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Absolute, blinding agony.

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    Absolute, blinding agony.

    So, the morning started off quite nicely. Mrs WOM showering as I fed the kids breakfast. Coffee made and poured, Mrs comes down, we horse around a bit with the kids, and then....a little ping in my side. Like a little gas bubble. That keeps getting bigger. And bigger, until I sort of say "Oh...that's not nice. Best get up to the loo." By the time I reach the top of the stairs, I feel like I've been stabbed in the stomach.

    Fast forward a half-hour and I'm on the floor in agony, the likes of which I have never, ever experienced before. I call my wife, who's taking the kids to school, and manage to whisper "I need to go to the hospital".

    And as I'm settling into a triage chair in the ER, it just...vanishes. The 'sore' is still there, but the pain's virtually gone. I'm admitted about an hour later, the doctor pokes and prods, and then "BANG" it hits again, only worse. The hook me up with an IV of gravol and demerol for the pain, and whisk me in for a CT scan. Result? A 4 mm kidney stone, which is dawdling through my plumbing, to emerge some time in the next week or so.

    So, the pain's been back eight or nine times since I've been home, but somehow is more manageable now that I know what it is. The oxycontin is helping, too. But friends, I'm not looking forward to the grand finale of its tour of my pipes.

    Had 'em? Advice?

    #2
    Absolute, blinding agony.

    CJ Lunchbox. Cures everything.

    Sorry to hear this man - how long are you laid up for?

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      #3
      Absolute, blinding agony.

      My sincere sympathy, WOM. I've never had them, but my dad had them often when I was younger and they seemed to be excruciating. He found that the best way to relieve the pain was a heating pad, whiskey and loud shouts of profanity.

      I had thought, though, that they now had technology (shock waves? lasers? prayer?) to help break up the stones before they make their ultimate, painful pass.

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        #4
        Absolute, blinding agony.

        I've never had them, but I can imagine it's not very pleasant.

        Feel better, and good luck, you know, passing it.

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          #5
          Absolute, blinding agony.

          Hang in there, wom.

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            #6
            Absolute, blinding agony.

            Best of luck WOM, I wouldn't wish such things on my worst enemy.

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              #7
              Absolute, blinding agony.

              Oh, if I heard that Dick Cheney was suffering from kidney stones, I think I'd not send him a get well card.

              But, WOM, you have my sincere sympathies.

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                #8
                Absolute, blinding agony.

                Blimey. Stick it out, WOM. The conclusion might not be a comfortable one (understatement at best), but it will come to an end.

                No, that wasn't meant to be a pun.

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                  #9
                  Absolute, blinding agony.

                  Blimey indeed!

                  Good luck, WOM. Hopefully, at 4mm it'll ping out, like a pea out of a pea shooter ...or pee shooter, in this case. Sorry!

                  Wasn't it one of these that John Peel once auctioned for charity (in a little plastic bag) at a student end-of-term bash he was DJ'ing at, just moments after passing it, in the loos? If so, he must have been made of quite stern stuff.

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                    #10
                    Absolute, blinding agony.

                    That sounds bloody unpleasant. Hope it passes soon, WOM.

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                      #11
                      Absolute, blinding agony.

                      I had one when I was about ten. Like you, I went into paroxyms of agony in the space of a few seconds. The worst thing about having a pain in the kidneys is that rolling into the foetal position, the instinctive, protective reaction against sudden pain, doesn't work, because you can't 'clutch' the source of the pain.

                      Anyway, my stone didn't emerge, and the doctor presumed it had borken up en route, so don't automatically assume that something the size of a marble is about to force itself out through your urethra.

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                        #12
                        Absolute, blinding agony.

                        I wonder if playing Scorn or Ryoji Ikeda at high volumes, whilst clutching the speaker to your abdomen, might work as a makeshift 'ultrasound' weapon and break the stone(s) up?

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                          #13
                          Absolute, blinding agony.

                          I had one in New York in 1990--or at least that's what they reckoned it must have been. The symptoms fit: absolutely unbearable abdominal pain which then just kind of went away, leaving me feeling completely OK and a bit of a fraud, what with the recent ambulance trip through the streets of Manhattan.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Absolute, blinding agony.

                            I've had kidney stones several times, WOM. Fucking unbelievably painful and exactly as you describe. Given that doctors generally recommend that people drink two or two-and-a-half litres of water a day, I'm the only person I know who actually follows that advice, specifically because I don't want to experience that amount of pain again.

                            More encouragingly, what happened when I passed the stone (i.e. pissed it out of my system) was nothing. The pain comes from this tiny little stone moving through your internal pipes. I was told to piss into a box or something so that it would be easier to keep an eye on any oddities that came out. All of a sudden, I heard a little "tink" sound and there it was. If I hadn't heard it, I would't have even known that the bastard had left the building. Felt literally nothing at all.

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                              #15
                              Absolute, blinding agony.

                              Nasty, WOM.

                              Furtho wrote:
                              Given that doctors generally recommend that people drink two or two-and-a-half litres of water a day, I'm the only person I know who actually follows that advice, specifically because I don't want to experience that amount of pain again.
                              Does this really work?

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Absolute, blinding agony.

                                I thought that had recently been debunked, or at least called into serious doubt by a study?

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Absolute, blinding agony.

                                  I piss a lot, obviously, but haven't had a kidney stone since I started drinking that amount of water nine years ago. Whether this is due to the water or to some other reason is of course open to question.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Absolute, blinding agony.

                                    Thanks for the good wishes everyone.

                                    Last evening passed fairly uneventfully. The pain would come, I'd walk around breathing deeply, pop one of the painkillers and settle back down on the couch.

                                    After trying to sleep, and being woken up on the hour for ten or fifteen minutes of increasingly painful walking about the house, puffing for air, I finally couldn't take the it any more. The level of pain went through the roof and I was out of my depth.

                                    At 4:30 am, Mrs WOM took me to ER again where they shot my arse full of demerol and some kind of anti-inflammatory. Came home and slept most of the day, and just now had a piss that a race horse would envy and passed the stone.

                                    So, that appears to be that. Now, off to google "Tips for avoiding kidney stones"

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Absolute, blinding agony.

                                      Phew, glad it's sorted.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Absolute, blinding agony.

                                        Glad to hear your ordeal is over. I guess I can kind of relate because I had a kidney infection a couple of years ago. Didn't know what it was, just that there were terrible pains in my lower back and abdomen. I took some Percocets that I had hanging around the house; they didn't kick in for a long time but at least helped me walk over to the ER (about a mile away). Then they stopped working, and I found myself pacing around the waiting room. A woman also waiting gave me a look like I was a crazy person, but it seemed like the only way to take my mind off the pain.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Absolute, blinding agony.

                                          Supposed to be as bad as childbirth. Having done childbirth, and having watched my ex-husband go through the kidney stone thing, I have to say, I'm unconvinced. It did look nasty though, so pleased for your sake that it's over.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Absolute, blinding agony.

                                            I guess this is about as close as men get to the pain of giving birth.

                                            Good luck, WOM. Hopefully, at 4mm it'll ping out, like a pea out of a pea shooter ...or pee shooter, in this case. Sorry!
                                            Very funny, Evil one. Hope you didn't piss off WOM.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Absolute, blinding agony.

                                              Very glad it's over WOM, though surely not as glad as you are.

                                              And Welcome meerkat. Having been with my wife through childbirth, I don't think the male psyche is made to withstand that kind of sustained pain.

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                                                #24
                                                Absolute, blinding agony.

                                                Yeah, hello Meerkat. You're not James Gilchrist, are you?

                                                (Ancient OTF history; we didn't always welcome new members like we do now. We used to be like the locals in the Slaughtered Lamb.)

                                                The bastard in me hopes that the kidney stone episode happened during the phase when your husband was becoming an ex.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  And again yesterday.

                                                  Riding along on the GO train, feeling the sudden need to pee. Have a pee. Ten minutes later, same thing again. Hmm. That's odd. Get to work, same thing again. Hmm. That's odd. And then WHAM....a sucker punch to my left lower back like a rusty rail spike jammed through me.

                                                  Uh oh.

                                                  It escalates really fast, so I pack up my laptop, make some hasty excuses and head along Queen Street for St. Mike's hospital. As I'm gasping up Victoria Street it gets even worse. By the time I reach the front desk I can barely stand. The admitting nurse circumvents process and rings for a jab of pain med before she's even finished processing me. I'm dripping with sweat...like literally soaking. I stand up...I walk around...I sit down. I lean over. I lean sideways. I stand up again. I sit down again. Nothing helps, of course, and I know this...but I keep trying.

                                                  20 minutes later, I'm comfortable. I'm given a blood test, urine test, CT scan and.....I pass the stone right at the hospital. By 2:30 I'm sent on my way as if none of it happened.

                                                  That's attack number 3. The second happened about five years ago in Florida and was about a 4/10, so I don't think I bothered posting about it. But this...this was a doozy, like the first one.

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