Monday, July 07, 2008
Much Ado About Something Very Small
It was far from nothing. For those of you that have never given birth - that being the vast majority of our readers, let me tell you - take the drugs.
It was a warm, summer day. Perfect for a picnic - or a going away party for your Aunt and Uncle - as the case may be.
I was manning the grill, serving up burgers, dogs and chicken in the heat. Should I have been drinking more, yes. Did I think it was a problem, no...
So after everyone was fed, I grabbed a plate of food and merged myself into the "kids" table. We're all married and in at least our upper 30's, but that's what it was...
I needed to go to the little boy's room, so I excused myself and went inside and upstairs. Without getting into graphic details, and there are many! I felt as if I still needed to pee, even after I was done. This is new for me - it was like something was stuck.
Rut roh Raggy.
I went back outside and ate, but nothing tasted all that great. I soon was back inside, still feeling like I had to go. Do you have a going problem?
After several more unsuccessful attempts to go, I realized I was starting to sweat. A lot. Then I got a stitch in my right front side. Great - I thought - my appendix. I went into my parent's bedroom and collapsed on the bed. By this time I was pretty sure I was in trouble, so I headed downstairs to get some help. They took one look at me and started dialing the local Urgent Care locations. I was an ugly shade of gray and dripping with sweat.
Michelle ran to get the van and we were off. I wanted to go to Park Nicollet - since they have all my charts, but by the time we were a half-mile away I was rolling the window down because I was sure I was going to puke up all that fine food. Then the tingling fingers started in. Nothing in the chest - Thanks God! but Michelle was on the phone with someone trying to decide if we should go to West Health - which was just Urgent Care - or if we should go all the way to North Memorial. Why is there no hospital in Maple Grove?!!!
We opted for West Health and pulled in - my hands had started cramping as I was trying to move them to make the tingles go away. They looked like crab claws and I kinda gave up on moving them and concentrated on walking. I told M to go ahead and find out if they could help me.
I started on the left side of the walkway across the street. By the time I was half way across - I was hanging onto the Street lamp on the right side of the path. OK, gotta focus. I made it through the doors and the security guard, who may have watched me weave across the walkway, asked if I wanted a wheelchair. Nah - 20 more feet down a hall, I can handle that. Just barely.
I leaned against the wall and just stood there - holding onto the corner. At this point M looked back at me and interrupted the nice lady admitting people. She took one look at me and got the Security guard behind me with the chair. She wheeled me over to a little side triage area and got me a bucket and a towel. I was still dripping with sweat. It was literally running down my nose onto my shirt.
They took me back to a room and the world stopped spinning. Well - it kept on going, I just didn't feel like it was spinning extra fast just for me. The tingling went away in my hands, by the time she got my vitals and asked me what my pain level was, I could honestly say it was a 2. I'm no sure what a 10 is, but I imagine the white flash I saw when I destroyed my foot in a college football game must be close. This at it's worst was maybe a 5, but I've never had that kind of physiological reaction to pain before. There was nothing I could do and I didn't know what it was. At least when you blow out an ankle or knee, you know what the problem is.
The Dr. came in and I gave him the cliff notes version of this tale. He said - "could be kidney stone, could be appendix. If you can pee in a cup - we can run a test to see if there is blood in your urine." I peed in the cup and they went off to run the tests. They got me a shot of something. I have no idea if it did any good or not, but by now I was feeling better.
The Dr. came back in and said they had found blood in the urine. Probably a kidney stone. He gave me a prescription for Flowmax and Vicodin. One a day of one - as needed for the other. Drink a ton of water and go to the hospital if you feel like you're going to fall over again.
I was feeling much better by now.
We went to Walgreens and dropped of the prescription.
Back to the party to explain.
We left an hour or so later and went to get the prescription. On the way there, the pain came back. Not as bad as before, but still...Drugs please!! They messed up the insurance info, so we sat there with 4 kids carrying on in the back of the van and daddy grimacing in pain in the passenger seat. They finally got the insurance figured out and I got my drugs. I actually don't remember a lot of the ride home. Until we got off 694 at Hemlock. By then I had felt the little bugger move from my right side to the middle. I was doing everything I could think of to help it along on it's voyage.
By the time we were home - just a minute or 2 later, the pain subsided and I felt fine again.
Did I mention that the Dr. gave me some filters to pee into? And a little cup to place anything that didn't go through the strainer into for my doctor to evaluate. So off I went to strain... and strain, and read a book and drink lots of water. Some time around 8 I had my nose in a particularly interesting part of the book. I had to pee, so I did.
Clink.
Huh? Pee doesn't go clink. Sure enough there was a little black rock in the bowl. I fished it out and put it in my cup. My mother in law thought it only fair that since Michelle had 4 kids, I should have 4 little stones. No such luck. But boy do I feel better...
It was a warm, summer day. Perfect for a picnic - or a going away party for your Aunt and Uncle - as the case may be.
I was manning the grill, serving up burgers, dogs and chicken in the heat. Should I have been drinking more, yes. Did I think it was a problem, no...
So after everyone was fed, I grabbed a plate of food and merged myself into the "kids" table. We're all married and in at least our upper 30's, but that's what it was...
I needed to go to the little boy's room, so I excused myself and went inside and upstairs. Without getting into graphic details, and there are many! I felt as if I still needed to pee, even after I was done. This is new for me - it was like something was stuck.
Rut roh Raggy.
I went back outside and ate, but nothing tasted all that great. I soon was back inside, still feeling like I had to go. Do you have a going problem?
After several more unsuccessful attempts to go, I realized I was starting to sweat. A lot. Then I got a stitch in my right front side. Great - I thought - my appendix. I went into my parent's bedroom and collapsed on the bed. By this time I was pretty sure I was in trouble, so I headed downstairs to get some help. They took one look at me and started dialing the local Urgent Care locations. I was an ugly shade of gray and dripping with sweat.
Michelle ran to get the van and we were off. I wanted to go to Park Nicollet - since they have all my charts, but by the time we were a half-mile away I was rolling the window down because I was sure I was going to puke up all that fine food. Then the tingling fingers started in. Nothing in the chest - Thanks God! but Michelle was on the phone with someone trying to decide if we should go to West Health - which was just Urgent Care - or if we should go all the way to North Memorial. Why is there no hospital in Maple Grove?!!!
We opted for West Health and pulled in - my hands had started cramping as I was trying to move them to make the tingles go away. They looked like crab claws and I kinda gave up on moving them and concentrated on walking. I told M to go ahead and find out if they could help me.
I started on the left side of the walkway across the street. By the time I was half way across - I was hanging onto the Street lamp on the right side of the path. OK, gotta focus. I made it through the doors and the security guard, who may have watched me weave across the walkway, asked if I wanted a wheelchair. Nah - 20 more feet down a hall, I can handle that. Just barely.
I leaned against the wall and just stood there - holding onto the corner. At this point M looked back at me and interrupted the nice lady admitting people. She took one look at me and got the Security guard behind me with the chair. She wheeled me over to a little side triage area and got me a bucket and a towel. I was still dripping with sweat. It was literally running down my nose onto my shirt.
They took me back to a room and the world stopped spinning. Well - it kept on going, I just didn't feel like it was spinning extra fast just for me. The tingling went away in my hands, by the time she got my vitals and asked me what my pain level was, I could honestly say it was a 2. I'm no sure what a 10 is, but I imagine the white flash I saw when I destroyed my foot in a college football game must be close. This at it's worst was maybe a 5, but I've never had that kind of physiological reaction to pain before. There was nothing I could do and I didn't know what it was. At least when you blow out an ankle or knee, you know what the problem is.
The Dr. came in and I gave him the cliff notes version of this tale. He said - "could be kidney stone, could be appendix. If you can pee in a cup - we can run a test to see if there is blood in your urine." I peed in the cup and they went off to run the tests. They got me a shot of something. I have no idea if it did any good or not, but by now I was feeling better.
The Dr. came back in and said they had found blood in the urine. Probably a kidney stone. He gave me a prescription for Flowmax and Vicodin. One a day of one - as needed for the other. Drink a ton of water and go to the hospital if you feel like you're going to fall over again.
I was feeling much better by now.
We went to Walgreens and dropped of the prescription.
Back to the party to explain.
We left an hour or so later and went to get the prescription. On the way there, the pain came back. Not as bad as before, but still...Drugs please!! They messed up the insurance info, so we sat there with 4 kids carrying on in the back of the van and daddy grimacing in pain in the passenger seat. They finally got the insurance figured out and I got my drugs. I actually don't remember a lot of the ride home. Until we got off 694 at Hemlock. By then I had felt the little bugger move from my right side to the middle. I was doing everything I could think of to help it along on it's voyage.
By the time we were home - just a minute or 2 later, the pain subsided and I felt fine again.
Did I mention that the Dr. gave me some filters to pee into? And a little cup to place anything that didn't go through the strainer into for my doctor to evaluate. So off I went to strain... and strain, and read a book and drink lots of water. Some time around 8 I had my nose in a particularly interesting part of the book. I had to pee, so I did.
Clink.
Huh? Pee doesn't go clink. Sure enough there was a little black rock in the bowl. I fished it out and put it in my cup. My mother in law thought it only fair that since Michelle had 4 kids, I should have 4 little stones. No such luck. But boy do I feel better...
Tonka Night
It was a beautiful night to be on the water. July 3rd 2008. Plenty of big boats were out on Maxwell bay, so I was hoping that they wouldn't scare all of the fish away.Fortunately they didn't.
SKW had a nice bass on early, but it made 2 nice jumps and did a cartwheel, spitting the hook. We drifted the bar and didn't have much more luck, the water is dropping now and the weeds are matting up a bit, making it harder to find fishy water.
After I switched to orange and brown I got a few takers. We went to the very back of Stubbs bay and had another nice bass on, then we headed for the slop. SKW tried the Blade Dancer, but had too much trouble with the weeds. He actually had a nice pike follow it out of the gorp, but it spooked at the boat. He also had a buzzbait he could keep above the gorp and caught a bass on it.
LSJ was having a little trouble with the camera and the fill flash, so the pics aren't world class, but they'll do. There are some really big fish back there. Now we just need to figure out a way to get to 'em.
