Kidney Stone

Let’s get you up to speed with my latest act of malingering.

It started off 5th February, when I went to bed with a bit of backache and a sore throat. I woke up the next morning (6th) feeling decidedly not great, took some paracetamol, checked my temperature (38.0), but went into work anyway because it was a non-clinical day and the general unwritten NHS rule is: ‘if you’re not ill enough to be an inpatient, don’t even think about screwing up the staffing levels even more’.

As the day went on it turned out that actually I was ill enough to be an inpatient. My midwife friends had a look in my throat and diagnosed tonsillitis and throat ulcers), and I felt very shivery and crap. I ticked most of the boxes on my Haematology Assessment Checklist, so I gave the clinic a call and they told me to head straight over. Once I got there I’d developed full on rigours and had the Sepsis 6 bundle.

Part of the Sepsis 6 bundle is IV antibiotics. Penicillin is a cracking broad-spectrum antibiotic (useful for when you don’t know exactly what bacteria it is you’re trying to kill), but unfortunately isn’t compatible with me living. I was given ciprofloxacin instead, and after 4mls of it had been given my entire left arm (the one in was being given into) went red and blotchy, and I started getting tingly lips. I didn’t need adrenaline this time, but it certainly won’t be being prescribed for me again!

Another part of the Sepsis 6 bundle is closely watching urine output (which decreases the worse the infection gets as your kidneys come under more strain), and mine was impressively reduced. What I was passing was dipped and indicated a raging UTI so that, along with the back pain, prompted the diagnosis of pyelonephritis (a kidney infection) which was the cause of the feeling of general crapness (although the tonsillitis didn’t help).

I was move to a ward, started on gentamicin, and, 7th February 2018, some of the worst pain of my life started. I was on 4 hourly paracetamol and dihydrocodeine, 2 hourly oramorph, and subcutaneous morphine top-ups when I was screaming. None of that took it away, and I still spent hours on all 4s on the bed, howling, and vomiting for no reason other than pain.

This continued until 8th February, and then I started weeing blood. By this point I’d had 3 days of IV abx, no pyrexia, and worsening pain so it was questioned if the pyelonephritis was the ongoing cause of it. A kidney stone became much more likely, and an ultrasound was planned.

10th February it was still going on, but I’d had a few hours respite from the pain (I now know this was because the stone had made its way down my narrow ureter, and was chilling out in my roomy bladder for a bit) so I braved a shower. I can’t remember too clearly what happened, but I can remember weeing in a bedpan in the toilet (to measure output/catch a stone) and then having to stand up mid-wee because I thought I was going to split in half if I stayed sitting. I can remember being naked, screaming, pissing all over the floor (not that you could tell; it was a puddle of blood) and two nurses coming in and wheeling me back to bed. Probably not one of my best moments... but... I’d passed the stone!

After that, the pain changed. It’s still here, but it’s just a general soreness which is easily sorted with paracetamol. My wee is slightly blood stained and it still hurts to go (which it would if your urethra’s been shredded), but it’s all fine.

Why does this shit always happen to me?

Love Emily x

P.s. Today I was due to run Leicestershire Half Marathon. That obviously didn’t happen, but if you fancied cheering me up with sponsorship anyway...
www.justgiving.com/Emily-Stringer2