Is a morphine drip at 6:15am technically an AM snack?

Woke up at 4:45am feeling warm and an achy back. Went to the bathroom with an eye to go right back to bed, but instead the pains continued to grow and throb. Tried sitting up in the kitchen, tried lying down in the living room. Sipped some water, felt dizzy from pain, went to the bathroom and tried to throw up, but nothing came up. With steady rising pain, decided not to find out where this was going to end without a professional and Betsy called me a cab and I went to the emergency room.

It's a good thing, because by the time I got there, I could barely stand, talk or see straight -- pain like I had never had before (and hopefully never again.) The doc pushed and prodded me, nothing hurt where she pushed, and she said it was probably kidney stones. Then, my first morphine drip, then a trip to the cat scan. Kidney stone confirmed, I was out of there around 8am feeling quite warm and fuzzy.

Spent the day buzzing on pills, some discomfort but compared to the morning's 10/10 pain, the afternoon lingered at 1 or 2.

So how did this happen? I'll be meeting with a urologist later in the week, but I can't help but think my first ever kidney stone was probably related to a) stress and b) diet. Though I don't write it up here, I usually take in 2 quarts of water a day (that's 8 cups for those not up on your kitchen maths), not including the 2 cups of iced tea I get in. Is it my heavy hand with salt? Perhaps all the calcium I've been eating in my now-regular baby spinach salads? It'll be interesting to hear with the doc says when I present him with a list of everything I ate for the entire month of February! Thing is, I've been feeling pretty great and eating relatively well since my illness over the holidays, this whole episode is catching me a bit by surprise.

I went to the same emergency room I took my dad when he had complications from surgery, same one I met my parents in when he had his first major fall & stroke. Same hospital where they had hospice care and passed away. I never had an IV drip in my arm before, and I hate needles -- the idea of putting a needle in and leaving it there would usually make me queazy, but I was so racked in agony that I just didn't care, if it would take the pain away. Once that morphine hit, I was staring at the emergency room ceiling, thinking ahhh, this is what my parents saw when they were here! Hi mom! Hi dad! Very odd, made me feel a little closer to them, it was comforting, even though I usually get a little bummed every time I bike or bus by this hospital.


BREAKFAST: 9am, hardcore oatmeal, water, oxycodone, ibuprofin, flomax & cipro, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5


NOON SNACK: noon, granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3pm, baby carrots, ritz crackers, xtra strong ibuprofin, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
Not hungry, but the pill had to be taken with food.

DINNER: 5:45pm, pizza with mushroom & meatball, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5