12 hours of agonizing pain and nothing to show for it...

Hats off to you moms out there that have given birth with out drugs! Supposedly the pain level of passing a kidney stone is similar, or worse, than natural child birth. I wussed out after about 12 hours yesterday, and went to the emergency room. At least you came home with an amazing little miracle that will call you mom for eternity. I got nothing, but pain relief and...

1 fabulous ER nurse named Wendy
1 urine sample
1 extremely kind ER, Dr. Shane
1 moody, but got the job done CT tech (our first conversation went like this..."so you're having abdominal pain?" "no" "then what are you here for?" "kidney stones" "how do you know that?" "because my kidney hurts & I've had them before" "oh, ok")
1 CT scan
1 iv (thank goodness, cuz every time I drank anything significant, I threw it all up)
1 fabulous pain killer (toradol)
1 anti-nausea med
1 antibiotic
1 flomax (laugh it up, but it makes kidney stones easier to pass)
1 passing 4mm kidney stone
2 slightly larger stones still in my right kidney
5 prescriptions to help as I continued to pass the 1 stone, and hopefully the other 2.

3 hours later, I was home, starving (yay! I hadn't eaten since dinner friday night), and totally exhausted.

and last but not least, a huge thanks to my 2 amazing parents who didn't mind when their grown daughter called them crying in pain asking if I could come lay on their couch instead of mine, and gave up precious sleep to take me to the ER at midnight. And a great big thanks to my dad & Aaron & the prayers & well wishes of the rest of my family.

It was still a rough night morning as some of the medications wore off and one (?) of them had some other unplesant side effects, but I managed to sleep a couple hours at a time. And although I almost gave in to the pain as it crept back, I was able to NOT take the percocet they gave me. Frankly, stuff that potentially addicting scares me...A LOT.

So now, those other 2 stones are ticking time bombs. I can feel something going on in my right kidney, but nothing more than a twinge of pain every once in a while. Hopefully(?) that means they're trying to get out. I'm not thrilled about the possibility of more pain, but I also think I'd rather get rid of them all now, than play the waiting game. I guess the hope is that taking flomax will allow them to pass sooner, easier & faster. I'm pretty sure the one that was passing, is either in my bladder, cuz it doesn't hurt anymore, or I passed it (without pain) one of the times I didn't use the "special" kidney stone strainer.

I'd like to catch one of the little buggers so the urologist can analyze it & tell me what kind it is, so I can adjust my diet accordingly in the hopes to prevent forming any more.

not to be gross or too graphic, but I had to laugh when the Dr asked me if there was any change in the appearance of my urine...my toilet is made of green porcelain, so I'd never be able to tell if there was something funky going on if I looked LOL.