Interrupted

My Life Thus Far
2008-09-11 06:01:08 (UTC)

Medical Hiatus

****

Missing four days is out of character for me, I know.
Especially without some kind of warning in advance and I
apologize for that. I was just too ill to even consider
getting out of bed to write. So, I took a medical hiatus.
I needed time to huddle in a fetal position in the middle
of my bed and wish for death. Instead of dying I got
better, so here I am.

I don't feel like reliving each and every moment of every
day over again, so we'll go with the abridged version.
Really, the days blended into one very long, agonizing day
that I'm glad is over. I'm still not 100%, but I'd say I'm
about 80%. After being at a personal, all-time low, 80% is
pretty damn fabulous. I'll take it.

The suspected kidney infection I thought I had became a
confirmed kidney infection very early on Saturday morning.
Friday night I took some Motrin and put my heating pad on
my back (right side. It's always that stupid right kidney.
I wouldn't give it to my worst enemy if they needed a
transplant. I don't have a worst enemy, but if I did). In
the middle of the night I woke up to quite possibly some
of the worst pain I've ever felt. A searing, stabbing pain
in the upper right quadrant of my back. I've given birth
to three children with no pain medication and this pain
was worse than any contraction I've ever had. By far. On
top of the pain, I was burning up. Snookums said I'd been
whimpering in my sleep when he got up to go to the
bathroom. So, by 5am I couldn't handle it anymore. I went
to the ER.

5am on a Saturday morning is a great time to go to the
emergency room. There was not one person there. I got in
immediately and was taken care of quickly. My blood
pressure was sky-high (for me) 152/88, I had a low-grade
fever, 100.2 and then there was the pain. Holy crap, the
pain. I told them I was nursing. I didn't want to be given
something that would prevent me from feeding Keenan for an
extended period of time, so instead of a narcotic they
gave me a shot of Toradol (Basically a super-powered
Motrin. Great drug. Made me a little light-headed, but the
pain was gone in about 15 minutes). They ran their lab
work, pressed on my abdomen, thumped my back and told me I
had a kidney infection...thanks for the ground-breaking
diagnosis. I went home and spent the day waiting for the
antibiotic to start working and wishing Motrin was
stronger. Saturday was a bad day.

I spent Sunday doing much the same thing I did Saturday.
Hurting. Usually when I have a kidney problem (stones or
infections are unfortunately a familiar part of my life) I
take Vicodin, but I can't take that now. I'm a martyr of
motherhood. I wouldn't change it for the world. Pain is a
small, temporary thing in light of the bigger picture.
I'll do whatever it takes to make sure Keenan gets good
milk. That's why I was LIVID when I discovered what the ER
doctor had done.

Even though I told the admitting nurse that I was nursing
and I saw him write in on his little chart, the ER doctor
still prescribed me an antibiotic I couldn't take while
nursing. A sulfa drug, which a large portion of the
population is allergic to (Snookums and Kiki being two of
them, so it would stand to reason that Keenan might have
the same allergy). Sunday night Keenan was very fussy, had
developed a rash. He ate and went to bed, but it wasn't as
easy getting him down as usual. Just out of curiosity, I
looked at the warnings on the side of the meds I'm taking
(azo tablets, the ones that make your pee red, Motrin and
the antibiotic). Other than 'take with food' the first two
didn't have any adverse warnings. The antibiotic clearly
said 'do not take while pregnant or nursing'. Why? Isn't
it the doctor's job to make sure they don't make those
kinds of mistakes? I was the ONLY person in the ENTIRE ER.
There was no excuse for that. So, after two doses, I
stopped taking it.

Monday I called my doctor to have her call in a different
antibiotic for me, but she never called me back. Never
called in another drug. I called back on Tuesday and the
same thing happened. I called the nurse on duty and he
said there was nothing he could do and sent me back to the
ER, which was packed beyond belief. I waited for a couple
hours, but was never seen. I just left and decided I'd
handle it on my own. If was going to be in pain, being in
my own bed was better than in an uncomfortable chair
surrounded by sick strangers. So, I bought myself about
two gallons of cranberry juice and came home.

Snookums was so upset, he called my doctor today from
work. That didn't make much of a difference. She still
didn't call me. So, after trying for four days to get a
medication to help clear up a kidney infection, I'm still
untreated. Some medical care. I give up. I've just been
drinking my cranberry juice and waiting for improvement.
Thankfully I got some today. The sharp stabbing has
subsided and is now a mild throbbing. Much more tolerable.
Tolerable enough, in fact I was able to take the kids to
the park today. It felt good to get out.

I didn't get to go to work yesterday. I was back at the
ER, but tomorrow I'm looking forward to my first full day
back to normal. Wow. The past few days have been bad. I'm
exhausted still, but getting better each day. I will never
ignore a urinary tract infection ever again. That would be
the moral of this story. Ciao.




Ad: