Thursday, July 2, 2009

Blah!

So, this morning at about 0300, I woke up with a severe pain to my right flank. Grr...Now, for the past 3-4 days, I have been having some dyuria. Great, I had a Urinary Tract Infection. So, I was being me (ie stubborn) and thought that I could treat it myself. I started taking over the counter AZO, and increased my water intake. Yesterday, the dysuria improved, so I thought that I had it beat! Boy, was I wrong!


When I woke up this morning I was pretty much like "FUCK". I knew what I had. I took another AZO, and tried to sleep. Yeah....that didn't work out so well. I was poking on my abdomen to make sure that I didn't have appendicitis (Right Lower Quadrant) or maybe gallstones (Right Upper Quadrant). Neither one of those places hurt. Which is actually a good thing. Wouldn't want my abdomen to get cut open. Except now, I am feeling nauseated. I kinda like having my parts. So, I reach around, and tap on my right kidney....and I fell to floor and started crying. In hindsight, probably wasn't the best idea, but it confirmed my suspicions....I had pyelonephritis (kidney infection).


I get dressed, and went to work. I walk into the ER, and find Dr. Bunting, and asked if she would write me an antibiotic. She said she would, but then told me that I should probably check in since I was crying from the pain. Checking into the ER that you work at is a little strange. Everything looks so different from that side. It was really nice though, I got top notch service. The charge nurse helped draw up my meds while my nurse was starting my IV. The night doctor ordered me some good drugs! I ended up getting a liter of IV fluids, 6mg of morphine (we normally start off giving 4mg, guess I looked that miserable), 60mg of toradol (anti-inflammatory that works great with kidney problems), and 4mg of zofran (anti-nausea). Man....I love drugs! Never really felt "high" or incoherent. But it did take the pain away.


When I checked in, my heart rate really surprised me. I checked in with a heart rate of 123! Normally my heart rate is in the 40s-50s. So, knowing that my heart rate practically trippled, kinda freaked me out. Helped me to know that I really had an infection. Blood pressure stayed normal, which was nice. After getting the morphine, my oxygen saturation dropped, which was expected. Narcotics mess with your respiratory drive, which is why you worry about people with narcotic overdoses and them stopping breathing. But I didn't think that my oxygen would drop as low as 90% (95-100 is normal) Ok...lab results:

White Blood Cell Count: 18.6 (normal is 4.5 to 11)

Electolytes were normal. Kidney function tests normal, no dehydration. Liver Function Tests normal. Woo hoo!

Urine Analysis: (listed are the abnormals)
Moderate Blood
Protein 100mg
Red Blood Cells: 10
White Blood Cells: >150 (eewww....that means that I had pus in my urine) Definitely not cool.

Dr. Holland came in, and confirmed that I had pyelo. Said that my urine was nasty dirty....which I can see that from the results. So, I got IV antibiotics (Rocephin), and was sent home with antibiotics and anti nausea meds. I am feeling better, but if I move wrong, I still get a twinge of pain.

Lesson for the day: If I start feeling that I am getting a UTI, go get some meds. This could have totally been prevented if I had gotten the antibiotics early. I think that's what upset me the most. My stubbornness got me a worse infection. Grr...lesson learned! Plan for the rest of the day...relax and maybe sleep on the couch....

Oh, AND for those of you that know me and my stubbornness....I totally went to class after being discharged from the hospital. Funny thing is, we were studying pyelo in class today! LOL. I told her that I had pyelo and I was just discharged from the ER. She told me to go home, but I went to the first half of class to show my dedication, or my stupidity. At the break she told me that if I am not feeling well, that I can totally take Monday off (we have a test on Monday), and take an incomplete and make it up when my antibiotics are finished and I am well. Apparently, pyelo can lead to renal failure if it goes untreated or takes a sudden bad turn. I don't think that will happen to me, but will still proceed with caution. I like my kidneys! So, everyone, love your kidneys and urinate after having sex!

4 comments:

  1. Oh no! I hope you feel better and get over the infection ASAP. At least you are pretty awesome at self-diagnosis! I definitely had to Google dysuria. :)

    I'm glad you were going to relax today on the couch. Can't believe you went to class! What a trooper. Your body might be mad at you for working so hard and stressing yourself out and not being able to go to Crossfit, so it's rebelling by infecting you! You deserve a break. I hope you get some time to rest and take it easy!

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  2. Sorry, I probably should have defined dysuria. It sucks if you have never had it. Again, not sure if it is being a tropper, or being stupid and hardheaded.

    I like your idea of not Crossfitting as being the cause of my infection. But I can't do it now, as else I really will puke. Something about getting up and down makes my side hurt. Blah....Hopefully, I will be better by next Friday!

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  3. Hey, on the bright side, at least you did relax today, and you did get this infection while you were at home and going to school.. and not, say, while you had nothing to do except work out everyday, haha. You know what I mean though :) I hope it goes away soon!!! Take care of yourself and hurry back!

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  4. Wow, awful time Amy! I looked up dysuria, but I had a feeling I knew what it was because I've had a few UTI's in my day. Ick. I'm glad your ER took such good care of you! Feel better soon and looking forward to seeing you back!

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