I don't mean that figuratively. I mean I remind myself of an old He-Haw song that if it weren't for bad luck I would have no luck at all.
We had a series medical and emotional emergencies in the house. I really thought we were past those. Then, end of January I wrecked my 12 passenger van. I can't remember if I ever blogged about it. It still makes me really upset that my custom ordered, van of my dreams, totally paid of 12 passenger van is GONE. I slip on a patch of black ice, and I crashed into a tree. I walked away in one very battered but not broken piece, but the van frame went from even lines to a parrallelogram. There went my van. We bought a min-van for cash because I refuse to take on two car payments and we'll buy a new (used) 12 passenger once II's vehicle is paid off first of next year.
However, Friday just took the cake of my bad luck days, even after all of the bad luck we've had in the last 18 months. When I got to work, I was fine. The other nurse was not feeling well and we were having a very busy day. For most of the morning, I did the patient care and the other nurse did paperwork. We joked that since she was the one who did all of the patient care and I did the paperwork back when I had my car wreck, I was just returning the favor.
Then, I went to lunch. I was still fine. When I came back, I needed to pee but very little came out. I felt a little like I might be getting a bladder infection. It was a pain, but I figured I would spend my weekend flushing it out and I would be fine again. Within an hour, the pain was escalating rapidly, all while I was coordinating patient care and two patients with issues we were having to contact doctors on. I stepped out and took some ibprofen quicklying, figuring it would help my pain level and if there was any inflamation it would take care of that too. Within a second hour, I had to tell the other nurse something was off about me. I was in tremendous pain but was focused on the patient needs so I could push through and ignore it. At that point, I figured I would leave work at 6 instead of staying until 8 (I'm allowed to use PTO and leave at 6 if we're done with patients but I normally stay until 8 and continue to work around the clinic). The patients all left suddenly just after 4pm and that is when I realized that I was WAY past functioning. I could not sit. My bladder was in a massive spasm I could not decipher. There was something behond that spasm that I could not put my finger on, nor had I ever felt previously.
I really thought I would head out at 6 and head for an Urgent Care. Within 20 minutes, we both realized I was not making it anywhere. I left work at 4:35pm and headed straight for Urgent Care. Ironic considering I work right behind our emergency room. However, I was still convinced it was something I could handle at home and I didn't want to pay an ER co-pay to hop over to the ER instead. In my defense, my co-worker and I conferred and we both felt I should go to Urgent Care but I should go to the Urgent Care with the CT machine. I think it was in the backs of both of our minds what *might* be happening. Mostly, I think we were both in a bit of shock. It came on SO suddenly and I had never had it happen to be before now.
The Urgent Care ran a CT scan. They didn't even bother to wait for their bloodwork to come back. Once someone looked at the CT scan, they sent me straight back to the ER. The ER was a bit confused. At one point, the Nurse Practitioner there asked if I was sent to the ER for pain management. I said NO, I was sent there to evaluate if the Urologist thought it was even possible for me to pass the kidney stone they found, or whether I was going to be admitted to have it surgically extracted.
So, 28 hours after I clocked into work on Friday, I found myself in the holding unit we share a door with, being wheeled up to the OR after spending the night being given liberaly doses of morphine every two hours since I hit back to the ER. By evening, I was dishcarged on post-op on pain meds and orders to rest and recuporate since I refused to stay inpatient any longer.
As I said, some days you go to work and never come home again!
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