The thing with chronic illnesses is you can feel perfectly fine one minute and the next be in so much pain you need to go to the ER. In case you haven’t guessed, that’s what has happened today.
Originally, I felt fine. Tired and stressed, as per normal for any college student I feel, I suspected a UTI due to the feeling of urgency to go urinate but not having much out put.
I took an Azo and was going to continue about my day, I decided I needed a bath because my hair was looking a bit greasy and so I went and started my bath. As I sat in the water and was about to grab the shampoo bottle, I felt a sharp stab in the lower left side of my body. I assumed it was most likely a kidney infection caused by the UTI.
I got out of the tub and had my grandma bring me something for the pain, I laid in the floor for a few minutes after taking it to attempt to sit back up. Immediately upon sitting up I threw up. After the first time, it seemed to stop so I made my way to the couch before I started continuously throwing up again. At this point the pain had reached the point where I did not want to move and all I could think about was the nausea and pain. This is what I consider about a 6 on the pain scale.
My mom came over and off to the ER we went. They took me back quickly and had me get a urine sample since I explained it was likely a kidney infection of some kind. They said it was odd to have kidney pain in the front and thought it might be something else, so they started an IV and got labwork. They said they would give me a dose of zofran and tylenol.
After the dose of zofran I proceeded to throw up more. At this point it was just stomach acid. They gave me more tylenol as the pain got worse and finally decided to give me a phenergan shot and send me home because my labwork came back normal so they had no reason to believe anything else could be wrong. The nurse said it was probably my gastroparesis causing it.
It can be extremely frustrating to be in pain and not know why, and even more frustrating to be in an ER where your symptoms are often written off. I know many chronically ill people have bad experiences in ERs due to this.
The pain and nausea have seemingly lessened up with no answer as to why. I’m just happy the pain is no longer as bad as it was.
Thee Crohnie Grace 
Dude, that really sucks. I’m sorry. 😦
The ER is the worst. Tylenol is all you were given for pain? That’s awful. When I go, the doctors are usually chomping at the bit to give me happy juice. Could it have been an obstruction that cleared on its own? With your history, they should have at least done an xray to rule that out. Labs don’t tell them much other than if you have a massive infection or renal damage. Shame on them.
When I’ve had kidney stones, I feel it in the front as well as the back, so I would imagine a kidney infection could be felt in the front too. I’m glad you’re feeling a little better, and I hope you see continued improvement. If not, you know what to do!
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Yeah the nurse commented and said that where my pain was was my descending colon but that since I have an ileostomy that there was no reason for it. She mentioned a possible catscan if I didn’t have ostomy output but since I had even a little bit she said “Must just be her Gastroparesis” my mom thinks I might’ve pulled a muscle while vomiting since I was uncontrollably getting sick. Who knows, I woke up today without the pain there so it might have just been that. It’s so hard to tell sometimes haha
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