I Can Only Imagine...: ER

Happy, happy Friday my lovelies!

Hope y'all are already having a fantastic start to the weekend!!

This post was supposed to the start of a fun weekly Friday post that I plan on doing from here on out, but something much more...interesting?...came up and I just had to share.

But, make sure you come back next Friday to see what this post was really supposed to be about! ;)

I'll give you details in a minute, but just because I dislike when people make me wait for something..I'll go ahead and tell you the gist of what happened.

I was in the ER last night for 5 1/2 hours with kidney stones.

Translation: I wanted to die for about 3 hours last night. Worst pain I have ever and I hope will ever feel in my life. (They say childbirth can be equivalent on the pain scale, so I guess I'm all prepared now for the future)

So let me give you the lowdown on how it all played out.

Warning: This may be quite the wordy post. But I promise to throw in some random pictures at the bottom for entertainment ;)

So, I'm currently taking 'drama' as a class here at school and we have to go see 3 plays throughout the semester, one of which was last night. Everything was fine and dandy until I got up at intermission to use the bathroom. After I got back to my seat, the pain hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn't still still for squirming and trying to find a comfortable position. I ended up having to leave early because I felt like a distraction to those sitting around me. (Sorry, you guys!)

I miraculously made it back to my car and drove home. On the way, I called my sweet nursing student roommate, Steph, and told her that I thought something was seriously wrong because I'm generally a very pain tolerant person and I'm hardly ever sick. She was at dinner with friends but went ahead and left to come to my rescue.

**she will be receiving a complimentary roommate of the century award, no worries friends!

When Steph got to the apartment, I was lying on my bed writhing in pain and she told me that it sounded like my kidneys and gave me one option: go to the ER. I normally would have put up a bigger fight about not going and wasting my time..but I was in so much pain (about a 7/8 on a 1-10 scale) I couldn't even think straight. So off to the ER we went at about 10:30pm!

We got there and naturally, had to wait forever. At about 12:30am, I was sitting in the waiting room, pain had escalated to about a 9/10, and I closed my eyes to try not to think about the pain, and it just stopped. Instantly. And no sooner did it stop than I was out like a light. I dozed off for about 30 minutes and woke back up to the triage nurse telling me there was blood in my urine sample and that it was most likely a kidney stone. I had mixed feelings about her saying that, though. On the one hand I was glad that it was actually something and I wasn't just overreacting, but I was also super scared because I was afraid of when it might start up again.

I ended up having a CT scan of my renal area and an ultrasound of my kidneys. The ultrasound didn't show anything, but the CT scan did. I had one larger kidney stone in my bladder (the one that was causing all of the pain) and a bunch of little ones in both of my kidneys (not what I wanted to hear, obviously). So, they gave me a strainer to catch the little boogers when they pass and sent me on my way! I got to sleep around 4:30 this morning, and missed both of my classes today. I'd already been up to 5:00am once this week and still went to class but it wasn't happening again.

I'm not kidding when I say this y'all.....but PRAY that this never happens to you or anyone else you know, for that matter. And if it already has, I am so, so sorry. I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on my worst enemy. It was unbearable, and nothing eased it. I mean, nothing.

I've never had kidney stones before, and neither has anyone in my family. So needless to say I was little shocked and unpleasantly surprised to know that I had more than one. But hopefully the little ones won't be quite as painful as the one trying to pass last night, and please, please pray for me that after these are all gone...I never have another one, because I know that tends to be the case when you have a kidney stone. :(

Now, I just want to give the best roommate AND her boyfriend the biggest thank-you I will probably ever give to anyone. They stuck by me for the entire 5 1/2 hours and I am so, so grateful. I don't know many people other than my family that would do that for me and I will forever indebted to them because if it weren't for Steph and Coleman making me go to the ER, I would have lied in bed all night just hoping and praying it would go away. (yes, I'm that stubborn)

Here's a picture of them: