Sunday, March 07, 2010

ER and Pie
My day started off with poor Husband waking me with that dreaded phrase "I think I need to go to the hospital." He's been dealing with a kidney stone (his forth!) and today the pain was pretty unbearable. So off we went to our local ER.

A few years ago when I was sick with the mystery illness, we spent far too many hours in that ER. It got to the point where we knew the nurses on a first name basis. And today, with Husband, we had my favorite: Claude. He's an adorable French guy with a dishy accent and a very sweet, caring nature.

We got lucky today. We were taken right away and in and out in under two hours. That's a record. There's been times when we waited nearly that long to get seen. Today there was nobody waiting, there was an empty room, there were nurses that weren't busy, and a good doctor. Husband was taken in, given a CT scan, and given some lovely drugs....then released, all in two hours.

He's home now and in bed, doing fine. The lovely drugs have made him sweetly dopey and the CT scan shows a stone that's small enough to pass naturally (if anything that painful can be natural).

And, as compensation, I'm making an apple pie. So tonight it's apple pie, the Oscars, and pain drugs if needed.

But the adventure confirmed one thing for me: It's much easier being the patient than watching someone you love in pain. Not only is it harder to bear being powerless when the one you love is sick -- it also sucks when you're not the one getting the fun drugs.

3 comments:

Duke said...

I hope Hubby gets over his stone soon. I've had over 15 in the past 20 years so I know exactly how he feels. There was one period I got a stone every 6 months but it's eased off now. I haven't had one in over 2 years.

The pain for me was in 2 stages. The first was when the stone was still lodged in the kidney or the canal leading to the bladder. My side hurt like a hot iron poker was being twisted inside. When the stone finally drops to the bladder that pain stops but your bladder hurts plus you feel like you're about to bust even though your bladder is empty. A horrible feeling. The stone finally passes which I've heard best described by a doctor as "pulling barbed wire out your urinary tract"

Tell your poor husband I feel his pain and hope it's over soon.

Decca said...

Thanks, Duke. He's doing much better (thanks to the wonders of modern chemistry). Luckily I can't imagine the pain, let alone going through it 15 times. Sorry you had to go through that.

FinnyKnits said...

Yikes - take all those drugs, Husband, and feel better.

And, eat all your pie! That's the secret cure-all, you know.