In retrospect, I am glad the blood pressure monitor didn’t work.
Allow me to set the scene: early afternoon Saturday June 3. I had spent the night in the ER, mostly just waiting. Luckily, my sister was with me. I had a persistent but not too bad pain in my lower abdomen.
After doing a scan, the ER folks said I had a kidney stone that was about to move into the bladder and I’d be fine. Then They discharged me.
Leaving aside the fact that I’d still have to pass a stone, which is really painful, this diagnosis had several flaws. Which brings us back to Saturday.
When I got up, I was really tired, my limbs weren’t working, and chewing and swallowing were a struggle.
After my blood pressure monitor didn’t work, we decided to return to the ER. Well, my sister and Mm did. I probably would have just gone back to bed, which would have been bad, potentially deadly, because at the hospital they took my vitals. My blood pressure was about half what it normally is without my heart drug — 60/40.
I thought that is why they hurried me back at the ER. That or they realized they messed up the night before. I learned last week that they actually did a quick blood test that showed I had sepsis.
They must have taken another gander at the scan from the night before and realized that a) the stone was not moving and had caused dirty urine to back up into my left kidney and infect my body and b) the stone was actually multiple stones.
They did a quick procedure to drain my kidney going in through my back and they put a tube and bag in. But they didn’t remove the stone because I was so sick.
Then it was off to the ICU to get healthy. They gave me lots of medicine to boost my blood pressure and fight the infection.
I failed a swallow test, which I didn’t know was a swallow test, so they wouldn’t let me eat or drink or take my night pills. And they put in several lines to give me meds. They used an ultrasound to guide them. And they took care of me. One even picked my nose, not the first time someone else has done that.
On Monday, they found out what the infection was, e coli. I didn’t find this out till I left the hospital. They also transferred me to a regular room, which was fairly boring except…
I had another procedure, again through my back, this one to put in a stent to bypass the blockage, and I was given a suppository. The nurse who gave it to me fistbumped me when he saw it worked, and the hospitalist congratulated me.
On Wednesday, they put in a line so we could do the infusion of antibiotics at home and I was released, but …
The antibiotics wrecked my stomach, which I was warned about, and gave me a rash, which was a surprise. I tolerated it, but the medical consensus waist it got worse fo to the ER.
It got worse. I went back to the ER.
When the ER doctor said they’d keep me until the antibiotics were done, that was my low point. It turned out not to be the case. I came home the next day, with new antibiotics, and have been home since.
I began full days at work on July 10. I have surgery next month to remove the stones.
I could not have survived without my sister and Mom.
Only now am I coming to realize how sick I was. It scares me.
