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Progress report
14 years ago
So, I have been out of the hospital about a week now. Things are going very roughly on my end. I was released Thursday afternoon, and Friday early AM I was back in my local hospital for pain management. They dosed me up on 10mg of morphine, monitored me for an hr or so, and sent me home with a bunch of prescriptions to add onto the already large list. I continued to not only have pain when peeing, but peeing blood till Sunday. Not fun. Also, my white bloodcell count was still up at 15, so my infection was still pretty rampant in my kidney.
Sunday, I stopped taking my pain meds so I could make it to academy today for some technical rescue courses im set up for. Big mistake. Sunday was fine, but today was a nightmare. The pain crept up to a 6 out of 10 during the written portion of the class, and about a 9 by the time I got home after the hands on working portion. I am supposed to be in tomorrow, but I have a followup appointment with my doctor, so am taking the day off. I slammed all my meds the second I walked in the door, but to be honest, they aren't working all that great. They hadn't been working much at all really, but it brings the pain down to a somewhat bearable level. My pain management list consists of 2x norco 5/325's, 1 50mg tramadol, 1 10mg toradol (which i can only take once a day), and 1 5mg oxybutynin.
Toradol is a NSAID on crack. Think Tylenol x 100. The problem with it though is that it fries the liver and kidneys, in pretty swift order. Due to that, as I said, I can only take it 1 time a day. When I do take it, it makes things stop swelling and makes whatever swelling there is go down, which is awesome. The problem is, swelling is a big part of the body's recovery system and helps it fight off infection and prevent further injury, so its slowing the healing process.
Oxybutynin is an anti-spasm medication. I'm on it, as there is a stent (think a plastic tube) that goes from my kidney to my bladder. The bladder obviously doesn't like things in it that aren't supposed to be there, so it spasms and grinds against the tube because its foreign, and it wants it out. This causes a shit ton of pain. This helps a bit, but makes it hard to pee, as it relaxes all the smooth muscle there, along with other places. This all backs up to my kidney, causing pain from the pressure there.
The other 2 drugs are obviously pain killers, and they aren't doing much. The things that have helped the most are just laying in bed, and soaking in a warm bath. The heat helps relieve the pain a decent amount, but its still there, especially if I sit up or move around at all.
Tomorrow I get to see my regular doctor, tell him about everything, and see what the game plan will change to. I am going to ask him for better pain medications and see what his response is on that, along with the possibility of getting this stent taken out, as it causes so much fucking pain. They wanted me to keep it in for another week, but I don't think I'll be able to last that long. It really, really hurts. I'll also ask him what exact bacteria is causing my kidney infection, as the hospital really didn't want to let me know a thing about myself, which is really shitty of them. Its not that suprising though as I had to yell at the doctor for over-hydrating me to the point that it was getting hard to breathe.
I'll also have more blood tests run, and hopefully the Cipro they gave me for the infection has done something and started fighting this infection off. The exact terminology for what I have is called " Pyelonephritis ", which is just medical jargon for a kidney infection. It can become very serious, very fast, depending on what exact bacteria it is. I'll be getting in contact with the hospital for a fully copy of my chart from my stay, so I can review things on my own and see what my doctor and myself can come up with.
I'll keep you guys informed I guess, and let you know how things progress.
tl;dr: I am in a shit ton of pain, going to see my doctor tomorrow, and I might need to drop out of academy due to the pain.
- 7
Sunday, I stopped taking my pain meds so I could make it to academy today for some technical rescue courses im set up for. Big mistake. Sunday was fine, but today was a nightmare. The pain crept up to a 6 out of 10 during the written portion of the class, and about a 9 by the time I got home after the hands on working portion. I am supposed to be in tomorrow, but I have a followup appointment with my doctor, so am taking the day off. I slammed all my meds the second I walked in the door, but to be honest, they aren't working all that great. They hadn't been working much at all really, but it brings the pain down to a somewhat bearable level. My pain management list consists of 2x norco 5/325's, 1 50mg tramadol, 1 10mg toradol (which i can only take once a day), and 1 5mg oxybutynin.
Toradol is a NSAID on crack. Think Tylenol x 100. The problem with it though is that it fries the liver and kidneys, in pretty swift order. Due to that, as I said, I can only take it 1 time a day. When I do take it, it makes things stop swelling and makes whatever swelling there is go down, which is awesome. The problem is, swelling is a big part of the body's recovery system and helps it fight off infection and prevent further injury, so its slowing the healing process.
Oxybutynin is an anti-spasm medication. I'm on it, as there is a stent (think a plastic tube) that goes from my kidney to my bladder. The bladder obviously doesn't like things in it that aren't supposed to be there, so it spasms and grinds against the tube because its foreign, and it wants it out. This causes a shit ton of pain. This helps a bit, but makes it hard to pee, as it relaxes all the smooth muscle there, along with other places. This all backs up to my kidney, causing pain from the pressure there.
The other 2 drugs are obviously pain killers, and they aren't doing much. The things that have helped the most are just laying in bed, and soaking in a warm bath. The heat helps relieve the pain a decent amount, but its still there, especially if I sit up or move around at all.
Tomorrow I get to see my regular doctor, tell him about everything, and see what the game plan will change to. I am going to ask him for better pain medications and see what his response is on that, along with the possibility of getting this stent taken out, as it causes so much fucking pain. They wanted me to keep it in for another week, but I don't think I'll be able to last that long. It really, really hurts. I'll also ask him what exact bacteria is causing my kidney infection, as the hospital really didn't want to let me know a thing about myself, which is really shitty of them. Its not that suprising though as I had to yell at the doctor for over-hydrating me to the point that it was getting hard to breathe.
I'll also have more blood tests run, and hopefully the Cipro they gave me for the infection has done something and started fighting this infection off. The exact terminology for what I have is called " Pyelonephritis ", which is just medical jargon for a kidney infection. It can become very serious, very fast, depending on what exact bacteria it is. I'll be getting in contact with the hospital for a fully copy of my chart from my stay, so I can review things on my own and see what my doctor and myself can come up with.
I'll keep you guys informed I guess, and let you know how things progress.
tl;dr: I am in a shit ton of pain, going to see my doctor tomorrow, and I might need to drop out of academy due to the pain.
- 7
There I fixed it, no longer an understatement.