Stones, Part II

Saturday morning!  I’m up and taking in a soccer match, and I’m having a light breakfast of cottage cheese and a waffle.

The kidney pain returned.

For the third day in a row.

I texted my sisters about which hospital ER I need to go to under my health plan.  They texted back that I should call a nurse on my health insurance card, and that I should ask about urgent care.

A phone call later, and texts from one sister that she’d be over to pick me up, and I was on my way to UCSF’s urgent care.

It took a couple of hours, but I finally saw a doctor, after giving a urine sample.  She confirmed that I had a kidney stone (blood in urine) and had me have a blood draw to check that everything was fine.  She also prescribed flomax for my condition.

An hour later, I found out that it wasn’t, my creatinine levels were high compared to a recent test in July.  So I was sent across the street to the hospital’s emergency room for an IV to try to get those levels down, and to get a CT scan on my kidneys.

The waiting room time was about 4 hours, and then another hour or so lying on a hospital bed in the hallway near the CT scan room.

I was given a saline drip, then brought in for the scan, and then got a shot of toredol in my IV.

I finally had the doctor arrive to tell me what was up, that the stone should pass on it’s own.  She gave me a prescription for some other pain med (which I may not need) and this time they gave me a strainer and sample container for the stone when it passes.

After I was discharged my other sister picked me up and we picked up some cranberry juice and chicken broth from Safeway.  That’s when I remembered that I forgot to pick up my multi-tool from the security desk, which was confiscated when I arrived to the waiting room.

We went back to pick it up, then went home, where my sister prepared some of the broth and cranberry juice for me.

I feel fine now, probably better once I get the new prescription.

Thanks again to my sisters who I never listen to about health matters, until it does matter.

Stones

After many years of not showing any symptoms of kidney stones, I had an incident.

I was sitting at lunch when I felt the first dull pain.  It slowly increased in intensity until both of the people sitting with me noticed that something was wrong with me.

One of them correctly identified it as a kidney stone.  She said that I should go see I doctor.  I got up and walked to the bathroom to pee.

When I got back to the table, I decided that it was time to leave, so I did.

I passed by my supervisor’s office to let her know what was up, and then collected my stuff at my cube, and left.

Luckily I drove in today.

Unluckily there was a fender bender right in front of the exit of the parking garage.  Arrgh.

A couple of minutes of the two cars moving out of the way and I was on my way home.

Since it was midday there was light traffic on the freeway home, but the pain started to ebb and flow, as it does.

I parked in the garage, stumbled upstairs, changed and lay down on my bed.

I got up a couple of times to drink some water and try to get comfortable in sitting and standing positions, but lying down seemed to be the thing I needed to do.

I lay on my left side as I figured gravity might assist the stone’s movement in my right kidney.

I kept having to move every few minutes as what felt comfortable one moment was painful the next, until finally I fell asleep.

A couple of hours I woke up, pain free.

I found the container that I used to pee in when I first had kidney stones and used it.  No stone to be found.

I feel okay.  I’ll probably go back to work tomorrow, barring any incidents between now and tomorrow morning.

Wednesday

Mental Health Day!

Woke up feeling bleh.

Went out to get something to eat later in the morning.

My travels brought me to the Disney Store at Serramonte.

There were a couple of displays of Winnie the Pooh stuff, but I didn’t see any Christopher Robin movie related merchandise.

Until I saw this.

Continue reading “Wednesday”

Friday

This week has felt like a kiddie coaster compared to the roller coaster ride of the past couple of months.

POI

A couple of years ago I introduced Dad to Person of Interest.  He liked it right away.  We would watch a couple of episodes every few weeks or so, maybe every two months.

We got to the introduction of Shaw in season 2 before Dad passed away.  I wish he could have seen the rest of season 2, when the finale actually took place in Hanford, Washington’s  nuclear plant, where he worked while he and Mom lived up there.

Today I got to Season 3, episode 9, where I experienced the biggest TV shock since Marie Warner shot her fiancée on 24.

And I cried. Mostly for what happened in the story, but also a good cathartic cry for my Dad.

That cry seemed to clear my head and shook me out of a funk I’d been feeling for a couple of weeks now.

And I came to a decision about something.

I’m not going to move to Sacramento.

There’s a position open in our agency’s office up there.  I was supposed to go up there these past couple of days to check it out, but a sore back stopped me from going Wednesday, and Thursday I didn’t feel well in the morning.

Maybe this was a sign.

I figured stress was responsible for both days, and once I sat down and made the conscious decision to no longer consider the Sacramento move scenario, I felt a great weight lifted from me.

I have enough to deal with around this house, disposing of so much of Dad’s and my own stuff, I don’t feel that the added stress of moving was needed.

I felt that I needed to move out of this house ASAP, partly because of the constant reminder of where I found Dad on the steps, every time I walk by them.  But over the past couple of weeks that feeling has lessened.  I’ll always have that painful memory, and the time will come when I will move out of here, but that time is not now.

For the moment, I feel less stressed than I’ve been in a couple of months.

I still need to go see a therapist to cope with grieving, but I think I made some headway on my own.

Buh

The more I think about it, the more I feel that I’m exactly where I need to be right now.

Change will happen when it needs to.

Wasted Day

I woke up this morning to some very familiar feelings of nausea.

Food poisoning.

I immediately went back to bed.

I woke up about 4 hours later to email work that I’d be out before I went straight back to bed.

Another 3 hours later, I got up and  took a shower since I was sweating a lot while I was sleeping.  I made some tea, but only drank half of it and went back to bed.

I woke up again about 4 hours later and made some toast and finished my tea.  Back to bed.

Got up again 2 hours later and seem to have shaken off most of the effects, though I do have a bit of a headache.

I tossed the foods that I ate the night before, though I suspect it was the milk, which expires tomorrow, but it had a faint odd smell, but tasted okay with cereal.  Never again.

Currently eating dry toast and tea.

As a result of this, I got a ticket on my car for street cleaning violation, and 3 packages (game stuff, camera accessory, Kickstarter reward) that I was expecting at work have been delivered, but I’ll wait until Monday to get them.

Wasted day.  Though in my semi-sleepy state I had the TV on to the Giants game, though I missed Bumgarner breaking his hand, and there’s a James Bond marathon on MGMHD channel.

Tactical Retreat

Man, social media is so mentally draining nowadays.

Or maybe it’s Daylight Savings Time.  Whatever.

Between the overly opinionated and the toxic fanbois, I just need to be away from that for a bit.

So of course I come here to my blog.

Which I suppose is my own Fortress of Solitude, so to speak.

Guh

I’m not sure why this year’s Daylight Saving Time has left me feeling worse than in past ones.

It could simply be because getting older sucks.

Blah.

Weekend Recap

Finished reading “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck”.

Picked up the Infinity Gauntlet (prop).

Sorted/organized Massive Darkness and Rising Sun.

Got a couple of Infinity War Pop! figures from my sister.

Watched baseball on TV.

Continued the 1967 San Francisco Giants season replay.

Did my taxes.

Watched the Oscars.

Finished reading “The War of Jokes and Riddles”.