The last few days have been quite crazy.  I wasn't feeling well at all this weekend.  My back was killing me.  I mean really killing me.  I was afraid that it was because I was weaning down off the duragesic patch.

Then sometime Sunday night I was woken up with the most intense, stabbing, throbbing, killer pain in my back.  It was just below my rib cage on both sides and radiated to the front.  I had no clue what was going on.  I ended up taking two extra pain pills and then going to the bathroom and it went away as quickly as it came.  But it lasted about three hours.

I woke up on Monday morning feeling really great.  I took Lauren to work, stopped by to see how the land clearing was going, stopped by to see Carol, my sister in-law, went to Walmart, the thrift store and the health food store.  In the car on the way home that pain returned with a vengeance.  I don't even know how I managed to get up the stairs to the apartment.  But I decided to work through the pain and empty the dishwasher, make my bed, fold some clothes, etc.  Then the pain intensified like 100%.  Same place as the night before.  I started to get a little scared as I remembered my NY rheumi telling me that he was getting concerned with my kidneys.  There was blood and protein in my urine and some of the blood work came back off.  Not bad enough to warrant further testing yet, but just a cause for concern and to wait and see.

Then I started feeling nauseous and vomited.  In the bathroom my legs gave out from the pain and there I was laying on the bathroom floor.  I couldn't manage to get up because the pain was just so intense.  I called for my son for like 10 minutes but he didn't hear me.  I managed to crawl into my bedroom and continued to call for him.  By the time he heard me I was riling around the floor screaming in pain.  The poor kid thought I was having a seizure or another stroke and called 911.

All the while in my head I kept thinking that my kidneys were failing.  The paramedics arrived and took my vitals.  I had a low grade fever and my blood pressure was very high.  I don't remember exactly what it was but I think the top number was 180 or something like that.  They brought me over to the hospital.  During the 1 minute drive there the pain was mostly on my right side.  He paramedic said....... classic kidney stones.  He's seen it a million times.

At the hospital the doctor said the same thing.  I was given something for pain and nausea and whisked off for a CAT scan.  Let me tell you this, this hospital is amazing.  The CAT scan results were back in less than 30 minutes.  It showed my urethra was dilated and another stone in my kidney.  The doctor said I passed at least two stones because I had two of these episodes.  He also said the one in my kidney shouldn't give me any problems.

I feel fine now.  It's amazing how quickly you feel better after passing a stone.

But this is the worst pain I have ever had in my life.

Tags: kidney stones, Palmetto Baptist Hospital

I'm in another episode.  I hate to call it a flare because I could (and hope to) wake up tomorrow morning and feel fine.  But for the last week or so I have been feeling horrible.

I'm quite sure that it's the APS that is acting up again.  My INR levels have not been therapeutic for a few weeks.  First high and now low.  Two visits to the ER.  Two sets of blood tests and two CAT scans.  One set of each for high levels and then on Saturday another set for low levels.  Each time it was head pain that sent me to the ER.  Also because I have yet to obtain a doctor.  I do have an appointment on 10/2.  Hopefully one of the physicians recommended by the the ER doc will see me this week.

What drives me crazy is that when I explain that I have APS (among my other crap) I get that look.  That puppy dog head tilt thing.  It's frustrating to get that look from a physician.  Also, when my blood levels come back I am told that 2.2 is fine.  Yup, fine for those with artificial valves but not those with APS.  Again the puppy dog tilty thing.

So, this evening I scanned my medical records and found the printout from the coumadin center in NY.  This printed listed all my visits, what my levels were and the daily dosages.  I found a period on the printout that had the same basic levels I have now.  I'll follow that dosage schedule for now.

I am so frustrated.