The Wreck of the Day

What a horrible, horrible day I've had. I didn't sleep that much last night which in itself I can handle. The past three nights actually I've woken up in pain taken my medication and then gotten a shoddy night of sleep. But last night was the worst since I woke up at 2 am and the pain was worse than normal and more persistent. But I was reassuring myself that at least today was my doctor's appointment so I could get a refill on my painkillers and see what the latest gossip was on possible treatments.

So today was my big round of tests. BIG. I had to be at the hospital at 9 am to take my Glucose Tolerance test, then my doctor's appointment at 9:30 am, then an ultrasound at 11:45 am. I was exhausted before I got there, still on painkillers which hadn't totally wiped out the pain. And yes, I broke down in tears before even leaving the house just thinking of how frustrated I was by the whole situation.

The Glucose test works like this. You go to the Blood Testing Center where they give you a drink called Glucola which you down and then exactly 60 minutes later you have to return for bloodwork and a urine sample. I should have know -- I see all the signs now: 1) Nothing has been going my way and 2) It has the word "Cola" in the title BUT THE GODDAMN DRINK IS CARBONATED. Everyone who knows me well knows that I have never in my entire life been able to drink carbonation. It burns my mouth like holy water to Satan. My brother and cousin used to try to trick me into tasting flat 7-UP when I was little just to see the look on my face. You could leave a can of soda open for 2 weeks and it would still be too carbonated for me to drink. And I had to down 2 glasses of this STUPID STUFF on today of all days!! That was enough to almost make me break. Right there, that almost did it.

But I triumphed and went upstairs to my doctor's appointment. I check in at the counter and tell them ok, I have to be back downstairs at 10:15 for the bloodwork. And get told, "Oh well we'll try to fit you in but we changed your appointment to 12:45 after your ultrasound. Didn't any one tell you?"

No, no one told me. At my last appointment I was handed a script for my ultrasound but no one told me that they had changed my appointment to a time that wouldn't have worked ANYWAY because of the stupid already schedule GLUCOSE TEST THAT YOU HAVE ON YOUR APPOINTMENT BOOK that has to be done first thing in the am because you can't eat anything not even a breathe mint without messing up. (I'm not kidding about that part either: my instructions actually say Do not eat anything including breathe mints, chewing gum or flavored toothpaste.)

Everyone at my doctor's office is really nice so it's hard to be mad at these people, but seriously. You know when a good time to tell me this would have been? Yesterday, when I called in to ask if I was still on for my glucose test because of my ongoing kidney stone issue.

Anyway, so they take me right away. Get the basics -- weight, blood pressure, etc... done. And then I sit and wait for my PA Sally. I watch the time tick by, and as I look at old magazines, I'm thinking I am not going to have any time for this appointment. All the questions that I have to ask about the stupid kidney stone are not going to be answered because I am going to have no time with my PA. The nurse periodically checks in with me to see how I'm doing and make sure I know Sally is on the way and assure me I won't miss the bloodwork, etc... At 10:12, Sally comes in. So I have exactly 3 minutes for an appointment and to get my ass downstairs to the blood center. She walked in and I said, Sally, I only have 2 minutes before I have to go do the bloodwork and she says, "Oh, I didn't know!"

To my chagrin, I lost my cool. Sally is just so nice and reassuring that I saw her and I lost it. I started crying and could barely tell her anything. I managed to get out that I had barely slept the pain had been so bad, that I was still in pain and the stone hadn't passed. She was sooo sweet and supportive, going as fast as possible while telling me that it was ok and I most certainly had more right than anyone to cry, etc... She assured me that the baby is fine and that she could get me more meds and we'd do a follow up appointment in 2 weeks instead of 4 to make sure everything was going better. But I never really got to ask her much. And sadly she told me the part of the stone I had passed was .1 mm meaning I have .9 mm to go. She rushed me off for the bloodwork and told me to come back afterwards to pick up the script and make the appointment.

The whole time I'm rushing down to bloodwork (5 minutes late) I'm in tears telling Rob how frustrated I am and thinking, if I have to drink this GODDAMN CARBONATED DRINK AGAIN I AM GOING TO LOOSE IT IN WAYS NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE! Luckily they took me quickly, did their torturous blood letting and didn't think too much about it. I won't know the results but hopefully, the delay didn't screw anything up and hopefully I pass the test because could GOD really BE that mean?

After the test, I step out in the hall to find that my Mom had showed up and was waiting with Rob to see if she could come to the ultrasound. I think I terrorized her because I immediately broke down in tears again, just utterly exhausted, now poked and prodded with needles and still upset about the doctor's appointment. I headed up and got my appointment and script only to be given a message that the doctor wants me to see a Urologist. So I have an appointment with the Urologist tomorrow (who may or may not be covered by my health care). This is one of the questions that I had wanted to ask my PA because I knew the Urologist was a possibility that we had previously discussed we wanted to avoid. At least tomorrow, I can now ask all my kidney stone questions of the Urologist.

The best part of my day, thankfully followed with a great ultrasound. The technician was looking at the baby's feet and the baby kept peeking down to see what was going on. So we would see just feet then feet and face over and over. It was super cute. I asked Mom afterwards what she had thought because she had never seen an ultrasound before (they didn't do those back in the 70s unless there was something wrong). She said she hadn't really been able to distinguish much -- I guess Rob and I are just old pros by now.

We had lunch with Mom after the ultrasound and then I came home and took a nap or tried to. Ironically because of my day of medical fun I haven't been able to get as much water as I usually do. So I'm a little worried about that and feeling some pain coming back as we speak. Hopefully we won't be in for a repeat of last night.

One final word -- I'm really sorry this blog has turned into a Kidney Stone and Baby blog. I keep thinking I'm sure this isn't fun to read right now, but I so desperately need to complain at the top of my lungs. Seeing as that's all I can do right now.