My medical drama

At about 2:30am on Monday, February 20, I was suddenly woken up by intense pain in the kidney area all the way to the side. It would not go away, so after about 5 minutes of laying in agony, I got up, got some water, and checked the internet to see what it could possibly be. One of my friends had problems with kidney stones during her pregnancies, and since the pain was in that area, that's where I started. Some of the symptoms sounded exactly like those I was experiencing: sudden, severe pain that gets worse in waves, intense pain in the back & side and nausea & vomiting (vomiting would actually come later). I looked up the recommendation for treatment, and it seems that there is very little doctors can do for it besides wait and give pain relief. So I started in on the water, knowing that it would help flush it out. I stayed up about an hour, and soon the pain went away, so I headed back to bed. It was back within 20 minutes however. And then I knew that I needed to wake DH... I wanted to go to the ER.

When we got there, I was immediately admitted, which is a benefit to living in a small community... very little wait time. They took some blood and I gave a urine sample. At first, they were zeroing in on the gallbladder. I have no idea why, but they did. But the blood tests that would indicate a problem with it came back normal. When my urine results came back, it showed that the white blood cell count was high, so they gave me the diagnosis of a bladder infection that was trying to work its way up to my right kidney. I was given 2 Tylenol and an antibiotic and then sent home with instructions to drink tons of water.

And then the real fun started. We got home and both went to bed, me with my empty ice cream bucket right next to the bed because I was feeling nauseated. The pain was starting to overcome the Tylenol, so I was soon out of bed, and headed for the bathroom, where I threw up the antibiotic I'd only taken an hour before. I tried various sleeping places in my living room, and managed to get about an hour of sleep in between the waves. And that set the tone for the rest of my day... rest between the waves (but not sleep), cry with pain during the waves, and head to the bathroom to be sick. After I was sick, the pain would immediately go away. Of course, it would always come back a short time later. At one point, I'd called my regular doctor to see if she could prescribe any pain medicine that would actually touch the pain, which Tylenol didn't. She didn't feel comfortable in going above Tylenol, which I can respect, because I am pregnant and she was being cautious. She did prescribe me some anti-nausea gel though since I was vomiting pretty regularly, and I wasn't managing to keep any of my meds, water or bread down. Yeah, that didn't work. So I was gearing up for another long night of pain and bathroom trips.

But later that night, about 10:30, DH decided to take charge... he didn't agree with my plan to suck it up and wait it out. He found the number to the 24-hour nurse from my clinic and called them. The nurse advised him to take me back to the ER for an IV, with the concern being that being dehydrated could cause me to go into labor. So I went to the ER again because we definitely don't want that!

They initially weren't going to do another urine test because I'd just had one the night before, so they got me hooked up pretty quickly. They also added liquid Zofran (anti-nausea med), because it was about time for another hit. Within about 20 minutes, I was having pain & throwing up. While they were hooking up the IV, they also took some blood. Almost everything was normal. Heck, according to their scale, I wasn't even dehydrated, so I guess I managed to keep enough water in. But I'm so glad I got the IV nonetheless. The only thing that was slightly off, I don't remember what he called it, but he said it was most likely something to do with the pregnancy, and wasn't the cause of my pain. The doctor (a different one than the night before) spent a lot of time talking to us, and the more we talked, the more he felt that I should give another urine test.

When the results of that came back, it came back different than the night before. The first one had elevated white blood cells in it, which led to the diagnosis of a bladder infection. The second one didn't have that. But it did have a little blood in it. So now they're suspecting a kidney stone. He felt that along with that, the fact that I would have waves of pain, usually ending up with me throwing up, and where my pain was located, that that was looking more likely than a bladder infection. He told me to stop taking the antibiotic for now, and he also gave me some good pain medicine to help me sleep that's pregnancy safe (which worked BTW... it was awesome. Didn't wake up once).

The bright side though, was that the doctor brought out the doppler to listen to the baby. The hb was good and strong at 163bpm. It was the first time DH had heard it. But since I was on my back, it brought on immediate pain, and I was throwing up within a minute. So it was just a quick listen. There is no concern for the baby, so the focus is just getting me better. My instructions were to drink a lot of water, and even if I throw it all back up, just keep drinking. I have to keep watch on my temp, but otherwise I just wait it out.

On Tuesday, I had a renal ultrasound to verify the presence of stones in my kidneys. Nope. Not a speck in either kidney. The tech also checked my ureters to see if there were any blockages or urine backups. Nope. So we're back to square one with not knowing what's going on.

But Tuesday was actually really good... I would only have an occasional dull pain in my kidney area, but I was otherwise pain-free. So we'd thought that maybe I'd passed a super small stone really quickly. I don't know how possible that is, but it's better than nothing.

However, now that it's Wednesday, I'm starting to get more pain in that area again. It's not the excruciating pain I'd experienced on Monday. It's a dull ache like it was on Tuesday, but it's getting a LOT more constant and a little stronger as time goes by. So I'm trying to keep up on my water and rest, with the hopes that it goes away. I have my 20 week appointment tomorrow, so I will have some followup with my regular doctor and we'll see what she says. Since I have to provide a urine sample at these appointments anyway, I'm hoping that this latest one will help shed some light on what's going on.