Kidney Pains

Last Saturday night, I woke up just after midnight in the most excruciating agony. I was lucid enough to realize that if I walked into the emergency room on my own power, I would have to wait hours and hours for anyone to see me (after all, it was a holiday weekend in the middle of the night). So I made Eryka call the ambulance.

And you know how many times I had to answer those annoying questions about date of birth, when was the last time I ate, was I allergic to any medicine? I swear, at least five. I recall being more than just mildly annoyed at this as I was curled up in agony on the stretcher being bounced on poor roads to the hospital.

So yes, having a kidney stone was THE WORST PAIN I have ever felt (not that I get to experience pain that often, but it was bad). And guess what? Most of the time it's genetic. And guess what other question I was asked probably five times or more? Yep - "Has anyone in your family had kidney stones?" To which I replied "Nope", "No", "Nuh-uh", "No sir" and "No".

When I called Dad later, I found out I lied five times that night (or did I lie once, in five separate instances?) Not that I really had any reason to know that Dad had ever had kidney stones. But I'm thinking to myself, something that agonizing can't be bottled up!!! How did I not know. I guess people prefer repressing that kind of pain. I certainly discovered after my episode that there are a lot more people who have had a kidney stone than I ever would have thought. It's just not really one of those things you bring up in conversation, like, "Oh, and by the way, I once had a kidney stone," or "...like that time I was in the most excruciating pain of my life because of a kidney stone."

There's at least one benefit of having a kidney stone (which doesn't really make up for a ruined Memorial Day weekend) - super-duper painkiller drugs. Which put me totally out of commission until my kidney stone passed Tuesday morning. (And by the way, that's not the painful part guys, despite what you're thinking -- the real pain comes while the thing is bouncing around in the Kidney and making its way from the kidney to the bladder.)

So being out of commission also meant I was dropped from my super-busy nightmare deal. Unfortunately, my recovery following the whole ordeal has been rather splendid. Unfortunate because now I'm staffed up on two extra deals. Lucky me.