Pyelonephritis
I’ve been MIA for the past few days.
Well, not exactly MIA–I’ve been in and out of the hospital. Again.
Saturday I traveled with my family to Ohio to visit my brother and sister-in-law. It was my brother’s birthday last week and we were having an impromptu cook out and cake gathering. I have pictures and a post already written in my head, and I fully intended on posting it on Sunday (The post is still coming. I’ll just have to back date it, so look for that. It’ll be great! Wisdom of an 8 year old and delicious Almond Tortes require a good, healthy post). I went to bed early on Saturday because I wasn’t feeling very well, but had every intention of posting Sunday. Yeah. That didn’t happen.
Sunday, at about 6 AM, I woke up with incredible pains in my back and stomach. It felt as though my actual stomach was trying to turn itself inside out. The contractions came in waves of incredible, blinding pain. It was similar to the pain I imagine you feel when you are stabbed with a hunting knife repeatedly in the stomach. Of course there was also the throwing up every hour and a half which contributed to the bruising of my ribs. I assumed that this was the source of the intense back pain I was feeling, but it turned out that I had it backwards.
Monday I tried to go to work and soldier through, figuring that I could muscle through the waves of pain. I got there, lasted about an hour and a half, and was in so much pain that I had to go to the hospital. I think I scared my boss to death (thank goodness he was so helpful. I don’t know what I would have done had he not been there to rush me to the ER). Once in the ER they asked the typical questions and ran the usual tests, and everything looked wonderful except that I had severe pyelonephritis (A.K.A. Kidney Infection).
I’ve had kidney infections in the past and I mentioned to a family member on Sunday that I was worried that my symptoms were similar to my previous experiences. The problem with a Kidney infection is that you usually don’t know you have one until it’s serious (that’s when the recognizable symptoms rear their ugly heads). In the ER they decided that I needed fluids, high doses of Cipro, pain meds, and nausea medicine immediately. That meant an IV. If there’s one thing that approaches my fear of clowns, it’s needles. I was in so much pain, though, that all the fight I could muster was a little hyperventilation and a constant stream of tears. I just wanted the pain to stop. After a few hours on the IV, the back pain subsided for a while, but the GI spasms and pain didn’t. They had to double the pain medicine. Needless to say, I was a zombie.
So I’m laid up until the stomach spasms stop (that means the infection is under control and getting better), and full of medicines that would knock a baby elephant on his rear. I can’t drink caffeine (this is leading to caffeine withdrawal on top of everything else), Cranberry juice and chicken soup are my new best friends, and I’ve developed an affinity for Life Saver flavored Popsicles. If I’m coherent I’ll try and play catch up with my posting, but it might have to wait until the weekend. Or until I can sit up for longer than an hour without pain. Or never. We’ll see.
