Sunday, November 19, 2006

Never a dull moment...

This weekend was certainly an interesting one. On Friday night, I went to dinner at the Caf with Miriam and Amanda, and then we decided to take my car to the mall. But first, we picked up Laura Jo. So the four of us spent two hours or so at the mall, just walking through stores and hanging out.

After we got back to campus, we drove Miriam back to her dorm and dropped her off. Then, Amanda, Laura Jo and I went to Laura Jo's apartment to hang out and play Nintendo. Around midnight, we started watching Friends episodes, and that was when this incredible pain started. I tried to sit still, but I couldn't sit comfortably. My lower abdomen and lower back were in the most pain I have ever experienced. By 12:45, I finally told Laura Jo and Amanda how much pain I was in, and I started kneeling on the floor, in an attempt to get comfortable. Laura Jo gave me Advil, but it didn't help. I was in tears by the time one of Laura Jo's roommates came in, who immediately said this looked like the pain she has from her ovarian cysts. So she gave me half of a hydrocodon, which Laura Jo okay-ed...(she was a pharmacy technician). By 1:30, the hydrocodon hadn't kicked in and I was still in really bad pain, so Laura Jo and Amanda asked me what I wanted to do. They agreed to go get my car and drive me back to my dorm, so I could try to sleep.

On their way back to LJ's apartment to pick me up, LJ called me and said they had changed their minds. "We're taking you to the hospital." I didn't fight it, as I had all night. We got to the Emergency Room a little after 2am. I got checked in, gave a pee sample, and answered a ton more questions. Soon, the nurse came in to draw blood and hook me up to an IV, which I was just a tad anxious about. The IV immediately started pumping Demerol into my body-- that's a med they usually give to cancer patients for pain. The Demerol gave me a really, really bad headache at first, but then it made me dizzy and I started falling in and out of sleep. They were also pumping anti-nausea drugs into me to keep me from throwing up. They did a CAT scan, and about two hours later, they told me I had two kidney stones, one on either side. They prescribed medicine (Oxycodone) and sent me home, with a souvenir pair of socks. I can't have anything with caffeine until I pass the stones, which, as I write this on Sunday evening at 10:50pm, I have yet to do. I'm supposed to, and have been, drinking lots of liquids in order to speed the process along, but thus far, I'm still in pain. The pain, though, is a lot less than it was Friday night, but sitting is still painful (which is all you do, pretty much, in college).

So, that was my weekend. I spent Saturday helping prepare and serve a Thanksgiving meal to kids in a local low-income neighborhood, with my small group. Then Kelsey and I went to Seussical and sat in the Interpretor Section, and got to watch the show being signed. Then I got sleep! Then I went to LumberJack Ball, which is an annual InterVarsity event. By midnight, though, the drugs had knocked me out and I was fast asleep in front of a HUGE bonfire. This was not before I participated in cricket-spitting, SPEW (the alkaseltzer game), and Chubby Bunny, which I WON! My friends are awesome, all of them. They've been taking very good care of me and praying for me and doing whatever they can to help!

And Laura Jo is riding to Chapel Hill with me on Tuesday evening!!! YAY! But she might be driving my car, because if I'm still taking these pain killers, I can't drive. That's all.

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