January Traditions

It's been five years since we rang in the new year at the emergency room. You might remember it, if you've been reading here for a while. Ryan had some severe pain and they diagnosed him with a kidney stone, which we named Myrtle, and sent him home. And then two days later, we were BACK in the emergency room where they decided they might have been a little hasty...and it was really his gallbladder. And a few days later, that offending gallbladder came out, and we named it Choly. 

Well, it must be a new year's thing, because guess where we spent yesterday?

You guys?

Myrtle's back. And this time she's real. AND SHE HAS FRIENDS.

Trust me. We were as surprised as you are reading this right now! We had some rough weather (not horrible, but rough) overnight Saturday into Sunday, so Ryan set his alarm for 5 a.m. to get up and check/treat the walks so they could be ready for church. All of that went just fine. He came back to bed after that, because we didn't need to be up until about 7 that morning. 

I heard his alarm and I heard him get in the shower. I got up eventually and headed into the kitchen for my coffee. When I came back to the bedroom to see if it was my turn to get ready, I found him doubled over in bed.

WHAT?!

He said he had really bad abdominal pain and he didn't know what was happening. Said it was like the gallbladder pain, but of course, that bad boy is gone, so we knew it wasn't that. But at least I knew what level of pain we were dealing with, because I've had it too!

We canceled our church plans and I got busy working and checking on him every few minutes to see if he needed to go to the hospital. He assured me it would be okay and we were NOT going to the hospital. 

But he was getting worse, and I knew it. I freaked out and called Rob, and I am sure I don't even want to know what a freaked out fool I made of myself on the phone with him. As I talked and paced and cried with Rob, I looked up and there stood Ryan, in shorts and a t-shirt, holding his coat, doubled over, telling me we needed to go to the hospital NOW. Said he thought it might be kidney stones.

Worst. Case. Scenario. You all know I am a terrible asset in an emergency. I'm also terrible on winter roads. It all converged in front of me. 

So I grabbed all my stuff and ran out the door to find Ryan ON THE FLOOR by the back door waiting for me to show up with keys. He practically crawled to the car and I broke a few driving laws that I'm unwilling to put in writing getting us to that emergency room. I also sobbed, quoted Psalm 56:3 on repeat, and had a panic attack. 

But we all got there in one piece. Ryan quite literally fell out of the back seat into a waiting wheelchair and I went to park the car. (And take the emergency room sign picture. Because of course.)

There was only one other couple in the ER when I joined Ryan, and I was so grateful to find it so empty. He was quite literally writhing in the wheelchair, moaning and crying. I never EVER saw him like that with his gallbladder, and that thing was bad enough. I knew he would hate it if the other couple thought he was a wimp, so when the wife looked at me, I said, "He has a super high pain tolerance. He does not have a man cold." LOL!!! She looked at him, looked at me, and said, "Kidney stone. I bet you anything."

They got us right to the back, and I'm pretty sure the doctor had to comfort me more than he had to comfort Ryan. I was sobbing and shaking and just sure he wasn't going to make it. (Dramatic, I know. but weird things happen to us. They really do.)

The nurses were AMAZING and rushed to push fluids/pain meds/ nausea meds. It felt like forever, but he finally was able to be still in bed, and I got him a warm blanket. 

They came to get him for a CT scan and the doctor (who was amazing - and I don't let that word fly often about doctors) took a lot of time with us to explain the kidney stones. Ryan has a large stone in his kidney still, and I was today years old when I learned that you can live with a stone in your kidney your whole life and never even know it! Another stone (that either broke up or was multiple stones to start with) decided to take a road trip to the bladder, and that was what caused all the pain. The doctor said he might pass them while he was at the hospital...or in a day or two...or in a month. 

Definitive, no?

Here's Ryan with the doctor's diagram:

Here's our pitiful selfie. He was so groggy from the pain meds and I was all smeary-faced from sobbing:

We had to wait for final tests before we could go, so....

They sent him home with some pain meds and anti-nausea meds to hopefully sustain him until the stones pass. 

I never ever want to see him in that kind of pain again. It was the worst. And I am the worst. I apologized over and over for being such a scaredy cat and mostly praying for him from the hall. 

He said, "You know I was that patient, right? The one they all talked about in the lunchroom? And you were that patient's wife." 

Indeed. 

I'm thankful to have him home with me tonight. I'm thankful he's up and moving around. I'm thankful we are at the end of our 8 day work stretch so we can have a break over the next couple of days for him to rest even more fully. 

And I'm ready for a new January tradition.