So I woke up Friday morning early to the beau writhing in a ton of pain next to me. The poor guy has been having a heck of a time with his health lately -- food poisoning two weekends ago, a major UTI that flared up last weekend and now this. I've been warning him all week about staying hydrated since he was having the major UTI and he works outside in the heat. I was afraid that he was going to get dehydrated and possible have renal failure. I rushed him over to the Concerta Clinic on the other side of town and they suggested that it might be kidney stones based on his symptoms. Kidney stones! Why hadn't I thought of that? Because he was in so much pain, they decided to just send us over to the ER to prevent wracking up a bill at both places since we're self pay. (thought that was nice of them!) Unfortunately though, by the time we'd signed into the ER and he'd gone to the bathroom in the waiting room, the pain had stopped and they were getting ready to take him back. After about an hour or so of getting the run around and waiting on the doctor, (they made me leave because I had the kiddo with us) the beau called to have me pick him up. Apparently the nurse said that since he hadn't actually passed it yet and the pain was gone for the moment, that it had probably dropped into his bladder and to do an ultrasound (the cheapest apparently) was going to cost us $1k and then they'd do some blood work, etc. He decided to skip all that and just wait it out until the pain struck again. Get this though, he went to the counter to pay and they wanted to charge us $1400 dollars just for walking in the front door. The lady that checked us in said we'd also be getting bills (yes, plural) in the mail for stopping at the nurses station, having the doctor come look at him, and getting prescriptions written (which he'd refused btw). I knew there was a reason that I didn't like hospitals and the whole health care system. But that's a rant for a different day!
So now that we're home and everyone is napping for the afternoon, I've decided to do some research on kidney stones and see what causes them and how to 'prevent' them in the future. Here's some of the stuff I've found:
Medicinenet.com
- People that are bound to have multiple attacks usually form them in the second and third decade of their life and men are more likely to get them then women.
- KS can be formed for numerous reasons -- I think this is where the beau went wrong: lack of hydration which lead to the UTI/dehydration symptoms on top of a heavy animal protein diet, high salt and sugar intake.
After reading everything that I have today, I'm wondering if the 'food poisoning' that happened a couple weekends ago (he was the only one to have it) coupled with the UTI, was the body trying to tell him that he really just had kidney stone(s) in the works? I spoke with my mom through out the day and she informed me that when she was younger, she had several bouts with kidney stones in a short amount of time. The doctor that she went to, kept telling her that she was just experiencing menstrual symptoms and couldn't possibly have kidney stones at her age. Eventually one night, the pain was so severe that they had to take her to the ER in an ambulance and after doing a CAT scan on her, discovered that she had a golf ball sized kidney stone that just kept breaking off little pieces and sending them thru her system. Luckily they were able to go in and surgically remove it and she hasn't had any since. I hope we didn't make a mistake by not getting an Xray done at the very least. Guess time will tell.
Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers today, hope it passes soon!
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