casper <[email hidden]> wrote in message
Quoted message said:I had very severe pain in my right back about a month ago
followed by fever and chills. The rest of the day and
night was spent with pain and vomiting. I thought it was
food poisoning. The pain and nausea ended the next day.
A week later the same thing happened but the pain was on
the left side of my back and lasted three days before I
was so weak from vomiting that I went to the emergency
room thinking I had cancer or something.
They gave me 3 liters of saline IV, a CAT scan, and some
pain killer and sent me home with a prescription for the
same pain killer, some simple information about kidney
stones, and a strainer to try to catch the stone in my
urine if it came out. They said the CAT scan showed a very
small kidney stone only a couple millimeters large.
All the drug stores were closed when I left (on a sunday
night) so I went home thinking I could hold out the night
but it all started up again, the pain and vomiting. I was
so weak by morning that I felt I was going to pass out so
someone drove me back to the ER.
This time they gave me an antibiotic, one 500 mg injection
costing almost $400 (total cost for both ER visits is now
over $5000 and I'm waiting to see if there are more bills
coming, they all charge separately, the hospital, the
doctors, the imagers, ... the bills just keep coming in).
My throat and tongue were all burnt from all the vomiting,
from the stomach acids I guess, and the membrane was
flaking off. I was spitting out pink peices of flesh.
This time they also prescribed some anti-nausea rectal
suppositories. I went home and spent the next couple days
drinking lots of different juices until finally I had an
appetite to actually eat solid food after going about 5
days without eating anything solid. Fluids and solids
started moving through me again. I'm still having chills
at night but they are slowly receding.
Unlike you I wasn't careful to strain all my urine and may
have missed the stone if it came out. I was just too weak
and in too much pain to remember to use the strainer every
time. Small amounts of urine would come out when any did.
The rest of the time I would sweat in bed and have chills
waking up every 1 to 2 hours to dry off with bath towels.
An intense hot "fever" always came over me right before
an episode of vomiting. All the vomiting prevented the
painkillers from staying down so it was a nasty cycle. I
was taking pain killers without caring much about how
many pills I took because the pain was so bad and they
were all getting vomited back up anyway. But enough of
them got absorbed to offer me a few hours of sleep during
the night.
The ER doctors advised me to follow up with a urologist
but I can't afford to do that at the moment. The web
offers some advice on kidney stones but it's all confusing
to me. Some say calcium is good, some say it's bad. Some
talk about stones caused by stress and acid, others talk
about stones caused by "oxalates", whatever those are.
I'm so sorry to hear about that.
If you need pain killers from the hospital again, you should
try toradol. It's not a narcotic and it works wonderfully
specifically for kidney pain. I was throughing up
uncontrolably too and felt like I was about to pass out, but
the toradol helped completely in only 10 minutes.
I'm a little dissatisfied with your ER. I don't think they
took very good care of you... because you had a fever. I've
read that that is very serious, and I'm amazed they sent you
home that day.
The pain killer I was prescribed was plain old ibuprofen. I
didn't fill the perscription to save money and just used the
stuff I had at home. The dosage was 800 mg every 4-6 hours.
The important thing is too keep up the pain killer doseage
to prevent future pain... because once sever pain happens,
you can't keep the drugs down... which leads to a downward
spiral... and back to the ER as you know.
I also recieved some drugs for the nausea at the hospital.
I'm really sorry they didn't give you any of these.
I never had a fever... just a lot of sweating during
vomiting.
Did they tell you to drink a lot of water?
Really the best way to prevent more kidney stones is by
drinking more water, regardless of the type you form....
unless you have a genetic predisposition. They can only fine
tune it with diet based on your type of stone.... but the
corner stone is to plain drink more water.
I read that people with a history of kidney stones need to
drink twice as much water as they normally do to prevent
future ones. I've also read that this is about like drinking
10-12 8oz. glasses of water a day (instead of the regular 8
8oz. glasses a day)
It's important to drink more than just juice or soda when
trying to flush a kidney stone... the best thing to drink is
water. Juice and soda are so sweet and full of sugar... they
don't work to dilute your body fluids as well. I think the
trick is drinking just straight water when you are trying to
pass the stone.
I guess stones are only extremely painful when they are high
up in the ureter. Once they get closer to the bladder, it
feels like a bladder infection. That's what I have now..
It's irritating, but I can handle
it. Yep, mine still has not passed. And tomorrow I'm at
school for 10 hours.
I'm so sorry you had to go through it twice is such a
short amount of time. Even though it is really expensive,
you may want to have your urine tested to see if your
kidneys are still functioning well. I'm not a doctor...
but it sounds like you kidneys went through a lot... with
an infection, a stone, and it happening on both sides. I
think it would be wise... in the long run, to get a urine
test. Any family practic should be able to do this. I also
say this because it sounds like your symptoms have not yet
resolved fully. If you are still have a fever at night,
then you must still be sick.
One thing that really makes me mad at your ER, is that they
gave you antibiotics, but did not give you a prescription to
continue them. Doing this will lead to bacterial resistance.
If you ever take antibiotics, you should take them for the
full course. If they gave you antibiotics at home, then you
might have been well by now.... and a prolonged infection
will only build up scar tissue (in you kidneys, which is not
good) and tax your system, making you weak.
Do you have health insurace? If you don't you may qualify
for state or private funded medical clinics. There you could
get free, or discounted medical care.
I'm just saying this, because I think you really needed more
medical attention than you got.
You might also want to look up the signs and symptoms of
kidney failure. It's cheaper to prevent it than go through
it.... so a urine test might be important in early
detection.
Maybe I'm over reacting.... but I'm in school to become a
doctor right now (1st year) and it just doesn't sound like
you got the best of care.
Best of luck Casper, Lisa
