Chris didn't sleep much from Sunday night in to Monday morning. In fact he was pacing and nauseous and in pain in the basement so that he wouldn't wake us up. Um, I don't think this is jet lag anymore. By 5 am he asked if I would get up and help him. His lower right side was killing him, and he had me look up appendicitis and kidney stones. He tried lying down, but just couldn't lay still the pain was so intense and finally said, "I need to go to the ER."
I woke up Amy to let her know where we were going a little before 6 am. Chris climbed in the car but it was hard to be so still while I drove. He groaned and moaned, apologized for being so wimpy, asked me to drive faster. He was in pain. We finally drove up to the ER, parked right in front, and he was out of the car in a flash. I felt like saying, "My husband is having a baby," because I believe he was in that much pain, but I refrained.
There was a lady in front of us who thought she had a blood clot in her lung. That was serious. They took her to Registration to get her information. Chris was moaning and groaning and trying to pace. The receptionist lady had me get a wheelchair but I don't know that Chris was all that inclined to sit down. The ER guy who came out to help the lady with the blood clot radioed back to his co-workers that they needed to come and get Chris.
I filled out a few forms and then followed the sound of Chris' moaning, skipping registration. They had him get in a bed and started an IV right away promising relief. "And what level is your pain?" Chris replied that it was probably an 8. They answered, "I'd hate to see what a ten would look like!"
It took probably ten minutes for the meds to start working, all the while they were asking his name, birth date, place of work, etc. And finally....no more pain.
At this point, I stepped out to move the car from the emergency entrance. As I walked past the nurses' station, the nurse that had been in the room mentioned, "It is presenting like a kidney stone." I think she was trying to alleviate my fears as well.
Dr. Armstrong came in to do a kidney ultrasound. They didn't look swollen. Hmmm. Maybe we should get a CAT scan. For a short time, Chris and I were a little worried that it might be something more than kidney stones, but were grateful that it wasn't. Though that had been painful enough.
Apparently a kidney stone can be like a goathead and it catches in the ureter as it passes from the kidney to the bladder. The good news, Chris had endured the worst of the pain as the stone was now in the bladder and would likely (hopefully) just dissolve.
We also learned from Dr. Armstrong the difference between kidney stone and appendicitis pain. While people with appendicitis don't want to be touched or moved, people with kidney stones do a 'kidney stone dance' as the medical professionals like to call it and just have a hard time sitting still with the pain.
We were discharged from the ER around 8:30 am with my sweetheart feeling so much better, and both of us feeling so grateful that he was home when the kidney stone attack hit. Small mercies in our challenges.