Intense pain woke me at 2am. I knew immediately what it was- yet another Urinary Tract Infection, my fifth since Asher was born four months ago. I took a sitz bath and some AZO. I got out my heating pad. I watched Tivo in attempt to distract myself. I never did get back to sleep. I just hurt way to much to fall asleep again, even with a hefty dose of numbing medication. Within hours I was bleeding horribly and passing clots. Um, sorry if that is too graphic!
Rick left for his 6:15am shift, the kids were up by 7:30. I knew I needed to see a doctor so I fed everyone, dressed everyone, changed diapers, wiped runny noses, washed faces. I packed a snack and toys to take the doctor with us. I canceled our morning playdate plans with my friend (sorry again, Natalie!). I gritted my teeth through it all because I was hurting a lot.
I felt worse as the day went on and I couldn’t seem to muster the courage to load five kids in the van and spend the rest of the day at a crowded urgent care walk-in clinic. I was so miserable, exahausted (having been up since 2am), and I could barely stand up. I just wanted to curl up in a little ball and let the kids eat chips for lunch. (They had bologna sandwiches with cheese and yogurt instead.)
We made it to the urgent care clinic by 1pm. Thankfully, the wait was not long and all five kids were total angels while we were there. The urine culture showed a terrible infection, and lots of blood, pus, and protein, which made the doctor think that the infection was already spreading to my kidneys. She put me on heavy duty antibiotics to treat kidney infection, and gave me a seven-day course instead of three-day. And she prescribed a pain killer as well, designed just for UTI pain. She told me to see my family doctor Monday morning to follow up and to find out why I keep getting infections. She said I might need to stay on preventative antibiotics, see a specialist, do more testing, or all of the above.
After the appointment, we went to the pharmacy to drop of my prescriptions. I was told they’d be ready in one hour so I was faced with a dilemma. Do I wait for an hour in the parking lot? Or do I drive home, unload the kids, wait for half and hour, and then go back to pick up the prescriptions? I opted for the latter. A half an hour curled up on the couch seemed worth all that extra buckling and unbuckling.
Finally, by nearly 5pm, I was able to take my new antibiotic and my pain killers. The pain killers are starting to work. I’m still hurting, but I finally am not in agony anymore. I feel dizzy and nauseous though, a nice side effect of my medication. Asher is taking his evening nap, the other children are playing in the playroom. I am anxiously waiting for Rick to come home in a few hours. I am so ready to “clock out” today. It’s been a very long, very miserable day…
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 8:24 |
I have one too…groan! I haven’t seen my doctor because I can barely stand up without throwing up, there is no way I can drive all the way downtown.
Jonny bought me cranberry juice and Azo…it seems to be working but I still have the feeling of needing to tinkle every 20 mins.
Thank goodness you caught yours in time…If you get another Kidney infection, I don’t care what you say, I’m on the next flight to Salt Lake
Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 8:24 |
Omg Melissa, those infections seems horrible. I think something might be causing them and you should insist that your doctor find out what.
Good luck and try some 7up for the nausea, it helps.
Julie
Monday, November 24, 2008 at 8:24 |
Okay, I’m sitting here smacking myself in the head because I just should have come to your house!!!!! Why don’t I think of these things when I am supposed to?! On Saturday I just thought that I wanted to let you rest and not have you worry about our playdate. What I SHOULD have done is come to your house so that I could either stay with your kids while you went to the doctor, or picked up your prescriptions or SOMETHING. I’m feeling really awful that I didn’t think to do that! I was only thinking that we didn’t need to be in the way and needed to let you get things done. But now reading this, I see how awful it was, and I really should have been there for you! This is a good lesson for me. I will be there next time! Although I hope you don’t have a next time! I’m so very sorry. I hope that you are feeling better!