Kidney Stones suck

 

All who know me are aware that I am plagued by the occasional kidney stone. I first had them as a reaction to some of my meds in the early 2000s. Since then I have what are called residual shards - which means my back is sort of like an active volcano that gets minor eruptions every once in a while. Today was one of those days and the volcano is roaring.

Although it does not rate the 10 of the original hospitalization, it sits at a pretty high 7-8. I will share a few details in the hopes that in a day or two they will be comic capers. Everything was going along fine until a sat down to put on my shoes for work and was stabbed in the back a few times. It sent me sprawling on the bedroom floor where I was whimpering and howling. For some odd reasons Jeffrey thought I was playing with the dog?? After about 10 mins he finally realized there was no game being played. What followed next was an excruciating hour of trying to figure out how to get me from face down on the wood floor to some sort of position that was functional and possibly a bit of comfort. But every movement of more than an inch or two sent me reeling into shock. For a while I had a thought that if he dragged me to the stair unit it might support my weight to upright. Wrong! I finally deduced that it was going to hurt and I just needed to grunt and punt. So I whipped myself around and had Jeffrey hoist me to a standing position while I clutched to the bedroom door for both balance and life. This then brought on a wave of dizziness and nausea while he held me from behind.

The rest of the day has been about tentative care with a variety of methods and success. Jeff, being a google geek, came up with a few remedies. One is a concoction of olive oil and lemon juice which will supposedly lubricate the kidney channels and soften the edges of the stone. Thank God he has some electronic probes from his back injury and the gentle jets have been a constant stream of release. I just have to be careful not to move to abruptly - literal baby steps. Enough water and cranberry juice so that I am making hourly trips to the "loo." I tried to take a nap on the couch for relief until I attempted to awake and rise - the stabbing pains were right back near square one. So I am best alternating between sitting breaks in a strong upright chair and very slow laps around the dining rooms table.

I would never wish this on anyone and am so lucky to have someone here to care for me in my need.