Tales from the ER
I thought Monday's UTI had moved into my right kidney, giving me excruciating pain in suspiciously kidney-specific places, in addition to the other usual symptoms and a rising, if low-grade, fever. After calling my gyn at 8 AM and not hearing anything useful for six hours, they finally suggested I go to the ER.
We all started off thinking kidney infection, and they were going to give me some fabulous antibiotics, but it turned out that either the Bactrim was actually working or something had happened, because there were no more immediate signs of infection. (They're going to culture that sample, and I should hear back about the one from Monday tomorrow, so they can't rule it out completely, but apparently it was less likely than they thought.)
So, they didn't know what was going on, which is always a reassuring feeling to have when you're in the ER. I got a CT scan, and let me tell you, the experience of getting a contrast dye shot into my veins was the single most bizarre physical sensation I have ever felt. Truly. Wow. This is a terribly crude metaphor, but I think the only way I can describe it is having someone pee really, really fast into your IV. It's disgustingly warm, and it goes from your elbow to the entire rest of your body in mere seconds.
Anyway, I got back to my little ER room and had another new experience: IV morphine. Sadly, all it did was make me sick for a few minutes, and then...nothing. No pain relief, no sleepiness, no nothing. I expected more!
Finally, around the eight-hour mark, the resident who did the laparoscopy part of my surgery came by, which was nice. She said that I don't have a kidney infection. Hooray! I mean, that still doesn't explain why my other UTI symptoms got worse, but I like my kidneys and want to keep them functioning well, so hooray!
Instead, the pain is because my right ovary grew another cyst. In a week. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT DID. I knew I should've insisted that bad boy be removed, my gyn's concern about having a backup ovary for heart/bone hormones be damned. In addition to the pain these usually cause, said cyst did not play well with everything else that was trying to heal. It's also possible the fluid from the cyst or the cyst itself was somehow causing my UTI symptoms (or causing them in addition to a UTI that was on its way out).
So now I have more percocet and a progestin-only bc pill to take care of the remains of the endo and/or the normal cysts of ovulation that turn into hellbeast cysts in me. My last go-round with the minipill did not go well, but it was largely due to uterus-related issues, like having a period every other week. Perhaps it will go better this time.
...I'm just sayin', though, righty better watch its back.
(P.S. One nice thing about tonight: I no longer have to do the mandatory pregnancy urine tests at any and every hospital visit. The nurse was going to have me do it, and I was like, "...but I no longer have a uterus or fallopian tubes?" So I don't have to do that anymore, yay.)
This entry was originally posted at http://icepixie.dreamwidth.org/978206.html. It has
comments over there.
We all started off thinking kidney infection, and they were going to give me some fabulous antibiotics, but it turned out that either the Bactrim was actually working or something had happened, because there were no more immediate signs of infection. (They're going to culture that sample, and I should hear back about the one from Monday tomorrow, so they can't rule it out completely, but apparently it was less likely than they thought.)
So, they didn't know what was going on, which is always a reassuring feeling to have when you're in the ER. I got a CT scan, and let me tell you, the experience of getting a contrast dye shot into my veins was the single most bizarre physical sensation I have ever felt. Truly. Wow. This is a terribly crude metaphor, but I think the only way I can describe it is having someone pee really, really fast into your IV. It's disgustingly warm, and it goes from your elbow to the entire rest of your body in mere seconds.
Anyway, I got back to my little ER room and had another new experience: IV morphine. Sadly, all it did was make me sick for a few minutes, and then...nothing. No pain relief, no sleepiness, no nothing. I expected more!
Finally, around the eight-hour mark, the resident who did the laparoscopy part of my surgery came by, which was nice. She said that I don't have a kidney infection. Hooray! I mean, that still doesn't explain why my other UTI symptoms got worse, but I like my kidneys and want to keep them functioning well, so hooray!
Instead, the pain is because my right ovary grew another cyst. In a week. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT DID. I knew I should've insisted that bad boy be removed, my gyn's concern about having a backup ovary for heart/bone hormones be damned. In addition to the pain these usually cause, said cyst did not play well with everything else that was trying to heal. It's also possible the fluid from the cyst or the cyst itself was somehow causing my UTI symptoms (or causing them in addition to a UTI that was on its way out).
So now I have more percocet and a progestin-only bc pill to take care of the remains of the endo and/or the normal cysts of ovulation that turn into hellbeast cysts in me. My last go-round with the minipill did not go well, but it was largely due to uterus-related issues, like having a period every other week. Perhaps it will go better this time.
...I'm just sayin', though, righty better watch its back.
(P.S. One nice thing about tonight: I no longer have to do the mandatory pregnancy urine tests at any and every hospital visit. The nurse was going to have me do it, and I was like, "...but I no longer have a uterus or fallopian tubes?" So I don't have to do that anymore, yay.)
This entry was originally posted at http://icepixie.dreamwidth.org/978206.html. It has
comments over there.