Familiar Place

Well.  One could say that the past 3 weeks have been absolute hell. Passing that stone was … painful. The amount of relief that came after was immense. However, the nausea never went away. 

The week following the stone, my face just started to hurt. Pus started to come out of my ear lobes and cheek again. I met with my dermo, but we were unable to culture anything this time. I guess with me going on linezolid it obliterated whatever was there. But something still wasn’t right. My face was swelling. Especially in my cheeks. Talking hurt. Swallowing hurt. Just eating. Hurt. The pressure, the overall pain of just. Everything. 

As I woke up this week, I was just exhausted. Every day. The pain was unreal. My face burned, pulsed, ached. I tried everything. Nothing worked.  The morphine barely touched the pain anymore.  

I struggled until Wednesday afternoon.  I started to text the wife that something was wrong.  I felt sick.  Something didn’t feel right.  When she got home, I tried to just lay down.  But my face was just getting more and more red.  The red spots all over my back and chest were getting more prominent.  Earlier in the day I finally was contacted by infectious disease.  I had been waiting about a week to get called, but they finally wanted to get an appointment setup. After explaining the situation to the person on the phone, I got an appointment, but in 2 weeks.  Thats when I asked the “hypothetical” question of if things get “bad” where do I go?

Presbyterian.  The place I had my sinus surgery.  I thought to myself, well if all else fails, I’ll just go there.

Didn’t last long.  After I got out of the shower, my body just ached.  My face was on fire.  I walked out to the kitchen and asked the wife if she could come with.  We got in the car, and took off.  Only took about 20 minutes, and we were at PSL.  Due to COVID, the lot was basically empty.  I was met by an extremely nice nurse, I explained briefly what was going on, and she walked me back.

Holy fuck I was wrong.  When we got in, I got my IV in, and got put on pain meds, but I got dilaudid.  Good stuff.  Works so much better.  However, I started to just feel like garbage.  My face is basically crawling.  The swelling is just…. bad.  Typical tests, CBC/CNP.  Sent off to CT.  Nothing was found on CT, which didn’t surprise me, however, CNP.  

Creatinine. Was super elevated.  As I sat in the room I started researching the causes.  Kidney problems.  Well, that answers that.  Since the kidney stone started, I wasn’t doing so good.  From the beginning to birth, and then some.  As the ER doc explained it, their plan was to push fluids through me thinking I was just dehydrated.  After 2 liters, the levels didn’t go down by much.  She then began talking about admission.  I’m just exhausted at this point.  It was 3am, and I said goodbye to the wife for now.  She looked so tired.  We both were.  This has just been an ordeal.

Soon after, the nurse walked in with antibiotics, and more fluids.  As time went on, the more and more I felt like shit.  My body just ached.  The Dr then ordered a ultrasound of my kidneys.  Checking blood flow, and the kidneys.  As I sat there, when the tech pushed the wand into my sides, holy shit it hurt.  Thats when I began to realize that this is probably more serious than I was taking it.  After the ultrasound I was wheeled back, and I just passed out.  Between the pain, drugs, and just sheer exhaustion I blacked out.  

I needed it.  It was a super long day already.  7am I was woke up to be told I was moving to my room.  As I woke though, the pain just hit me in waves.  I felt so sick to my stomach.  I haven’t felt like this before, so this is somewhat of a new experience.  As the day went on, I opted for the full dose of dilaudid.  I’m glad I did.  My body just started to hurt non stop.  My face was just on fire.  I started to reach out to the ID Dr’s office, and my immunologist to let them know I was here at PSL.  

As the time went by, the pain just increased exponentially.  At this point im realizing this is pretty serious, and it’s my fault I didn’t go see a Dr at first sign of the kidney stone.  I’m an idiot.

Hopefully as time goes this will get better, only time will tell.