An Interesting Morning
I can finally return to work on Thursday. I hope I am more up to it.
I went to the doctor yesterday and I have the flu and a sinus infection. What a winning combination that is. I feel so drained of energy but totally full of mucus! And the cold is now moving into my chest, so I will soon be coughing a lot. It takes most people three weeks to shake the cough... which means it will take me the better part of six weeks to kill it off.
Luis gave me quite a scare this morning. We were both awake after midnight and Luis had been to the bathroom a hundred times (it seemed) in a short period of time. He kept going in there and I finally asked him if he wanted an Immodium (for diarrhea) - I figured something must be wrong. Well, something was wrong. He kept feeling a very urgent need to go to the bathroom. Around 0110 he said to me, "I need to go to the hospital: I now have pain." We got dressed and EMT took over and I drove a steady 80 MPH to Morristown Memorial Hospital. I dropped him off at Triage and parked.
Fortunately it was a quiet night at Mo'town and he was right in (Room eight - I said to the triage nurse, "Eight... eight... the fishbowl?" She laughed and asked how I knew that. I told her I'm always there dropping off patients, as an EMT and she appreciated that - we all know the nicknames of the rooms. The fishbowl is a room that holds four patients and is in the white zone (Red zone: severe trauma/cardiac; yellow zone: gastrointestinal issues, mild breathing; white zone: indeterminate issues; green zone: mild injuries, non-emergent patients and children). The whole front of the room in the white zone is glass, so we all call it the fishbowl.
Luis was in the cheesy gown and was off to the bathroom to go again. The doctor came to see me and I told him my findings, last meal eaten and when, the type, location and strength of pain. I said that he either has a kidney infection or more likely a kidney stone. The doctor looked at me with mild surprise and said, "Are you a doctor?" I laughed and told him that I'm an EMT but have dealt with too many people with gall and kidney stones. The pain is... distinctive, since I ask patients a lot of questions and try to get full descriptions of their problems.
Luis told me I should go home instead of staying there and not getting any sleep. He'd call me when he was released. I got in around 0220 and called Ray to tell him what was going on. I went to bed around 0245 and crashed. I guess after eight days of not getting any sleep (except for the rare ten or fifteen minutes here and there) because of all the congestion and having to sleep propped upright, my body couldn't take it. I slept and slept hard. So hard, in fact, that I did not hear the phone - all fifteen times that he called.
When I awoke at 0730 to the staccato sound of his snoring, I was shocked! I wondered for a split second if I'd dreamt the whole thing. I must have gasped or something and Luis told me he'd gotten a cab to bring him home. I couldn't believe it! I hadn't heard the phone ring at all.
He has a 5 millimeter kidney stone that migrated last night from his left kidney to his bladder. That is a medium sized stone and can certainly create a lot of pain. The fun thing (not really) about stones produced the human body is that they are not nice smooth pebbles. Instead, they are the accumulation of unprocessable things that we take in and become these horrible spiky, sharp-edged terrors that rip and shred the surface of the tube it is going through. Now, as bad as the journey through the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder was, the next leg is the worst. It will (should) travel through urea to the outside. That would be through his penis.... uh, can you say YOOOOWWWW!?
That is what Luis will be saying.
He went into work around 1000 and was home by 1700 - he'd forgotten to take his little sieve that he has to urinate through to work and held it in all day! The sieve is to catch the stone so that the doctor can see it. He came home and urinated a lot. A healthy sound, I admit. He was uncomfortable throughout the day, but took Motrin for it. He has percocet in case he needs it but thinks he is okay without it. His pain is a 1. I told him to save the percocet for when he needs it - when that sucker is ready to pass, he will need it. The pain is excruciating. He's only got the two the hospital and the script that he had filled today for 15. Better not to use them unless needed.
So I am still benched and Luis is being careful. Tomorrow I am going with him to Denville to his urologist. That will be interesting, I think. Time to learn more about kidneys and stones and other things.
I will admit that I was amused watching Luis get the "cough test". There is no bending over, but he definitely did something that made Luis suddenly cough with great force! I had to chuckle at that.
I went to the doctor yesterday and I have the flu and a sinus infection. What a winning combination that is. I feel so drained of energy but totally full of mucus! And the cold is now moving into my chest, so I will soon be coughing a lot. It takes most people three weeks to shake the cough... which means it will take me the better part of six weeks to kill it off.
Luis gave me quite a scare this morning. We were both awake after midnight and Luis had been to the bathroom a hundred times (it seemed) in a short period of time. He kept going in there and I finally asked him if he wanted an Immodium (for diarrhea) - I figured something must be wrong. Well, something was wrong. He kept feeling a very urgent need to go to the bathroom. Around 0110 he said to me, "I need to go to the hospital: I now have pain." We got dressed and EMT took over and I drove a steady 80 MPH to Morristown Memorial Hospital. I dropped him off at Triage and parked.
Fortunately it was a quiet night at Mo'town and he was right in (Room eight - I said to the triage nurse, "Eight... eight... the fishbowl?" She laughed and asked how I knew that. I told her I'm always there dropping off patients, as an EMT and she appreciated that - we all know the nicknames of the rooms. The fishbowl is a room that holds four patients and is in the white zone (Red zone: severe trauma/cardiac; yellow zone: gastrointestinal issues, mild breathing; white zone: indeterminate issues; green zone: mild injuries, non-emergent patients and children). The whole front of the room in the white zone is glass, so we all call it the fishbowl.
Luis was in the cheesy gown and was off to the bathroom to go again. The doctor came to see me and I told him my findings, last meal eaten and when, the type, location and strength of pain. I said that he either has a kidney infection or more likely a kidney stone. The doctor looked at me with mild surprise and said, "Are you a doctor?" I laughed and told him that I'm an EMT but have dealt with too many people with gall and kidney stones. The pain is... distinctive, since I ask patients a lot of questions and try to get full descriptions of their problems.
Luis told me I should go home instead of staying there and not getting any sleep. He'd call me when he was released. I got in around 0220 and called Ray to tell him what was going on. I went to bed around 0245 and crashed. I guess after eight days of not getting any sleep (except for the rare ten or fifteen minutes here and there) because of all the congestion and having to sleep propped upright, my body couldn't take it. I slept and slept hard. So hard, in fact, that I did not hear the phone - all fifteen times that he called.
When I awoke at 0730 to the staccato sound of his snoring, I was shocked! I wondered for a split second if I'd dreamt the whole thing. I must have gasped or something and Luis told me he'd gotten a cab to bring him home. I couldn't believe it! I hadn't heard the phone ring at all.
He has a 5 millimeter kidney stone that migrated last night from his left kidney to his bladder. That is a medium sized stone and can certainly create a lot of pain. The fun thing (not really) about stones produced the human body is that they are not nice smooth pebbles. Instead, they are the accumulation of unprocessable things that we take in and become these horrible spiky, sharp-edged terrors that rip and shred the surface of the tube it is going through. Now, as bad as the journey through the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder was, the next leg is the worst. It will (should) travel through urea to the outside. That would be through his penis.... uh, can you say YOOOOWWWW!?
That is what Luis will be saying.
He went into work around 1000 and was home by 1700 - he'd forgotten to take his little sieve that he has to urinate through to work and held it in all day! The sieve is to catch the stone so that the doctor can see it. He came home and urinated a lot. A healthy sound, I admit. He was uncomfortable throughout the day, but took Motrin for it. He has percocet in case he needs it but thinks he is okay without it. His pain is a 1. I told him to save the percocet for when he needs it - when that sucker is ready to pass, he will need it. The pain is excruciating. He's only got the two the hospital and the script that he had filled today for 15. Better not to use them unless needed.
So I am still benched and Luis is being careful. Tomorrow I am going with him to Denville to his urologist. That will be interesting, I think. Time to learn more about kidneys and stones and other things.
I will admit that I was amused watching Luis get the "cough test". There is no bending over, but he definitely did something that made Luis suddenly cough with great force! I had to chuckle at that.
I napped today and I am mostly drinking more water than I thought I could ever manage and resting. By Thursday I hope to feel slightly more energetic.
Well. How's that for a fun day?
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