Monday, July 18, 2016

Trip to the Hospital -Part 1

Wednesday 7/06: I wake up peeing with great frequency. By mid-day I know I've got some kind of UTI going. I had a UTI earlier this year back in January/February. I had peed so much I actually started bleeding. I pretty much thought I was dying since that had never happened before and my dad just shrugged it off and said it was probably kidney stones. So I rested for about 5 days and drank excessive amounts of water and ate oranges because that's what WebMD told me to do. And sure enough I got better. 

So when stuff started happening this time I figured, Rest -Drink Water -Eat Oranges -Don't be afraid if there's blood. Well blood never came, but PAIN did. I was supposed to have my weekly talk with my friend Jos and I ended up cutting it short because I couldn't sit down and standing was hard too. The only relief I got was walking/pacing back and forth while trying to "ground myself". 

Come night time laying in bed was a joke. I tried laying down outside the bathroom floor and on the bathroom floor because I had to pee so frequently anyway. But laying down made things worse so I spent the bulk of the night not sleeping (in spite of taking 5 sleeping pills) and just pacing back and forth in my room. 

I tried spiritual healing at that point by calling on God, angels, Jesus, Holy Spirit... everything that moved in Heaven. There were moments when I definitely felt the pain dissipate and I felt stronger and in control. But ultimately the main issue was not resolved.  

Thursday 7/07: I noticed in the morning that my stomach was "bloated". I thought it looked like I was about 3 months pregnant. I figured this was a combo of whatever UTI issues I was having and not sleeping at all throughout the night. 



The pain continued through most of the day. I went to Dr. Dad who once again told me he thought it was just kidney stones and the doctors wouldn't be able to do anything even if we did go. Dr. Step-mom actually thought it was "woman/reproduction" related. Either way hospital seemed like it wasn't an option. 

Here's a pic of me I tried to take to capture the "not-so-happy" state I was in. Why do I always take selfies when I'm depressed? I need to stop doing that. I'll take selfies next to never and then when I'm bummed out it's like, "Hey guess what I'm going to do..."



On the plus side it was a good hair day for me...

Friday 7/08: At this point I'm taking Ibuprofen every 3 hours AND Bayer pain reliever. I mostly lie on the couch downstairs because for whatever reason it's the only place to alleviate the pain. 

My stomach has grown MORE. It now looks like I'm 5 months pregnant. I feel sharp pains in my abdomen and my back. It feels like there's a lot of liquid in my stomach. I'm also having trouble peeing even though I go about every 15 minutes. Walking around isn't an option anymore. 



Saturday 7/09: I wake up at 2am and it feels like I'm ready to burst. I seriously think that my blood circulation is being cut off around my waist and my internal organs are being slowly crushed. I need to pee, but I can't pee. My bladder is full but nothing is coming out. At this point I KNOW that if I don't go to the hospital, I'm going to die. Or explode. Or both. 

My dad takes me to the ER. I have $50 in my bank account and have no idea how I'm going to pay for anything. We go in and they ask me what the problem is, so I fill them in. They take a medical instrument I've never seen before and brush it over my lower abdomen. They then say in a surprised voice, "You have over 1 liter in your bladder!" That's not good apparently. 



They then asked me to pee in a cup in spite of me telling them nothing would come out when I tried to pee. So I then attempted to pee. And nothing happened. So then they put me on IV fluids while checking my vitals and I'm thinking, "I'm about to explode via liquid and you're giving me IV fluids???" Then the pain kicks in pretty bad and 10 minutes later pee comes out on its own. I go back to the bathroom and give them an nice milky, foggy sample of what's supposed to be urine. 

They then decide I need a catheter in. It was not fun. I then proceeded to tube out 2 liters of urine. For those who don't know measurements, THIS is the difference between a 1 and 2 liter bottle:

Here I would like to commend the ER people that helped me:
-David who was mostly responsible for overseeing me
-Lia the nurse who was very nice and put the catheter in 
-Dr. Something who was trying to figure out what was going on. Do not remember his name, it was 3am at the time... 

Then they decided I needed to get taken to the hospital for further tests. I was pretty tired at that point. It was around 6am and thanks to the relief via the catheter I was on my way back to dream land. 

Ambulance Ride: 2 guys in their mid 20s transferred me from my stable hospital bed to their mobile gurney. The trip in the ambulance wasn't as "exciting" as I thought it would be. It was mostly uncomfortable followed by a side of beautiful sunrise added with a dab of awkward conversation with the ambulance guy. 

The ride lasted about 15 minutes. Bumps were not my friend. 

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