First off, I'd like to announce that I'm now on BuyMeACoffee. If you want to support my art and writing without buying something, you can do so here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/korokstudios
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So, the end of last week was "eventful". I went to the emergency room on Thursday (02/11) with pain in my back - left side. Turned out it was kidney stones. I've had them before, but it's still not fun. The pain was bad enough to create fever and sweats. Ugh! I had two bad waves of pain before I got pain medicine. The first wave sent me to the hospital, and I was coming off the second one when I saw the doctor. I got pain and nausea medicine at that point. The meds worked quickly, and I liked that I neither felt like I was floating on the ceiling or needed to sleep it off. Or sick to my stomach.
They did a CT scan. I swear, that CT machine looks like it should give you super-powers, so I was disappointed that I don't have super-powers... yet. Anyway, it turns out between that and the blood work, I have more issues. I am diabetic. Not a big surprise as I'm overweight, love sweets, and both my parents have diabetes. I have diverticulosis. Again, not a surprise as Mom has diverticulitis, so I know what to look for with it. I have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. I also have a hernia.
The doctor's main focus was the kidney stones and diabetes. She called to consult with an endocrinologist. My blood sugar was high, but I had also had food before going in. I currently have no idea of my fasting numbers. The doctor also called the hospital case worker as I have no insurance. (So, donating via BuyMeACoffee would be a big help!) Dad had driven me to the hospital, around 7:30-8am. We had the results before 11am. We didn't leave until after 3pm. The doctor got hung up on hearing back from that case worker, who was not on-site. I missed a call from the case worker, and only got a voicemail when I called back. I left a message and still have not heard from her. Dad and I had to raise a major fuss to get me discharged, and I think the doctor got chewed out by the ER manager for keeping us there for so long. We were there long enough that we should have been offered food - especially since I have a diagnosis of diabetes and my elderly father is with me. Other than that, I did get excellent care.
I've had pain since returning from the hospital. I refer to it as "discomfort", but it's been low level pain. I take one of the prescribed pain pills, and it goes away. Saturday night, it got worse. If what sent me to the hospital was a 7 or 8 on their pain scale, this was a 4 to 5. I took a pill, but it only took the edge off the pain. Not fun at all. It was bad enough that I couldn't concentrate on watching tv. Sunday was better, but still in pain. I just rode that out to conserve pills. Today (Monday) has had some pain, but I'm handling it so far. I also get to strain my urine. Yep, it's gross, but they want me to catch the stone for analysis. I have a follow up with the urologist this week.
I also got a prescription for a medicine to control diabetes. So far, I seem to be tolerating it okay. I've put in a form to get a Primary Care doctor to help handle this. I have thrown out all my candy and sugary snacks. I know that, even with diabetes, I can still eat some sweets. BUT, I know I need to go "cold turkey" on that right now, and then reintroduce them a little here and there. It should be a treat and not an everyday thing.
I also took this opportunity to get myself off IcyHot and related products. I have some back pain that comes mainly from being overweight and sitting at a computer all day. I would use IcyHot spray to get through the day, but it's gotten where I needed more and more. Well, I went through Thursday with only some spray in the morning, so I decided that this was a good time to work my way off. I've used a little of the roll-on version, which is not as strong (for me at least), and only once in the day. It seems like a small, silly thing, but any "addiction" should be overcome.
So, I've had kidney stones in the past. When I was 24, I went to the ER with stones. That was painful, like this recent bout with them. I got through it. Off and on over the years after that, I had some kidney stone issues. In most cases, the stones got pushed out by the contrast dye used for scans. I think the last time I had any issue was in my early 30's.
So, that's all there is to report at the moment. I'm just trying to manage the discomfort (pain), drink extra water, and get back to some kind of work schedule as I've been good for very little over the past few days.
Take Care!
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