Agony!

Yesterday morning, I woke up with severe discomfort in my left side. I recognized the discomfort and knew the pain that it was going to turn into. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 4:44 am. How fitting. This would be my fourth kidney stone.

I knew exactly what to do. I needed to get myself to the Emergency Room as soon as possible. Fortunately, I live only a couple of minutes away from a hospital, so I was able to drive myself there. The pain was getting worse.

I'm pretty sure that Emergency Room workers like it when people like me come in. It's nice for them to have someone come in already self-diagnosed and 100% sure of what is wrong with them. I told them that I was having my fourth kidney stone. They immediately took me back into a treatment room and started an IV. They, like me, knew the agony that would soon follow and were ready to give me the medication I would need.

I gave them the sample they needed to test for the presence of blood and confirm my self-diagnosis and then they gave me an intravenous drug coctail that would make my life easier for the next while as well as a prescription for something that would make my life bearable until the kidney stone passed.

My other three stones passed within a few hours of the first pain. This one is taking longer than the others. No, I'm not happy about that. I'm especially not happy because I'm singing at a funeral today. If I'm in enough pain that it's hard to breathe normally, it's going to be EXTREMELY hard to sing. I'll just have to make sure and time my next dose of those wonderful painkillers so that the hour of the funeral will be as comfortable as possible.

I guess there IS a silver lining to this dark cloud: It could have happened last week when I was at scout camp or the week before when I was in Phoenix. In either case, it would have taken me a LOT longer to get to a hospital and get some help.

But, to use a bad pun, this too shall pass.

***UPDATE***
It passed around 4:30 this afternoon, making 36 hours of somewhat excruciating pain. But everything feels better now. *WHEW!*