State of the Bugged-dom
Moved from Foster City down into a house in Mountain View with funjon and kikikimi plus the 2 poodles. Now that I'm closer to everyone else, I've been doing more stuff in the evening, and it put me between work and play so I don't have to go North and race back South to hang out with the rest of the gang. And being a short walk to VTA Light Rail and Caltrain makes it easier to get about without having to drive.
The biggest problem with kidney stones isn't when the hurt, it's when they DON'T hurt and lie in wait to strike when you least expect it. I've had the same stone since December when I managed to drive myself to the ER in San Mateo. I left there with a consult to a Urologist to get things checked out. Another visit at the end of January for the same thing (same ER nurses, too!) prompted the same consult, which was finally scheduled in mid-February. After that appointment, I got a call with a date for a stent insertion surgery at the end of March, which didn't thrill me. They way things were explained (more lectured to w/o input) stent insertion was going to be painful, full of complications, and painful.
I canceled the surgery a week before the date. I had just finished moving (was now 30+ miles away from Surgery center) and the doctor was only in half of 1 day a week. Neither filled me with desire to follow through at that location.
Last Monday morning rolls around with kidney pain, "hooray"! After prodding from funjon he takes me over to the local Urgent Care clinic[1], where we briefly saw eeyore_grrl and the hordes from the Bacon Flu epidemic[2].
On the way in, I called the urology department to try and get in ASAP (I had missed the previous appointment due to putting down the wrong month). I got an appointment for Tuesday.
At the urgent care, I was admitted and they asked what more could be done. I suggested a CT to speed things up for the urology appointment the following day, which they gladly did. There's now *2* kidney stones: a 3mm x 4mm in the kidney, and a 11mm x 6mm between the kidney and bladder, blocking the flow significantly, and causing the kidney to swell a bit.
Went to the urology appointment the next morning and basically was told to drop everything for the rest of the week, they're going to try and get me in to have the stones removed ASAP.
Surgery was the following day: Laser lithotrospy and a stent insertion. I was well cared for and assured that this doctor is top of his field. There were no problems and I even got a few pieces to take home!
Thursday, Friday and Saturday went quite uneventfully.
[TMI!]Saturday evening presented with a bit of bladder pain, fever, chills and the runs. A dose of Imodium quelled the runs, but the other symptoms had me (and others) worried. Got the van unloaded for the Rocky Show, and headed off to the ER[3].
I was quickly admitted, and produced all the fluids desired, and found out there's an infection. An infection that cipro didn't manage to handle, so they gave me another prescription for cipro (which I wont fill until I know for certain it won't hinder anything.)
Today I wait for results from the culture of the infection. Wait, wait, wait.
- PAMF is a place that Gets It. There's free Wi-fi!
- People who were thought to be infected were not allowed in the main lobby. They were directed to another door, where they received masks and restaurant-style pagers to know when they were to enter. This didn't stop one guy from repeatedly entering the main area to ask why his pager was doing odd things.
- "Ok, van's unloaded, I'm off to the ER" is not something I ever want to have to say to such a wonderful group of people :(
On a side note, NetFlix instant on TiVO has been soooooooo useful this week while I've been sitting at home doing not-much-of-anything.