Personal Reflection

Let me preface with this: this blog entry is a personal reflection of recent events regarding my health. No cause for alarm here, I simply wanted to get my thoughts out of my head while I'm thinking them...

Last week, Nuku took me to the hospital at around 10pm Wednesday night for the first time in my life due to some really painful aches in my lower back (or so I thought that's where the pain was from). I felt silly since I've never gone to the hospital before and we don't even have a regular physician. We even went to the wrong entrance where a nice lady in "Patient Registration" directed us to the ER! There was a family in the waiting room when we arrived so I was nervous about how long we'd be waiting. But I filled out the short information form and the triage nurse called me up in less than 10 minutes. She asked me to pee in a cup which was fail because I had just gone to the bathroom at home before Nuku took me to the ER because I thought I just had some really bad gas cramps! XD The nurse sent me back to a curtained off room where I signed more paperwork as another nurse hooked me up to an IV and drugged me with three drugs (I can't remember the names of atm) to get rid of the pain quickly. The doctor told me I may have a kidney stone. They ordered me a CT Scan, that was another first for me too, and results showed that I do in fact have kidney stones. "Of note, there is a duplicated left kidney." hehe.. Ya, I just found out last week that I have 3 kidneys too. The doctor compared the abnormality to having a 6th finger. =3

So he wrote me a prescription for some Vicodin for when the pain comes back since the stones aren't big enough for invasive treatment/surgery (thank gods!) but I'll have to pee the damn thing out! He gave me an odd strainer thingy and said that until I "catch" the stone, they can't really tell me anything else about how the stone formed and what I can do to prevent them in the future. XD Sorry if this is way too much information, but I am thoroughly amused that I have to strain my own urine and actually look for a stone as small as a grain of sand!

My family doesn't have a history of kidney stones that I know of, but my mom's side has a history of diabetes. Doc said It can take up to 2 weeks for a stone to pass so I'm doing a little more research on kidney stones in the meantime so I at least know more about it. XD

I'm turning 27 at the end of November and this incident has given me that feelin' old mentality! At least it's helped as far as reminding me that I need to take better care of myself. I popped a pill just a minute ago since the pain is what prompted these thoughts in the first place. Hope this passes before BlizzCon and not during! XD The pain is unbearable when it happens, but that's the problem: it's really random and sporadic. Wish me luck with this. Thanks.