so that happened

[rm]

At about 5am, I sat bolt-upright in bed from a sound sleep in agonizing pain in my left lower back. My first assumption was that it was a muscle cramp¹ and an initial hot shower seemed to help. Afterwards, I laid in bed, but no position was comfortable, Googling kidney things. The pain started to increase again and I took another shower that didn't help.

But the time I got back to my bedroom, I could not move my left leg except by physically lifting it with my hands because of the amount of pain I was in. I got dressed, shaking (this is probably when i first started going into shock), and somehow got myself downstairs and into a cab, but I could not stand upright and all positions were agony.

At urgent care it got much worse and they told me I would either need to take a cab to the ER or an ambulance. I didn't think I could do it a second time, and asked for the ambulance (I have insurance, but worry, A LOT over what the bill is going to be for all this). I was definitely in shock by the time I arrived at the ER, with a BP of 103/50 and a heart rate in the 80s. I remember my temperature, which had been normal, spiking weirdly too. So that was fucking lovely.

At some random point I realized I didn't know what hospital they'd brought me to and effectively didn't know where I was.

They got me on an IV pretty quick and a lot of things happened I don't remember the order of, but I was twittering it, because I thought it would distract me or some shit. They did a pregnancy test. I was cranky (but I just want you to know, I was really really nice to everyone!). Eventually the doctor came in and said it sounded like a kidney stone or infection.

Kept telling everyone I had to be on a plane to Bristol on Wednesday night. "You'll get there," everyone kept assuring me.

Had a cat scan.

Turns out it's a kidney stone, about 2mm. I should pass it on my own, within the next week. It's moved out of the kidney, so the worst of the pain should be over, but until it gets to my bladder, there might be some more. Which is all fucking lovely when I have to get on a plane in two days (First my Mac, now this? WHAT THE FUCK UNIVERSE?).

The bad news is I have at least a 50% chance of recurrence, and that's before we consider my family history (my father has had surgery for stones and had them for YEARS). The other bad news is that because of all of this they want me to radically reduce my intake of meat and cheese, which would be less difficult if I didn't have celiac disease and have to eat a ridiculous amount of calories daily and am funny about food texture. So when I get back I'll go to a nutritionist or something.

Right now I have some aching², occasional twinges and am completely exhausted. And I want to punch a bunch of dead fictional characters in the face. Patty's probably even crankier, since she got woken up with all this too as I paged her in Ohio at some point around the ambulance portion of the morning.³

Fucking hell.

Prescriptions filled.⁴

Also, and this is totally gross, but Internet, I MUST TELL YOU: they gave me a strainer so I can see when the stone passes.⁵

---

¹ I've had a few intermittent incidents in the last couple of months where I've felt like I've thrown out this same part of my back in bed, but now suspect this has been the stone all along.
² By which I mean it feels like I've been punched in the kidney by someone who knew what they were doing.
³ Fucking kidney stones. Baby, your girlfriend is old.
⁴ CVS has me down as a man.
⁵ Come on, we all know you come here for the fun trivia.

Comments

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

That sounds just awful! The universe really should be cutting you a break by now. I hope that everything from here on out passes smoothly with no more complications.

Also, if/when you're ready to address GF ways of cutting down animal products, I do a couple of things with tofu (casserole, baked stuff, etc) that can easily be altered into a non gluten version (I've done it for nisaa when she visits). Let me know if you want me to pass along the recipes.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I avoid soy because of a family history of hormone sensitive breast cancer, which is one of the many reasons why this is a whole lot of "yeah, but what do I eat now?"

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

TEMPEH

[rm.livejournal.com]

I avoid soy due to family breast cancer history.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, tempeh does have soy in it, you're right. I was going, "not tofu... not seitan..." sigh.

Beans are more delicious than they appear.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I can't tolerate the texture.

Veggies I eat stop and start with greens, carrots, lettuce, chickpeas, peppers, potatoes, corn, onions and related, and zucchini.

[bizetsy.livejournal.com]

Algae/kelp/sea greens are really healthy, if you have a good source (that's not covered in oil, blah). You can also get pills called Chlorella, which are a concentrated sea matter. I am trying"NOW" brand, which says "no sugar, salt, starch, yeast, wheat, gluten, corn, soy, milk, egg, shellfish, or preservatives" on the label (just typed this straight from it). They were a bit costly, but less than the ER visits I've had to make over the last few years. I also take Rainbow Light Men's One: when I did the nutritional figuring, these had more bang for the buck (more pills and more nutrients good for AI diseases for less money than the women's formula--sadly, not a surprise--women are often charged more for the same or less quality items). Rainbow Light costs more than the mainstream brands, but also are gluten free, contain probiotics, 800 IU Vit D and much Vit B, which are thought to be very important for immune system health. They're also made with vegetable powder so the source of the vitamins is real whole foods. Again, no affiliation or endorsement, I just am learning my stuff and taking care of myself.

I am trying to be really proactive/preventative now that I understand my body is basically attacking all its involuntary functions/organ systems, and I have to take very, very good care of myself. (My body is in a low-grade shock all the time, even calm and sitting--BP varies from 80/40--or lower when I faint--to 181/112, temp from 94-100, faint often due to the disregulation, am about 3 pints short on blood all the time because my body can't make enough, etc.) I know I don't know you in person, and we are not the same, and are diseases aren't the same, but we both have serious AI diseases, and I just want to help if I can.

Ok, off to make a list of what to do today (and probably be distracted by reading and my kitties).

[merchimerch.livejournal.com]

Oh good lord.

As far as I can tell, all your left with is garbanzo beans. I hope you like falafel.

To that point, have you seen the adventist-style bean loaf wizard? It has a ton of GF options (actually now that I look at it, all the options may be GF, I just never noticed): http://www.veganlunchbox.com/loaf_studio.html

I make and eat these regularly too -- they are very filling.

[azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you know what's going on, although it's horrendously painful :-(

I just wanted to mention that my mother, who is a breast cancer survivor, came to the opposite conclusion about soy. She cut out dairy entirely from her diet and replaced it entirely with soy. What she believes is that the low rate of breast cancer in Asian countries (where people also eat a ton of soy) is almost certainly linked to the low rate of dairy product consumption. When dairy consumption goes up in a country, so do breast cancer rates. So even if the latest research shows that soy is a tiny bit bad for breast cancer, replacing dairy protein with soy protein would actually improve chances of not getting cancer.