THE WORST PAIN OF MY LIFE

Tuesday night around 10 p.m. I had a few abdominal pains and hot flashes (I've experiences a few hot flashes in the past few months leading me to believe that I am in the beginning stages of menopause. I've also had some back pain when I've got up in the morning, but it would go away after an hour or so, so I didn't think much about it.) so I took some ibuprofen and went to bed. My lower back was hurting too, but I still thought no big deal.

Around 2 a.m. I woke up with a lot of pain in my back and abdomen. I called to Richard who was out in the living room playing a video football (Sometimes he stays up really late on Tuesdays since Wednesday is his day off.) saying I was having A LOT of pain.

In the next two hours it got steadily worst. So bad in fact, that I was sobbing and moaning on the floor in the fetal position. I told my husband to call my sister, Genie, who lives across town (30 minutes) to come watch the kids so he could drive me to the hospital which is less than 10 minutes away.

She knew something was wrong the minute she saw it was our number at 2 a.m. and could hear me moaning in the background. Very soon after Richard hung up with her, I conceded that I couldn't wait any longer and told him to call 911. I have never called the ambulance before.

The pain was HORRIBLE! When the first 2 firemen got there, I was still on the floor. I remember they asked me a lot of questions and, according to Richard, I said, out loud, how cute they were. I heard some talk of a broken leg and told them that no I didn't have a broken leg. (Later Richard told me that the talk of a broken leg was coming from one of their radios.) I wasn't on any pain medication yet, but I was really out of it.

I made Richard promise to stay at the house until my sister got there, so that in case Sam woke up he wouldn't be scared that no one was there.

They took my blood pressure and all those other tests, although I don't really remember it. I had to (with their help) get up and walk from the bedroom into the living room. The doorway was too small for the stretcher. I remember them asking the same questions over and over again: name, date of birth, was there any chance I was pregnant, did I have diabetes, was I on medication etc.

My eyes were closed a lot of the time and my brain was very fussy, but the ride to the hospital was very fast. They got an IV line started, transferred me to the bed in the ER and then I proceeded to puke on the floor. The nurses immediately gave me a shot of anti-nausea medicine (which burns going in) then a dose of morphine, which if you have never had any, is an AMAZING DRUG!

I kept going through waves of pain that would cause me to get very overheated, puke, shake uncontrollable with chills and then it would wane. As I would relax from a wave of pain I noticed a band aide on my finger and I asked Richard where it came from. I guess they had taken a sample of blood at the house and I didn't remember it, but Richard said during the time at the hospital I asked him 8 times why the band aide was on my finger. The morphine started doing it's job and I felt GREAT! They took me for a CT scan and it showed I had a kidney stone on the right side.

A little while later they gave me some dilautin (sp) in the IV which made me extremely dizzy. I didn't like that drug at all.

At one point I asked Richard if they could just beam us home.

After prescribing a pain killer, an anti-nausea drug and a drug to make me pee they decided I could go home. The dilautin (sp) made me feel horrible. I couldn't focus my eyes, so they decided to let me sleep a bit while Richard went down to the pharmacy to get the other drugs.

I kept having waves of horrible pain that would cause me to sob, but they had already disconnected the morphine so they gave me a shot in my hip of an anti-inflammatory and had me take a Hydrocodone for pain.

While I was in a good state of semi-relief we got discharged and Richard drove me home. I think I got home around 11:00 a.m. My sister, Genie, stayed with me while Richard took care of the kids. I kept having waves of pain that would last about a 1/2 hour, I'd get very overheated, puke, shake uncontrollable with chills and then it would wane. Fun times.

Genie ended up leaving, getting caught in horrible traffic, taking a shower and returning, through horrible traffic again, to take care of me, since Richard couldn't watch over me and the kids. I think she finally left around 6 p.m. What a wonderful sister I have!

We both slept through the night Wednesday and Richard took Thursday off so I could stay in bed and he took care of the house, chores and the kids. What a wonderful husband I have!

Today I am feeling much better, but the kidney stone still hasn't passed. The pain is at least endurable now. I'm drinking lots of water too. Now it's just a waiting game. You would never imagine something so small could hurt so much! Water is now my best friend!