarily painful and concentrated on the right side (and back).  As you all know, I am no stranger to multiple types of abdominal pain and have, if anything, a history of being too tough about it.  But this pain was so intense and so different from my previous experience that it started to freak me out.

In the two minutes or so I was able to sit at the computer before getting too light-headed, I googled appendicitis and saw that I had all the symptoms of it.  I called my mom and told her what I was experiencing and she told me I needed to see a doctor immediately.

I called Robert and he came back from work and drove me to the emergency room at the hospital. 

While the nurse drew blood and inserted an IV, I watched this video that Robert found for me on his phone.  I watched it over and over and it saved my life from the creepy stuff going on.  (I mean, seriously, this might not be the cutest thing ever, but it's damn cute.)

The doctor thumped around on my abdomen and asked me questions and seemed like he didn't think it was my appendix.   He thought it was most likely IBS and ordered a urine test also.  I wasn't sure whether to hope it was just IBS or not.  I mean, it would be good to not be something dangerous, but if it was IBS, my IBS has taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

After I had taken in a bag of water through my IV and had drunk a couple bottles of water, I was finally able to produce a urine sample.  When I brought it back to the room, the nurse kind of freaked out.  Robert noted, rightly, that it looked like beef broth.  The doctor came in and said, I saw your urine sample--it is really bloody.  (I had no idea that bloody urine would look like that.  I hadn't thought about it before but I guess my naive expectation was that the blood and urine would be more separated, not mixed up.)  He didn't wait for the test results to come back on it--he immediately ordered a CAT scan because it looked likely that I had a kidney stone.

I don't think I'd had a CAT scan before.  It took some time before they took me down for it, but I was surprised at how fast the procedure was.

After another long-feeling wait, during which time my pain had almost entirely gone away, he reported back that I do have a kidney stone--what they call a "chronic" kidney stone--that looks stuck and is unlikely to pass through on its own.  (The good news about it being "chronic" instead of "acute" is that it wasn't causing my kidney to be swollen and unhappy.) 

So I have been referred to a urologist to discuss the options for getting rid of it, and in the meantime, I am taking Percocet for the pain...which is considerable when the stone is moving/trying to move.  I was okay over night but shortly after I woke up this morning, the pain started and steadily increased to the point that I had to take my first Percocet.

The sucky part is that this isn't over, and I've got several days of pain ahead of me.  But the good news is that it's nothing dangerous, just painful, and because kidney stones are known to be painful (unlike, e.g., menstrual cramps where fucking doctors don't believe you about the pain level and tell you to self-medicate as needed with ibuprofen so that you get a bleeding ulcer and almost bleed to death), they are willing to prescribe strong painkillers for it.

To be continued.

And in other news...I got dressed today in something other than a Hard Rock Casino t-shirt and yoga pants (yesterday's outfit).

"Grumpy Alice Forever"--Sunday, 6/4/16

A boxy jacket, graphic T, jeans, and ballet slippers make for a perfect spring outfit.  Claire wore this one for a casual Friday at work in April 2014, noting that graphic shirts are back on trend. 
 

From whyidodeclaire.blogspot.com

Are they still?  I don't know, but I will not stop with the grumpy Alice T.  Pairing it with purple is a nice change from my usual Alice + bright pink formula.

Grey Alice in Wonderland T (Out of Print), $2.56/wear
Purple striped jacket (thrifted, Coldwater Creek), $0.83/wear
Bootcut jeans (thrifted, Kohls), $0.50/wear
*Purple flats (thrifted, Target), $5.24/wear
Purple gumdrop necklace (Target), $2.84/wear

Outfit total: $11.97/wear

When I found these ballet flats at Goodwill, I was a bit surprised to realize that purple is one of the very few colors of flats I don't already own.  I enjoyed adding this pair to my shoe rainbow.  (Green is now the notable missing color.)

Lest you doubt the amazing diversity of my ballet flat collection, here is evidence from a recent outfit development session.  These aren't all of my flats, but it's a good chunk of them.  (See?  No green.)