Post by rocmills on Apr 29, 2004 16:16:24 GMT -8
...
So, Sunday morning I woke up feeling as though I had slept badly on my hips. I remember tossing and turning during my last few hours of sleep, trying to find a comfortable position. Within an hour of waking up, I realized that the pain wasn't coming from my hips, but rather my lower left back - in the kidney region. Bill and I discussed, and were concerned, that it might be kidney stones or some other kidney ailment. It didn't feel like any backache I'd ever had before. The pain was incredible,
blurring my vision at times and buckling my knees. I suffered through the day as best I could, trying one hopeful remedy after another. Nothing helped. Aspirin, Tylenol, hot bath, nothing.
Hoping a good night's rest would do the trick, I promised Bill I would call the doctor in the morning if I didn't feel better. I even called my boss and warned him that I might be absent.
Monday morning the pain wasn't one iota better. I was miserable. Every movement hurt. Bad. And we were both starting to get scared. I called me doctor and left a voice mail - should I come see her, go to an Urgent Care, or go the ER? It seemed to Bill and I that an ER would be better equipped to handle the situation if it were kidneys, but we waited a
while for the doctor to call back.
At one point while we were waiting, Bill was out of the room when I heard Milo's muffled meow. I looked down, but the room was dark and it
took me a moment to focus. He was batting a dead bird around at his feet. It was his first confirmed kill, and the first such present he had ever brought us! I felt so proud. Just as I started to reach out
and pet him, he grabbed up the bird, shook his head and let loose.... and I got smacked up side the head with the dead bird! Just what I needed with my back in so much pain, but you should have seen the way I leapt out of that chair anyway.
So, Bill comes running... and finds himself emotionally conflicted over praising Milo for being a good kitty and the poor dead birdie being tossed around the room. We gave Milo a moment or two with it, then Bill took it downstairs to let Milo play with it in the backyard.
While he was doing this, I realized that the iguanas hadn't had their antibiotic pills yet that day, so I slowly made my way downstairs to get the pills ready. I got two slices of banana, stuck one pill in each, and made my way back upstairs to pill Mary first because I knew she'd be easiest. As expected, she took the banana slice slowly and delicately like the perfect little lady she is.
I then went back downstairs to deal with Bailey.
Considering how addle-brained I was from the pain, this wasn't the brightest idea I ever had. It all started out well enough. I had the pilled nanner in my right hand and held it out for him. Rather than
just take it like he normally would, he decided to close his eyes and be pissy. My back was hurting more from the position I was in, so I wanted
to get this over with as quickly as possible.
I reached in with my left hand and pulled down on his dewlap, forcing his mouth open just enough to get the banana in. I thought. As I started to get up, I saw that he only had half of it in his mouth and
that if he just closed his mouth without taking the rest in he would lose the pill.
This time I reached in with my *right* hand and grabbed the top of his head... my fatal mistake. I stuffed the rest of the banana in with my left thumb and he went chomp.
I yelled, he let go, I stumbled back - my thumb and back both screaming, and bled all over the carpet for a stunned moment or two. Bill was not pleased. He knew right away that Bailey hadn't attacked me. He could tell by the look on my face, and the fact that I wasn't angry, "You did something stupid, didn't you?" I nodded in shame.
My thumbnail had a neat little row of bleeding holes, and the pad of my thumb was cut from side to side. It felt and looked worse than it was.
By the time we had the thumb cleaned and dressed, and had calmed down from the adrenalin rush, we decided we'd waited long enough for the doctor to call and made up our minds to take me to the emergency room.
We waited about an hour before I was taken in, told to strip, put on a gown, and lie down on a gurney.
They took blood samples, urine samples, and hooked me up to an IV of Sodium Chloride. The nurse who was doing this must be either new or was
having a bad day. During the blood draw portion of the adventure, I heard her say "oops" and the next thing I know there's blood all down my arm, blood on my hip, blood on my stomach... good grief! She dabbed a bit of it up, fixed whatever she had done wrong, and drew the blood sample. But she never did offer me clean sheets or a new gown. :-(
After the blood sample came the IV, and into the IV tube she injected my first dose of pain killer - though I can't remember what the doctor said it was. Then I showed the nurse my bitten thumb and she came back a few moments later to give me a tetanus booster injection. Ouch.
Every hour, the nurse came back to take my blood pressure and temperature.
After several hours, a technician arrived to take me for a CAT scan. It was my first and, except for the pain, I found it kind of exciting. The CAT scan machine reminded of a tiny Stargate.
When the doctor finally got the results of the CAT scan there was good news and annoying news. The good news was that my kidney, liver, bladder, gall bladder, everything looked perfectly healthy. My blood tests were all good, white count normal. No anamolies in the urine analysis. All the while he's telling me this, my back is hurting so bad I'm clenching my teeth not to whimper out loud.
"Then why does it hurt so much?" I finally cried out.
The doctor got up and did some poking and prodding of my lower back and abdomen. "You have a sprained back," he says. "Here, this muscle right
here is locked in a spasm." He outlined what felt like a 2x4 down the left side of my spine.
After the doctor left, the nurse returned with my promised pain injections. I was to get a shot of valium in the bum... and boy howdy!
it made the tetanus shot look like a walk in the park. I swear that woman put acid in that syringe. Bill keeps saying "You should have seen
the look on your face!" It was quite a learning experience.
Then I got a shot of morphine added to my IV, and was told we would have to wait another 30 minutes before we could leave. "This wont stop the
pain," she said as the morphine went in, "but it should take the edge off." She was right on both counts.
Finally, I was handed my discharge instructions and two prescriptions (vicodin and skelaxin). I spent the next two days lying down as much as possible (which was quite a bit thanks to the sleepy powers of both meds). I've still got some whopping good pain in the back, but nothing like Sunday and Monday.
With any luck, a couple more days of bed rest and I should be fine.
--Roc
So, Sunday morning I woke up feeling as though I had slept badly on my hips. I remember tossing and turning during my last few hours of sleep, trying to find a comfortable position. Within an hour of waking up, I realized that the pain wasn't coming from my hips, but rather my lower left back - in the kidney region. Bill and I discussed, and were concerned, that it might be kidney stones or some other kidney ailment. It didn't feel like any backache I'd ever had before. The pain was incredible,
blurring my vision at times and buckling my knees. I suffered through the day as best I could, trying one hopeful remedy after another. Nothing helped. Aspirin, Tylenol, hot bath, nothing.
Hoping a good night's rest would do the trick, I promised Bill I would call the doctor in the morning if I didn't feel better. I even called my boss and warned him that I might be absent.
Monday morning the pain wasn't one iota better. I was miserable. Every movement hurt. Bad. And we were both starting to get scared. I called me doctor and left a voice mail - should I come see her, go to an Urgent Care, or go the ER? It seemed to Bill and I that an ER would be better equipped to handle the situation if it were kidneys, but we waited a
while for the doctor to call back.
At one point while we were waiting, Bill was out of the room when I heard Milo's muffled meow. I looked down, but the room was dark and it
took me a moment to focus. He was batting a dead bird around at his feet. It was his first confirmed kill, and the first such present he had ever brought us! I felt so proud. Just as I started to reach out
and pet him, he grabbed up the bird, shook his head and let loose.... and I got smacked up side the head with the dead bird! Just what I needed with my back in so much pain, but you should have seen the way I leapt out of that chair anyway.
So, Bill comes running... and finds himself emotionally conflicted over praising Milo for being a good kitty and the poor dead birdie being tossed around the room. We gave Milo a moment or two with it, then Bill took it downstairs to let Milo play with it in the backyard.
While he was doing this, I realized that the iguanas hadn't had their antibiotic pills yet that day, so I slowly made my way downstairs to get the pills ready. I got two slices of banana, stuck one pill in each, and made my way back upstairs to pill Mary first because I knew she'd be easiest. As expected, she took the banana slice slowly and delicately like the perfect little lady she is.
I then went back downstairs to deal with Bailey.
Considering how addle-brained I was from the pain, this wasn't the brightest idea I ever had. It all started out well enough. I had the pilled nanner in my right hand and held it out for him. Rather than
just take it like he normally would, he decided to close his eyes and be pissy. My back was hurting more from the position I was in, so I wanted
to get this over with as quickly as possible.
I reached in with my left hand and pulled down on his dewlap, forcing his mouth open just enough to get the banana in. I thought. As I started to get up, I saw that he only had half of it in his mouth and
that if he just closed his mouth without taking the rest in he would lose the pill.
This time I reached in with my *right* hand and grabbed the top of his head... my fatal mistake. I stuffed the rest of the banana in with my left thumb and he went chomp.
I yelled, he let go, I stumbled back - my thumb and back both screaming, and bled all over the carpet for a stunned moment or two. Bill was not pleased. He knew right away that Bailey hadn't attacked me. He could tell by the look on my face, and the fact that I wasn't angry, "You did something stupid, didn't you?" I nodded in shame.
My thumbnail had a neat little row of bleeding holes, and the pad of my thumb was cut from side to side. It felt and looked worse than it was.
By the time we had the thumb cleaned and dressed, and had calmed down from the adrenalin rush, we decided we'd waited long enough for the doctor to call and made up our minds to take me to the emergency room.
We waited about an hour before I was taken in, told to strip, put on a gown, and lie down on a gurney.
They took blood samples, urine samples, and hooked me up to an IV of Sodium Chloride. The nurse who was doing this must be either new or was
having a bad day. During the blood draw portion of the adventure, I heard her say "oops" and the next thing I know there's blood all down my arm, blood on my hip, blood on my stomach... good grief! She dabbed a bit of it up, fixed whatever she had done wrong, and drew the blood sample. But she never did offer me clean sheets or a new gown. :-(
After the blood sample came the IV, and into the IV tube she injected my first dose of pain killer - though I can't remember what the doctor said it was. Then I showed the nurse my bitten thumb and she came back a few moments later to give me a tetanus booster injection. Ouch.
Every hour, the nurse came back to take my blood pressure and temperature.
After several hours, a technician arrived to take me for a CAT scan. It was my first and, except for the pain, I found it kind of exciting. The CAT scan machine reminded of a tiny Stargate.
When the doctor finally got the results of the CAT scan there was good news and annoying news. The good news was that my kidney, liver, bladder, gall bladder, everything looked perfectly healthy. My blood tests were all good, white count normal. No anamolies in the urine analysis. All the while he's telling me this, my back is hurting so bad I'm clenching my teeth not to whimper out loud.
"Then why does it hurt so much?" I finally cried out.
The doctor got up and did some poking and prodding of my lower back and abdomen. "You have a sprained back," he says. "Here, this muscle right
here is locked in a spasm." He outlined what felt like a 2x4 down the left side of my spine.
After the doctor left, the nurse returned with my promised pain injections. I was to get a shot of valium in the bum... and boy howdy!
it made the tetanus shot look like a walk in the park. I swear that woman put acid in that syringe. Bill keeps saying "You should have seen
the look on your face!" It was quite a learning experience.
Then I got a shot of morphine added to my IV, and was told we would have to wait another 30 minutes before we could leave. "This wont stop the
pain," she said as the morphine went in, "but it should take the edge off." She was right on both counts.
Finally, I was handed my discharge instructions and two prescriptions (vicodin and skelaxin). I spent the next two days lying down as much as possible (which was quite a bit thanks to the sleepy powers of both meds). I've still got some whopping good pain in the back, but nothing like Sunday and Monday.
With any luck, a couple more days of bed rest and I should be fine.
--Roc
