Ow, ow! Fuck! It hurts! Ow!
Is there a Doctor in the house?
So yesterday afternoon, my kidney started hurting. It started as just a dull throb in my back and on the left side of my abdomen. Last night it only got worse. A few hours after I noticed the pain, I started getting pangs and sitting down was uncomfortable. An hour or so after the pangs started, I began to get nauseous, and felt like I had vertigo. Standing up was extremely disorienting, and when I shut my eyes the world seemed to veer to the left. Alex kept urging me to consider going in and getting it checked out, especially after I said kidney, because he thought appendix ... and we all know how awful that could be.
However, I didn't want to go to the ER at 2 in the morning and I really didn't want to put up with my mother bitching about me being in the ER at 2 in the morning, so I drove home slowly. I even stopped and asked the state trooper that was sitting on the ramp, waiting for speeders and drunkards to follow me home and make sure I got there safely. He did, and urged me to call 911 if the pain worsened. By then I was waddling, because bending my legs hurt my core. I got home, undressed at a snail's pace, and went straight to bed.
Now, this morning I feel markedly better than last night, but it still hurts. I can bend, I can sit, and I can walk without appearing arthritic. As much as I doubt it's appendicitis, I'm still a little freaked out by the extremely unlikely possibility that the bugger ruptured in my sleep and I'm just waiting to drop down dead from toxification. Honestly, I think it is far more likely that I have a kidney stone, or something equally non-threatening. I turned to Geeves and asked, "My kidney hurts?" Kidney-Pain.com didn't really give me any enlightening news that I didn't already know.
The thing that gets me is this... My pain isn't so much in my back, as is "normal" for a kidney stone. Neither is it between my right hip bone and my belly button, where it would be if it were appendicitis. This pain is distinctly on my left, and distinctly in between the rib cage and the hip bone, almost in line with the belly button. The pangs shoot pain sometimes all the way to a few inches underneath my left arm, sometimes all the way across to my right hip bone. I feel pressure most of the time. Not always noticeable pain, but always pressure. I'm very concerned.
My father is a RN, and I can normally treat myself and be right about my assumptions. I'm a huge loser, and I used to read my dad's medical books. What? This has me stumped. I have pain killers, but I don't want to take them, or anything else for that matter. I'm too afraid that I won't feel it if something really bad happens. I'm just drinking a lot of water and trying to stay comfortable before I have to go to work... but I hurt, and I'm a little worried. Help me!
So yesterday afternoon, my kidney started hurting. It started as just a dull throb in my back and on the left side of my abdomen. Last night it only got worse. A few hours after I noticed the pain, I started getting pangs and sitting down was uncomfortable. An hour or so after the pangs started, I began to get nauseous, and felt like I had vertigo. Standing up was extremely disorienting, and when I shut my eyes the world seemed to veer to the left. Alex kept urging me to consider going in and getting it checked out, especially after I said kidney, because he thought appendix ... and we all know how awful that could be.
However, I didn't want to go to the ER at 2 in the morning and I really didn't want to put up with my mother bitching about me being in the ER at 2 in the morning, so I drove home slowly. I even stopped and asked the state trooper that was sitting on the ramp, waiting for speeders and drunkards to follow me home and make sure I got there safely. He did, and urged me to call 911 if the pain worsened. By then I was waddling, because bending my legs hurt my core. I got home, undressed at a snail's pace, and went straight to bed.
Now, this morning I feel markedly better than last night, but it still hurts. I can bend, I can sit, and I can walk without appearing arthritic. As much as I doubt it's appendicitis, I'm still a little freaked out by the extremely unlikely possibility that the bugger ruptured in my sleep and I'm just waiting to drop down dead from toxification. Honestly, I think it is far more likely that I have a kidney stone, or something equally non-threatening. I turned to Geeves and asked, "My kidney hurts?" Kidney-Pain.com didn't really give me any enlightening news that I didn't already know.
The thing that gets me is this... My pain isn't so much in my back, as is "normal" for a kidney stone. Neither is it between my right hip bone and my belly button, where it would be if it were appendicitis. This pain is distinctly on my left, and distinctly in between the rib cage and the hip bone, almost in line with the belly button. The pangs shoot pain sometimes all the way to a few inches underneath my left arm, sometimes all the way across to my right hip bone. I feel pressure most of the time. Not always noticeable pain, but always pressure. I'm very concerned.
My father is a RN, and I can normally treat myself and be right about my assumptions. I'm a huge loser, and I used to read my dad's medical books. What? This has me stumped. I have pain killers, but I don't want to take them, or anything else for that matter. I'm too afraid that I won't feel it if something really bad happens. I'm just drinking a lot of water and trying to stay comfortable before I have to go to work... but I hurt, and I'm a little worried. Help me!