This too shall pass?

I stopped eating nails for breakfast and decided to review my kidney stone diagnosis with my doctor. My thinking was that I could put on my big girl panties and deal with the pain without professional medical involvement. After 4 days I grew skeptical of my grin and bear it policy and opted for intervention. My clinician and I reviewed my self diagnosis. I had the pleasure of peeing in a cup in order to provide the urine sample she requested. Is it TMI to share that this was my best clean catch EVER on a urine sample? Somehow all went well -- I think guys have it way too easy on level of difficulty in providing urine samples. That whole, start, stop, catch, catch mid stream.... goodness. It makes me nervous!

Anyway, it was not a shock to me that they tested and found no infection present (I knew this was not a bladder or urinary tract infection). There was blood which basically confirmed my diagnosis of a kidney stone, especially coupled with my back pain and occasional nausea this week. Indeed, my self prescribed course of treatment was confirmed as appropriate. I am to continue to increase fluids and pee often. The doctor ordered blood work to confirm that I'm not losing kidney function (I don't think so, but then again I am not officially a doctor).

All in all, my diagnosis and course of treatment were confirmed. I was told this passing of the stone could take a week or so. Yay. My doctor wanted to know if I wanted something stronger for the pain. I told her I eat nails for breakfast and does she really think this is necessary? I've given birth without an epidural -- could this possibly be any worse? I mean, hello -- a baby came out of me, we are only talking a kidney stone here right? It isn't 5-8 pounds is it? No? Then why bother with pain meds? She looked at me like I was nuts. Then she wrote the prescription and told me to fill it -- just in case. I wondered if she would offer to waive my medical deductible payment since I'd done all of the hard work diagnosing and planning the course of treatment. She didn't offer.

As the afternoon wore on yesterday I became glad that she had written me the prescription. I had Hubby fill it and I took that bright pink pill. WOW. My back didn't hurt anymore. Heck, I felt pretty darn good. Yep, I forgot what it is like to be without pain. Not only did this take away the kidney stone pain, it masked my chronic pain that I've lived with since 2001. I'm telling you! If I wasn't so tired I'd be in a pretty darn good mood!

So now I wait for it to pass. May it be soon, I need to get back to the pain of daily living :-) This pain free stuff makes me uneasy ;-) It just figures that I'm in the midst of filling out online teaching applications right now. I mean, doesn't everyone try to pass a kidney stone while searching for a job? I just wouldn't be me if I didn't add unnecessary stress to a critical time in the job hunt. "Oh, I'm sorry.... did I attach that same file 8 times?"

Who wouldn't be impressed by my skills????

Back to the heating pad.