Stones

So, as mush as I love The Far Side, this cartoon and the other image I have included today are not enjoyable. at 7:30 on Saturday morning I was introduced to the wonderful world of Kidney stones, and the dysfunctional world of Kaiser Pemanente.

Following a Friday where I just felt "off" all day and really didn't have any energy, I woke up Saturday morning to my alarm clock at 7 AM. I figured "hey it's Saturday" so I turned off my alarm clock and went back to sleep. At 7:30AM I woke up again... in excruciating pain. I felt like I was being stabbed simultaneously in the back, just below my ribs, the side, by stomach, and being kicked in the groin. As I laid there in pain, it continued to grow worse, I tried curling up, rolling onto either side, stretching out, standing up, hunching over, crawling, curling up in the fetal position on the floor, etc... but nothing eased the pain. Around 8:00 I decided I needed to go to the ER, so I called my neighbor Charles, no answer, then I called another of my classmates in my building Ian, no answer, then I remembered Another classmate Tom who lives in Oxtoby has my friend Gavin's car for the weekend while he is at a bachelor party in Vegas... Tom answers the phone and immediately looks up directions to the Kaiser ER (because that is ho our GTU insurance is through). I throw on my jacket and meet him at the stairs, we drive to the ER, I check in, explain that I am in sever abdominal pain, and I take a seat.

After sitting in the waiting room of the ER for about a half hour a nurse finally calls me back, but not into the ER, just into a side room to take my blood pressure, and vitals, then I am sent back into the waiting room where I sat for another half hour... still in pain. Finally at 9:30 a nurse calls my name, and I am brought back to a room. Once in the room, a nurse has me put on a gown then comes back in and put a nice warm blanket over me on the bed. One hour later the doctor finally comes in (no nurses checked on me this entire time, everyone just kept walking by the room, no one taking any time to check on me) and asks a few questions, puts pressure on a few areas of my abdomen and back, mostly rules out an appendicitis, or testicular torsion, and tells me he will need to take a urine sample to look for blood because he was pretty sure it was a kidney stone, and blood samples to rule out everything else.

A little later a nurse comes in and takes several vile of blood. Shortly after this another nurse came in and said they were short rooms, and needed to move me out to fit other people in, so I take the initiative and tell her that the doctor requested a urine sample but no one came to get this from me, so she said there are cups in the bathroom and to just grab one and fill it up. She grabbed my clothes, through them in a clear bag, and walked down the hall leaving me by the bathroom. I grabbed one of the many sterile cups in the bathroom, filled it up, and walked out side to no nurse anywhere in site. I walked around for a while and finally found my clothes on a bed in the hallway, sat down, and waited... again. after about twenty minutes I finally grabbed another nurse and told her about the sample, and she took it and rushed off, I thought this was interesting because with my blood tests they had a bunch of sticker with my info they attached to the vile, and the nurse checked with me about three times what my name was to ensure that he was putting the right stickers on the right vile; but this nurse just took my sample and ran off. By this time I might add the pain had for the most part gone away on it's own (after nearly three hours of horrible pain).

Now the waiting game... again. I am in the hallway for about 2.5 hours sitting there in my sweet open-back gown (did I mention I was in the hallway?) with everyone just walking by, all the doctors and nurses avoid making contact, and you can tell they are doing it just because they don't want to be bothered by us pesky ER patients. Finally a nurse checks up on me and is very kind (she stops and talks to me every once in a while for the remainder of the time I am there as well, way to go nurse lady, you were the most helpful person I met that day), and eventually the doctor comes back and says the blood tests were negative, and he was even more sure it was kidney stones, but wont know until we get results from the urine sample. Then he asks what I dreaded "Have you given us one yet?" Perfect! I explain yes, I gave one, and told him how no one came to get one from me, and I had to take the initiative to get that done. I ask if I can get dressed, and he told me that was fine so I went into the bathroom, and changed. This time when I came out of the bathroom, rather than there being no nurse anywhere in site, there was the friendly nurse right outside the door saying "We need a sample." I told her I already gave one, and couldn't give one at that moment, then we spent about ten minutes trying to figure out where mine ended up. I described the nurse as best I could, and eventually they did find it, unlabeled just as I thought.

One more hour later the results from the urine sample came back and there was a bunch of blood in it suggesting kidney stones, so the doctor got me a bunch of paperwork showing what food to stay away from (Peanut butter, wheat germ, oranges, cranberry juice, etc...) and explaining what to do in the future if I have them again. He told me to take a bunch of Advil, and come in for a pain killer IV which in my opinion would have been really nice about 5 and a half hours before this moment when I arrived at the ER in excruciating pain. I was given a strainer and asked to strain for the next few days until something that looks like a grain of sand comes out then bring it in for them to analyze. the time was now 2:30 PM, I had been at the ER for nearly 6 hours to have about ten minutes of conversation with the doctor and nurse, and to have one hours worth of lab tests done. Nothing was done for my pain, and I just had to bare it. I really do feel like my insurance provider failed me on this, my first occasion with them (not a good start especially after everything I heard about them when I moved down here).

You may also notice the time of this post, I started it about a half hour ago at a quarter to 7 AM... I woke up this morning to the beginnings of another stupid kidney stone, I immediately popped 1000MG of ibuprofen, and believe this one is much smaller because it is nowhere near the pain of the first one. due to it not being as painful, and the lack of help I received on Saturday, I have chosen to save my money ($150 just to check in) and tough it out again as opposed to going back to the ER.

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