Is there something strangely fitting about spending the anniversary of the day we moved to this great country partaking of our publicly financed health care? Allan's in the hospital, in excruciating pain - and a lot of morphine. It seems to be a kidney stone, but we haven't gotten an exact diagnosis yet. It still could be his appendix.
This morning he had what he thought were cramps. When it got very severe, and he was sweating and nauseated, I said, come on, we're going to the hospital. Driving 120 km/hour on Hurontario Street - that's a first for me! Allan was hyperventilating the whole way.
Now he's got a ton of morphine in him, and it still hurts. The doc said she thinks of kidney stones as the male equivalent of labour pains.
Everything is going as well as it possibly could in the hospital. Except for the pain part. I just came home to take care of the dogs and do a few things, then I'm heading back. Hopefully he'll have the CT scan soon, and we'll come home with a lot of pain meds and a cranky but healthy boy.
JoS friends: we should probably thread at Ish's place or elsewhere. Thanks in advance for all your good wishes, which I know are on the way. Love you guys.
21 comments:
Oh lordy. Karl gets kidney stones regularly. He's a pretty stoic guy, but I've seen him damn near rolling on the floor in pain. Nevertheless, I hope that's what it is. They're generally (nowadays) not that serious. Just painful. Actually, we met a woman who said she's had both (childbirth, kidney stones) and she'll take the childbirth, thankyouverymuch. Hope this "passes" quickly.
Yikes, that sounds awful. Please give Allan lots of hugs and well-wishes from me. I hope he is home and out of pain as quickly as possible, maybe even in time to see the Sox beat the Sox (you can figure out which ones I mean).
Keep us posted.
Noooooooooooo! The pain. It will go away soon enough.
male equivalent of labor pains
Well yeah, you're trying to squeeze a hard object out a tube that's much too small.
Get well soon.
oh man! I came by to congratulate you guys on the anniversary and this...
I have a friend who has kidneys stones with some regularity and have gone to the emergency room with him a few times. I feel for you guys.
Not much I can say but, thinking of you and congrats on living in canada (what with the health care and all)! surely there are better ways to spend the day, though. :-/
Icch! I had kidney stones in my early twenties. It too started with these minor cramps that QUICKLY developed into overwhelming, excruciating pain. It was just surreal.
It passed (so to speak!), but it was a pretty difficult coupla weeks.
I've also heard that the pain of passing kidney stones is akin to labour pains. And since I've never given birth, for me it was the "female" version of giving birth!
I feel for Redsock. Ouch! (if indeed it is kidney stones, of course).
FUCK! POOR ALLAN!
my thoughts are with you guys, thanks for taking care of him, l-girl!
YIKES!!!!!
get well allan! we can't wait to see you back on the InterWebs :)
Thank you, all! So sorry to hear of your own kidney stone experiences.
It was indeed a stone - one, 5 mm size. We were told 6 mm is the size for which they start talking stents and other gruesome things. This is large but will pass on its own.
Or we hope so. He has a follow-up w/ a urologist after the long weekend.
Allan's home now, in bed, in a morphine haze. I'm off to get some Rx's filled, including one for Flomax that's supposed to relax things in that vicinty. And good old Percoset! What did people do before painkillers???
This is all probably TMI! See you all later.
morphine percocet.
allan should enjoy himself after he passes it.
HE NEEDS TO DRINK LOTS OF WATER!
Glad to hear it's under control, and not more serious (although that's serious enough). Let me know if you need anything.
morphine percocet.
allan should enjoy himself after he passes it.
I know! When they put in the morphine drip, I was like, where's mine??
HE NEEDS TO DRINK LOTS OF WATER!
Yup! I'm on it. :)
been there, done that, and it ain't fun. Good luck Allan
First, our best wishes to Allan and hopes for a speedy recovery and no more stones.
Alan passed a kidney stone a few years back and it was an example of Health Care in America. It didn't help that at the time there was a snow storm on the East Coast and we couldn't get through to the insurance company. Anyway, what stays in my mind is that Alan had to sit there in pain at an intake desk -- before he could be seen by any medical person -- answering a gazillion questions about payment and insurance. I asked if I could answer the questions while he was, you know, perhaps looked after. (At this point, btw, we weren't sure what was going on.) He actually threw up in the woman's waste paper basket and she said, "It's OK. It happens all the time." I was so infuriated that it was crystal clear that the first order of business is payment. Somewhere after that is patient care.
To be fair ... a follow up to this story is we ended up in the same hospital (because same insurance) a few years later for my episode of abdominal pain. I am happy and surprised to report that the hospital actually did medical triage first and then insurance intake. To me, this is a minor miracle.
Sorry to hear about that! I've heard that kidney stone pain hits hard and sudden, knocking some people to the ground. Hope he gets better quickly. And he does have that great rebound feeling to look forward to. That's always my favorite part about being ill or in pain - after it's over, feeling normal seems euphoric.
Ouch! Yes, I hope it's the less serious kidney stone. And look, you didn't have to wait months for treatment as so many down south would have us believe.
Please give my best wishes to Allan. I hope that the problem is quickly found and dealt with, and that both of you are over this quickly. Timing couldn't be worse though it's good to hear that things are working.
And look, you didn't have to wait months for treatment as so many down south would have us believe.
I was thinking that very same thing... :)
Lisa said: I've also heard that the pain of passing kidney stones is akin to labour pains
...if babies had sharp lil razor like edges...
Poor Allan, that really sucks. I was glad to read in the update that his pain mgmt was taken seriously. 5mm does sound large. Best wishes to your patient.
Oooh, Allan, kidney stones are so painful! I'm glad the medical system is working for you, sorry that you needed it.
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