Kidney Stones Are For . . . .

Last night, Doug woke me up at 2 a.m. I didn't realize the time and thought that he needed something before he left for work at 5:30. Unfortunately, that was not the case and instead, he needed help with a stabbing pain that he was having in his right side just above his hip.  He was positive that it was appendicitis and from the pain that he was in, I believed him.  I offered to drive him to the hospital but decided that calling 911 would be better.  Doug agreed wholeheartedly and soon I had a 911 operator on the phone.

The man who answered the phone was nice and asked a lot of questions, some of which scared me such as "Has he had an aortic tear in the past?"  Even though my response was no, he sent the paramedics to check on Doug.  It felt like forever before they got here, but it was probably only ten minutes.  They talked to Doug for a few minutes, took his vitals and got a list of his medications from me then decided that a trip to the nearest hospital was the best course of action.  

Doug and I spent over three hours at the hospital where they took a CT scan of his side, gave him fluids, and then pumped him full of morphine and ibuprofen once they were positive that it was a kidney stone.  After thinking about Doug's history that made the most sense to us as well as Doug had had one fifteen years ago.  The pain wasn't quite as intense back then and he actually passed it on his drive from work to the doctor's office.  

Once the doctor confirmed the diagnosis with the CT results, they gave us the option of staying at the hospital until it passed or going home with a lot of different medications.  Doug picked the latter and spent today resting, working on his computer and watching television.  The pain was definitely better by the afternoon, but the stone still hadn't passed.  From what I read, we were hoping that it would in the next few days meaning that Doug would probably stay home again tomorrow.  

All in all, our first emergency in Ocala went about as well as we could have hoped for last night. We now knew where the closest hospital was in an emergency and how long it would take for an ambulance to get to our home. It also gave me the perfect chance to remind Doug that "Kidney stones are for pussies" as quoted by Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men.