code blog: tales of a nurse

So, if someone had told me that one day I'd be blogging about a kidney stone to all of the like 10 people that read this, I would have thought it quite amazing that 10 whole people could be so easily amused. :-)

No pain from Tuesday... until Saturday. Woke up at 10am with twinginess that soon became full blown agony again. I had Vicodin this time, for all the good it did me. I promptly called in sick to work, waited an hour to see if the Vicodin would work, then we went back to the ER.

The triage nurse was MUCH more efficient this time around (well, it wasn't the same one) and I got to a gurney pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the computer system was down (which is actually a rare occurrence) so everything took a little longer - including getting some pain medicine. :( The RN who pushed the Morphine/Phenergan combo this time really jammed it in and I swear the room was spinning sufficiently to knock me off the gurney if I hadn't been holding on.

I've also learned that putting IV's in the wrist really freaking hurts!! It's usually my favorite place to put one - I may think twice about it next time. I also finally got a CAT scan. Woo! And since it was my normal shift to work by then, I got to see all sorts of coworkers whilst wearing the latest in Hospital Fashion. And then I got to repeat the Story Of Why I Was There about a zillion times. While medicated with narcotics :) Ha!

Anyway, the CT showed a 2mm stone, which sounds quite small - apparently the little buggers are spikey though - which makes them hurt. After returning to the ER from my little field trip, I was told that 2mm is small enough to pass on my own. Great. So the ER nurses attempt to get me nice n drugged up to send me home. I think I got 8mg of IV Morphine within about 20 minutes, which I'm thinking was a little too much, especially since it was not escorted by Phenergan. The last 3mg put me over the edge into NauseaLand and the ride home did NOT help.

Thus, I was unable to follow the "push fluids" directive, because every single sip I attempted to take promptly came back up. For HOURS. Ugh. UghUghUgh.

Sunday comes. I'm feeling okay. I have until 11am to call in sick. 11am comes - no discomfort. Okay great. 11:30am comes - starting to hurt a bit. I can't take Vicodin because I have to be clear headed to be a good lil CCU RN in about 3 hours. By noon I was in excrutiating pain again, but was determined to be rid of the damn thing - I could tell it was lower than before. Taking a clue from my recently pregnant friend, I proceeded to walk around my house - walking, drinking, crying, walking, drinking, crying - hoping gravity would help.

Around 1:40pm (the last possible minute that I would have to go start getting ready for work) it quit. Yep, this little stone is quite fickle! I actually laughed! I was so happy to not be in pain anymore. I have no idea if it's passed though. Because everyone told me it was "like a grain of sand," I assumed that it looked like... sand. But then other RN's at work were telling me that the stone could be crystal-like and kinda white and be the size of a grain of sand. Cool. Good to know.

No pain since, and I hope it's gone. (Please please please oh Kidney Stone Goddess, go take a good long nap!)

Pain's a bit funny though - although it hurt like nothing else I've ever known, the first night was the absolute worst. I had no idea how bad it could get. By the third round, I did know how bad it could get, which was oddly comforting - after all, it probably wouldn't get worse than it already was, and I hadn't died from it yet. Which is NOT to make light of just how bad it was.... but my mind was prepared for it in a way.

Moral of this story: Never push Morphine/Phenergan fast, and NEVER get Morphine without a Phenergan rider. Ever. Well, maybe you all can handle it, but clearly I cannot.