If you are looking for hope...

[clmason02]

You will find it in my story! You will get through this. You will be healthy again. Just dig deep and keep going. Here's the good, bad, and ugly of an ordeal I went through. Alert, this is very long but full disclosure of my experience: I was 27 years old, sitting at my desk at work when all of a sudden I felt a terrible aching pain in my lower left back and lower left stomach. I knew without a doubt it was a kidney stone, because I had one five years earlier. The pain was of course terrible so I drove myself to the ER to get the pain under control. I sat there for about 4 hours, while they pumped me with pain meds and told me the stone should pass on its own over the next few days. After laying in bed at home for 3 days without improvement, I went to see a urologist (word to the wise: see a urologist asap if you think you might have a kidney stone. You don't have live in agony for days like I did). While I was there, both the secretary and a nurse asked me if I was okay. Apparently all the color in my face was gone, and I was just pitiful looking. The urologist looked at my x ray and although the stone was small, he said it was "stuck" and he could remove it the next day via non-invasive surgery. That was all fine and dandy, but the pain I was in was just awful. I was so weak and utterly exhausted from the kidney stone pain. He left the room for a moment and during that time I looked at my sister and said I thought I was going to faint. She got a nurse and they laid me back on the bed, but it did not help the fainting feeling to go away. I am not sure if I was having an anxiety attack or if I truly was going to pass out. The urologist came back in and told me that I did look quite awful; they were going to call an ambulance as a "non-emergency" to pick me up and take me to the hospital. I could stay there overnight to manage my pain and overall feeling like I was going to pass out. When I got to the hospital, they took all kinds of blood tests. It came back that I was extremely low in iron and also potassium. I had to get a blood tranfusion. What's weird about blood transfusions is they stand over you for like 10 minutes when you first get the blood to make sure you react okay. I am sure it may seem like a comfort, but that made me even more anxiety stricken that something was going to happen while I had the transfusion. After the transfusion, the nurse handed me a huge horse pill that was for potassium. I was so scared to take it for fear of choking, but I ended up getting it down. So anyways, I didn't sleep that whole night. Not a wink. One reason was because I was scared of being put to sleep for my surgery the next day, and another because you just don't get good sleep at hospitals. So the next morning it was time for my surgery and I was pretty nervous. The anestesiologist comes into the room to introduce himself, and flips out when he sees a small can of ginger ale and some crackers on my table. Apparently, I wasn't supposed to eat or drink for like 12 hours before the surgery, but the nurses provided it to me. He told me we would probably have to delay the surgery, and then went out of the room and yelled at one of the nurses. Totally unprofessional. I just burst into tears while my mother tried to console me. After a little while, another doctor came into the room and comforted me a bit (he told me he drank a whole glass of milk before his appendectomy, and he had been fine during surgery). They would still go on with the surgery. So an hour later, it was time for my surgery to remove the kidney stone. Two nurses walked in to give me a shot that would make me sleepy. Of course one of them was in training, and was getting instruction on how and where to give me the shot in my lower hip. I heard a lot of "Wait, what?" "Inject her here, like this?" My moms eyes got huge and then grabbed my hand. I'm telling you, the pain from that shot made me howl. After they left the room, my mom said the shot was like from a cartoon it was so big! So the surgery really wasn't bad. Being put to sleep is weird but it's almost a slow fading out that happens, and then you wake up. Waking up was the weird part; I was holding onto a nurses hand telling her not to go! LOL. And I must have peed into this bucket about 6 times. After I recovered, they sent me on my way home, stent in the kidney and all. So here's where the c diff comes into play. I was at home over the next couple days relaxing and dealing with the weird feeling of having a stent inserted in your kidney. During that time, my urologist wanted me to take an antibiotic to make sure I didn't get a kidney infection from the surgery/stone/stent. I was tired and exhausted, but managed to get out of the house to go to JC Penney for just a few minutes. The next day, I woke up feeling very weak and tired, even more so than the day before. Then I started getting chills, so I took my temperature and it was 103. Then my lower back started killing me. I called my dr who told me I might have gotten a kidney infection so I needed to get to the ER. They did all sorts of test there, and were kind of perplexed as to what it was because my kidney was not infected. Then after about 4 hours in the ER, the diarrea started. Literally I had to go to the bathroom every 8 minutes. Then the cramps in the stomach started happening. Oh my, it was sooo painful. I just cried and cried (again). I was in the ER for 12 hours. Yes, 12 hours, while they waited for a bed upstairs to open up. Finally I get to an actual hospital room, and the cramps are so bad at that point and the painful diarrea keeps coming and coming. One of the nurses took one sniff of the bathroom and said she knew it was c diff. We got the test results a couple hours later that confirmed it. They hooked me up with IV flagyl and I was in the hospital for 5 days. By the 2nd day, the pain in my stomach was so much better but I was soooo weak and tired. Being 27 I was just shocked at what I had gone thru. I finally went home, where I was to take Vico, four times a day for a week. During that time, I still had bad cramps but I thought the vico would help. After a week, I stopped taking it, and the cramps continued. The drs told me to take it for another two weeks, which I did. Again, during that time, I could barely do normal actities because my stomach just plain HURT. It ached! Needless to say, I had to go back on vico at least 3 times and could not miss even one dose or else I would get cramps again. I was not "negative" and free of cramps for 8 months. I know....8 months. I just had to be patient and those around me had to be patient. I would take walks and tell them, sorry, I can't go any further because my stomach just hurts. Having understanding people around you is so important. Finally, after taking multiple rounds of vico, and a probiotic, my stomach eventually returned to normal. It just needs time to heal and get back it's vibe. What was probably the hardest part was dealing with the pain and all the emotion that went along with it; not being healthy for so long and having literally no energy, as a 27 year old you feel like a loser. Remember, energy will come back. Your body will heal. As a side note, I ended up writing a letter to the hospital's infection control person. While I was in the ER the 2nd time, they had suspected Cdiff but did not quartine me, they put an elderly woman in the same room as me, and they let me use the public bathroom. They also left my "samples" and a nurse's infected gloves sit at the top of an overflowing trash can in the bathroom. Yikes. Anyways....sorry for the long story. I just wanted to give hope to anyone who has suffered a health issue (particularly kidney stones and c diff). Take the small victories you get each day and celebrate them. Treat yourself like a queen (or king). Let yourself cry but then dry those tears. You are strong, you are able. You will get through this.

[ppp67]

Oh dear. What an ordeal, both the kidney stone surgery and the 8 month CDIFF followup.
It's so good to hear that things are finally good. I appreciate your message of hope.
It's good to have a loving support group around you. That is so crucial.