Sunday night's adventure

Well... as I alluded to in my last post.... Sunday night was a bit of an adventure.  NOT in a good way.

As we were sitting on the couch, getting close to bedtime, I couldn't get comfortable.  I had a bit of an ache in my back on the right side.  I had Jimmy rub my back a little - which helped some.  I figured it was from sleeping on an air mattress in the middle of the woods the night before!

When we headed to bed, I was still uncomfortable and feeling a little bit worse.  I was annoyed, and hopeful I was wrong when I thought "this kinda feels like a kidney stone" (I've had two before).  I got into bed, had Jimmy rub my back a little more as we laid there, got up to go to the bathroom a couple times, and then took some Tylenol.  As I laid in bed, I told Jimmy I wasn't sure, but that possibly it felt like a kidney stone.  Of course, he was concerned.

Those of you who know me know I'm a planner, and I like to be prepared for things (thus us ending up telling people Colby's name, etc.).... so of course my first thought was - if I was going to end up having to go to the ER later, I should put a sports bra on now so that I didn't have to do that on the way.  haha.  Jimmy should've known at that point..... but he was unaware.

I finally said I couldn't get comfy enough to sleep, and that I thought I maybe should go get checked out (again, at this point, Jimmy would maybe get that I was in a pretty good amount of pain - but also keep in mind I am very stubborn, and have a pretty high pain tolerance when it comes to REAL pain).  So he suggested I Google whether I should go to the ER or to Labor & Delivery.  Now, in my mind I was thinking "I'm pretty sure I just need to get the eff out of this house now, honey... I don't care what Google says"..... but again, stubborn Kim prevailed and I googled "severe back pain during pregnancy.... or something like that.

I then told Jimmy I thought we should head that way, and that I would call the nurse line to find out which one I should go to (since the buildings are right next to eachother).  I grabbed a plastic bag from the pantry (because I know I puke when in massive amounts of pain - and from prior experience (kidney stone #2) I learned to also check the bag for holes!), and called the answering service for my OB.  The OB on call got back to me within five minutes.  His advice?  Drink water.  I almost laughed.  We're past that point, buddy.  I told him I was pretty sure I was headed in to get checked out - should I go to L&D or the ER?  He said either would be fine - that they'd both do the same thing - IV fluids and pain medicine, check on baby, and do an ultrasound to look for stones.  He figured L&D might be better since the ER might send me to L&D anyways - so we headed there.

Less than two minutes after I was off the phone with the doc, I apologized to Jimmy for what I knew was coming.  Sure enough - I made use of the plastic bag - three times.  At this point, Jimmy was like "seriously?!  You're in that much pain?!  You need to tell me that!  I didn't realize it!  Now I'm worried!"  haha.  whoopsie.  I have since been told by multiple people I should probably give him a bit of a stronger warning when I go into labor! :-)

So we make it to L&D - park in 1 hour physicians only parking - and then the waiting begins.  They would've preferred I check in at the ER first.... but got me checked in over the phone.  Finally I get taken to a bed.  Then I wait as the nurse straps on the monitors (for baby), asks me one million questions (no joke!), leaves approximately 20 times....  Now keep in mind, they checked me in at midnight.  At that point I had been in pain for at least an hour.  The peak of the pain was when I used the plastic bag in the car - but I was still in pretty good pain (and laying on my back / side... awesome!).  Around 2am (or so - possibly later), after MANY requests for pain meds, an IV, anything, I finally got them.  My veins suck (always), and so she tried going into my left hand with no luck - and had to go in the right hand - with luck after digging around, for the IV.  At this point, the pain was just a dull pain, but I didn't want to refuse the pain meds because they had gotten pretty busy in L&D and it might be another hour before we'd see the nurse again!

(Jimmy told me many times that if I stopped acting so tough and actually showed them I was in pain, they may have helped me sooner.... probably true..... but.....)

Since I now had my IV and some pain meds, Jimmy realized our car was still in the 1 hour parking, so he went to move it.  Of course, that's when they came to get me for the ultrasound.  The tech started the ultrasound - focusing on all my organs, etc., (with a few peeks at Colby on accident - he's just getting big and kinda in the way!).  Jimmy showed up, and the tech finished looking at my organs and then said he'd give us a little peek at the kiddo - yay!  one good thing came out of this stupid situation!  So we got to say hi to Colby.... who had been very active when I was in pain (maybe to tell me "I know you're in tons of pain mommy, but I'm doing just fine in here!), and on the monitor, but at this point looked, well.... a bit drugged.  :-)  The tech asked if we had found out the gender - and I told him at last check he was a boy... hoping that hadn't changed.  Sure enough - he saw boy parts too :-)

I was wheeled back to my spot in triage, and promptly forgotten about for another hour or so.  I finally determined I REALLY needed to go to the bathroom (maybe from the IV fluids they had finally gotten in me!?)... but of course my nurse was literally nowhere to be found, having been whisked off to help out a lady who was about to have a baby.  I didn't have a strainer (ick!  straining pee!!!), and I was about to burst.  Finally another nurse came in and let me use the bathroom.  Phew. 

At some point the OB on call came in and told me they couldn't see anything on the ultrasound, and that my urine came back fine, but that can happen even if I have a stone.  Drink fluids, blah blah blah.  Fast forward to 4:15am (okay, fast was the wrong word there..... nothing happened fast... they were slammed - I think 6 or 7 women came in during the 4.5 hours we were there in VERY active labor).  We finally are too antsy to keep waiting, and ask what we're waiting for.  The nurses have no clue, and wonder why I haven't been discharged.  Awesome.  Finally, I'm discharged with a prescription for some pain meds and another drug that helps relax the urinary tract or something.  We head to Walgreens to fill the prescription, then to Denny's 'cause we're both starving, seeing as we've been up almost a full 24 hours at this point.

We slept 'til noon or so, I took the pain meds on Monday, and we both took the day off on Tuesday.  I didn't take pain meds on Tuesday, just had a dull ache all day.  Tuesday night I caught the stone - and put it in tupperware 'cause they forgot to give me anything to put it in to take to the lab (haha, go figure!).  Wednesday I was exhausted, but came to work anyways.  We had a low-key day! :-)

So... that was the adventure.

I have to say that being in L&D was pretty surreal.  I think it sorta freaked Jimmy and me out a bit.  I mean, we know we're going to go there eventually, and I'm going to be in labor, and we're going to have a baby.  But neither of us have ever been around a woman that's actually in labor - like real life labor, not labor in the movies or on TV.  It was crazy to hear women breathing through the contractions, obviously in a lot of discomfort, and nurses talking about 5 or 7 or even 9 (I think that was the max I heard) centimeters dialation.  Just crazy.  BUT, now we know where to go.

Oh, and if another person says "well now you'll really be prepared for labor" or "now you can compare the two", I may just have to smack them upside the head.
1.  This was my THIRD kidney stone.  I think one was sufficient for any comparisons that others deem necessary. 
2.  At this rate, I will need to have two more kids in the next two years before I have my next kidney stone... not going to happen.
3.  Even if the pain is equal - or even if birth is more painful - at least childbirth has an awesome reward at the end.... a baby.  Not some itty bitty rock candy looking stone that you have to strain outta your pee.

So yes, I can compare the pain... and I'm increasingly confident that I'll be able to at least breathe through the early parts of labor...... but many women go through childbirth without the "luxury" of having something to compare it to...... I would give anything to be one of those women!

That is all - and that was a long post - I'll be amazed if ANYONE made it through the whole thing!