Whew – that leaves only bungee jumping and typhoid fever!
So, in obvious response to my threat of naked hot tubbing with the new tub, the supreme powers that be saw fit to smite me down to prevent the possibility of widespread hysteria at the mere thought of this pasty white sack of flour nude. In hot, bubbly water. This, apparently, is a sight reserved only for those making chicken soup.
I was happily getting ready to go to parents’ weekend to pick Eilis up at camp last Friday, and I came down with chills. I had minor back pain, and based on a history of kidney stones, I briefly thought it might be that – but when the excruciating, I’d rather give birth to quintuplets without the benefit of medical intervention pain never materialized, I chalked it up to bad Chinese food.
I had no “heavy head” the day after the intake. There was not a single side effect described in the instructions. However, my fellow sufferer had paradoxical reactions, i.e. agitation https://www.doondoc.com/doc/ativan-2mg/ and anxiety.
After a weekend of chills and cold sweats, it seemed like a good idea to skip our planned visit to Niagara Falls and head home.
My family doctor has been my family doctor since I was 19 years old – with the exception of the time I lived in FL. I never once laid down on his exam table. I’ve been in there with all kinds of ills and chills, but never felt compelled to lay down.
It was perhaps the fact that I was laying down that prompted him to send me to the ER immediately. He’s very good at this doctor thing – he should consider a career….just sayin’.
Long story short, in acute renal failure with sepsis, they admit me to the ICU. What a great place, ICU. Private room, private nurse, all the IVs you want – and I even vaguely recall there might have been a TV. It was like staying at the Grand Floridian, only less, ummm, Floridian feeling.
I’ve got a long road to go. The acute renal failure has left me severely anemic, and the cause of the problem in the first place is indeed an enormous, the size of Stewie from Family Guy’s head kidney stone that is blocking my kidney from draining. That has to come out, so I’m looking at a surgical procedure at the end of the month.
But in the grand scheme of things, I’m here. When the ladies from the local Church came to pray with me and give me communion on Sunday, I admit, I cried my eyes out. Having heard all week long how many hours away I had been from dying, it was overwhelming on a dark, dismal, rainy day to have this lovely woman, dressed in sunshine yellow, there to celebrate with me my going home.
I should pledge to do something great with my life, now that it’s been saved. But I really try, every day, to do something great for someone. So I’ll just pledge to continue to be me – for as long as you’ll have me.