I woke up on December 26th last week (Monday) ready to enjoy my husband's day off and our new Christmas goodies. I was feeling very tired from the weekend's festivities but I chalked it up to over exerting myself.
Boy, was I wrong.
By the evening of the 26th I was feeling worse and eventually things progressed to what I thought was 24 hour a stomach bug. My family had been struck by the bug just a few days before Christmas so I wasn't very surprised that I had caught it too. Just give it some time and by Wednesday I should be feeling right as rain!
Wishful thinking...
By Wednesday I was getting worse and started to be unable to keep even water down. Around 6pm a very sharp pain began in my lower left side of my back. "A Kidney stone? Now? During a stomach bug??"
Fast forward to 2am On Thursday and I was laying in a stretcher in the Emergency Room with an IV and anti-nausea medication. I had been continually throwing up water for hours. I was released at 5am with pain and anti-nausea meds and promptly went home and slept.
I greeted Thursday evening with a little more hope when I finally woke. I took my anti-nausea meds and tried to drink some water. It didn't go so well. The anti-nausea medicine was increasing my nausea.
Friday morning rolls around and by 8am we are back at the Emergency room by my doctor's request. I was given a CAT-scan and a different anti-nausea prescription. The CAT-scan confirmed that I did indeed have a kidney stone on the move. It should only take a couple days to pass. By noon time I was back home, exhausted and tearful. This week just would not end!
I should also stress how insanely hungry I was by this point. The last time I had eaten and kept down a meal was Christmas. It had been five days since a meal and I was MISERABLE. It didn't help matters that my new anti-nausea medication was making me unbearable paranoid and panicky. By Friday evening I was a big blubbering mess of anxiety, exhaustion and just plain wanting to enjoy a single cracker! I nibbled a corner of a cracker and went to bed.
Saturday morning we attempted a cracker. It was TERRIFYING waiting to see if it would stay down. But regardless of the anxiety I was successful at keeping down 4 crackers. Four wonderful crackers.
By this point my life was mostly sleeping, puking, crying and taking hot baths. Now I could add nibbling on a cracker to my routine.
Yesterday I was finally able to have a proper meal of plain buttered pasta. It's amazing how delicious the blandest of food are when you haven't eaten in almost a week. I had a small buttered pancake, a handful of nuts and raisins and a glass of milk!!
I think I'm officially in recovery mode now. I'm pretty sure the kidney stone passed and the stomach bug is over. Now to gradually recuperate and increase food intake till we can have the steak dinner my husband promised me in the darkest moments of this past week.
Speaking of my husband, he is a saint. He has been my rock during all the crying, puking, nausea, panic attacks and emotional distress. I don't know how he managed to put on a smile when I know how badly it was tearing him up inside seeing me in such awful pain.
Also, a great big thank you goes to my family, my husband's family and our friends for all their prayers, encouragements and kind messages checking up on me.
My Christmas posts will be coming eventually, in the meantime, Happy New Year!
Love, Rebecca
Oh, goodness! That sounds like a horrible week. I haven't had any kidney stones but watching John go through them is more than enough. That alone is usually enough to make him have stomach troubles. I'm so sorry you had to go through that this last week.
ReplyDeleteI hope the rocky part of this new year is over for you. Prayers and long-distance hugs.
Looking forward to seeing your Christmas pics!
Lea