It was only 4mm!
I had my first Kidney Stone last week. Was just sitting down after dinner and felt a pain in my side that kept getting worse and worse.
“What side is my appendix on?” Nope, that can’t be it. I told Colleen that on a scale of 1 to 10, the pain I felt was a 7. Then it started to subside and I thought that maybe I just had a little gas. But 5 minutes later, it was back to a 7 – so Colleen and I decided we needed to head over to the Emergency Room.
After a slightly uncomfortable ride over to Saddleback Hospital, we hadn’t even finishing giving the attendant my information when a technician came out calling my name. He looked at me and said “First Kidney Stone, huh”? So yeah, it was kind of obvious.
After taking my blood pressure, he gave me my wrist ID bracelet and took me back to my private room. He was very nice and courteous as he hooked me up to all the monitors and inserted an IV line. He then said “Here’s my gift to you” and injected something into the IV. In seconds, I felt a coldness wrap around the back of my neck and shoulders – it took me a few seconds to notice that all the pain was gone. All of it.
20 minutes later, I had to use the bathroom, but I was all hooked up and didn’t want to screw anything up, so when the Radiology technician came in to take me for a CAT Scan, I told him to hold on a second so I could provide a urine sample.
The CAT Scan took maybe 5 minutes and then I was back to my room. They had a TV on the far wall with something mindless on and I just lay there for about an hour while the CAT Scan and Urine samples were evaluated.
After about an hour, the Doctor finally came in to give me some good news. Apparently, the stone was only 4mm and had already transitioned down to my bladder, so the worst was over. As a side benefit, the CAT Scan also revealed that I had no further stones to deal with, and other than a small cyst on my Kidney, everything was OK.
2 and a half hours after arrival, we were out the door on the way home. I had a prescription for Norco (Hydrocodone) that I could fill and use if there was any more moderate pain.
Hats off to the staff at Saddleback Hospital for their great care and professionalism that they gave to both me and Colleen.