Stoned

This week certainly didn't go the way I planned it.  Last Sunday, I woke up with extreme abdominal cramps, out of nowhere.  After about 4 hours they were so bad that G took me to the ER.  I've managed to go my entire life without a single trip to the hospital.  No broken bones, no funky viruses, no emergency situations.  This week more than made up for it, though.

After a few hours in the hospital, their tests never disclosed any problems.  They figured I had some type of weird viral infection somewhere in my "gut" or that it was a case of food poisoning, which G quickly attributed to some chinese scallops I'd eaten over the weekend.  I was relieved that there were no major problems, but I was a little...bothered, too.  It's weird to be in such extreme pain and not be able to point to anything wrong.

Over the course of the next couple of days, I had a residual cramp in the side of my abdomen.  It didn't necessarily get worse, but it never got better.  On Wednesday morning, the cramp got worse and worse until...you got it...ER trip #2.  My carpool buddy M took me and G met us there.  Let me just say that this was by far the most pain I've ever felt.  I couldn't sit still - not even in the middle of the ER waiting room.  I would pace the floor, sit down and rock back and forth, pace again.  There was no relief.

It turns out that I had a kidney stone.  The nurse said it's the worst kind of pain there is, second only to having a baby.  I will not speak of that, since I haven't experienced it, but let me just say that I would have taken an epidural right then and there.  They made me go for quite some time (and I do understand why) without relieving the pain, but as soon as they shot me up, I could see straight again.  I was thinking of every one of my friends who has ever explained an epidural to me.  Let me just say that I get it.  I. Get. It.

I was relieved that we could actually point to the source of all this pain now.  They said it measured less than a grain of sand, but not to worry, that it would, and I quote, "feel about as big as a bowling ball."  Thanks.  That's what I get for having a male nurse.  G named it Mick.  As in Mick Jagger from, yes, the Rolling Stones.  That's what I get for having an insane husband.

I feel like there is a spiritual point to be made here.  About how something so small can wreak havoc so large.  Or about how something almost insignificant can change the course of a life.  Not only mine, but about a dozen or so people around me.  But I'm too exhausted to reach for a deeper meaning.  I can only reach as far as the pain meds and that's it.

The stone is passed now, but due to its barbed shape, it tore nerves and tissues all along the path.  So, although it's left the building, I'm still in quite a bit of pain.  They don't know what caused it and they don't know if this means I'm now prone to getting them.  They say that kidney stones are basically just mineral deposits that build up in one's system - they can be calcium or magnesium or a variety of all kinds of other minerals.  Only time will tell.

GREAT.