I then called my customer and told them I was ill and was going to go home. We had pretty much finished up the day before but we were going to have a final meeting. I suggested we do this the following day via conference call. They agreed, which was a good thing because I was not going into the plant regardless of their request. I was experiencing things I have never felt before and not in a good way.
I go to the airport and change my flight to an earlier one. I think I got back 8 hours earlier than I had originally scheduled. I had a one stop flight in Detroit. By this time I am feeling worse. I ask the Chief to make me a doctor appointment. I don't know what is wrong but I know there are some definite things that are not correct with either my kidneys, bladder, lower back, lumbar vertebra or something else in that general area.
The flight from Detroit is only an hour but that was one of the longest flights of my life. I spent about half of it in the airplane restroom trying to figure out why it felt like I had to pee every 2 minutes and only a trickle would come out. I'm lucky they didn't think I was up to something, like smoking...
I arrive at my home airport and the Chief picks me up and takes me to our family doctor. She proceeds to give me a quick exam and then she gives me a shot, not alcohol, better. I get a shot of Demerol. It is some wonderful stuff. The nurse did not give me very much but it did the job very well. It wasn't that the medicine made the pain go away. It did not make the pain go away. I very clearly remember that it still hurt, and hurt bad. I just didn't care that it hurt.
The doctor sent me for x-rays and it turned out that I had a kidney stone. The stone was small enough that I could pass it on my own without any external help. The doctor gave me a urine strainer to catch the stone. The funny thing was, the urine strainer looked exactly the same as the filters my company uses to filter paint made in the lab...
I'm not sure why but I don't catch the stone during the straining process. Maybe it was too small to be caught by the strainer, I hope not because it felt like a boulder. The other possibility is that I woke up in the middle of the night and forgot to use the strainer. I can see how this is possible since I don't normally make a habit of straining my urine and if I was sleep-peeing I know all bets are off. What I didn't know is that the stones can be analyzed and the results used to help with a patient's diet. By the composition of the stone doctors can tell you what to eat and other stuff to avoid. I did not have the benefit of this advice.
I have no more problems and go about my business as usual.
About 6 months later I wake up for work one morning and start having severe back pain. At first I think it might be another kidney stone, but after a half hour or so I believe it is something different. The pain is many orders of magnitude worse. The Chief is working a job where she is on third shift at the time so I wake her up and ask her to take me to the emergency room. She asks if it is another kidney stone. I say, "no, it hurts much worse and the area where it hurts is much larger than before."
We get in the car and leave. After we get about 3 blocks away from our house I say, "Pull the car over." The Chief pulls the car over and I proceed to throw up in a neighbor's driveway. I compose myself and then we go to a local hospital. The Chief lets me off at the door and I walk into the ER to the nurse's station.
I didn't exactly know how to get some attention but I found a method that works pretty quickly. I say to the nurse behind the desk, "I hurt here!" and make hand gestures from the bottom of my rib cage to below my waist. Then I lay down on the floor. It turns out that is all you have to do to get some attention in a hurry. You can use that for future reference...
The nurse starts an IV and then I go into radiology for an X-ray. It turns out it is another kidney stone. This time it is much larger than the first one. One of the nurses says, "Here you go. This is some good stuff." He injects it into my IV and a warm sensation spreads from my left arm to my shoulder, to my abdomen to my hips and on down my legs. When it reached my junk, once again it felt as if I peed myself. I think I had to reach down and make sure I didn't...
This pain killer was better than the Demerol. This time I also did not care if it hurt. It also did not hurt anymore.
This time I was able to catch the stone and send it in for analysis. It turns out that I need to lay off the coffee (I was drinking 2+ cups a day) and eat more citrus. Since I never want to do this again, I have taken both of those steps.
Here is the culprit.
Not the penny...
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