WHY?! (warning- it's kind of a novel)

Remember March? Well lets just say I'd rather not remember. It was just a horrible month with day after day of pain. I wrote about it, if you didn't hear (and care)....read it. ;)
April started off pretty good, then got sucky again. And well the 1st 7 days of May were down right awful! I had no idea my 30th year would lead to total physical fall apart! Ugh.
Mid April I started peeing blood for some odd reason. Maybe TMI, but its true. I was having some abdominal pains too, so I called my urologist right away to be seen. Luckily they were free and told me to head on over. Ran a urine test- no infection but significant level of blood. Not good. 4 days later I had an ultrasound done on my kidneys and bladder to check for stones or any other major problem. Nothing, came back normal. Pain mostly gone, but with blood still present almost 2 weeks later, they decided to scope my bladder (yes, go in through that tiny hole with a camera on a probe- OUCH! Not fun!!) Nothing, looked good & healthy. Good thing, I was worried I might have bladder cancer- its in the family! By this time I was not really in pain & I do have a medullary sponge kidney disorder (i dunno?) that can cause random blood. So they kind of just ruled it as a Mystery Diagnosis. (Hey! Maybe I'll get an episode on TLC?) That night I had some irritation from that darn camera going where it doesn't belong. :( But by bed, I felt fine. I woke up with my bladder on fire. (DAY 1) Grreeeat, got a darn infection from the scope! It was Saturday, so I called the answering service to get my doctor on the line. He called me in a RX for an antibiotic and the other pill that turns your pee neon orange and makes it not hurt. ;) I was super uncomfortable all day and all Sunday (DAY2). The pills hadn't done anything, so clearly this was not an infection. Sunday night the pain escalated and I was up most the night in agonizing pain! By 1:30 am I was just UP and by 3am I was freaking out, dying! Jonathan could hear me downstairs moaning & groaning & bawling & sobbing, and totally freaking out. This was like giving birth to Carlaya for all you lucky ones that know that story. ;) Down right awful! He was concerned and gave me a blessing. Immediately after I just felt like I should go to the ER. Then I was panicking even more like maybe instinctively I knew this was major and would be bad. We hated to wake anyone up to come be with the kids (on a Monday morning), so I decided to just bear down and drive myself to the ER. I was in so much pain I could not even sit still and was breathing grossly heavy, this was like full blown active labor!
(DAY 3)They checked me in relatively quickly and took a urine test right away. They were convinced this was an infection or a stone. I knew it wasn't. It didn't feel like any stone I'd had before, as painful as they are. Plus I'd just had my kidneys & bladder checked for a stone. They stuck me in the butt with a pain killer shot. It hurt about as bad as the pain (not really) but- it burned! They ran a Cat Scan to look for a stone or anything else major that could be wrong in my abdomen. Hours later, still left with mystery diagnosis. ;( Cat Scan & urine normal, but a trace of blood. Gave me a mild pain killer RX and sent me packing. Already late for work, Jonathan stayed home to help with the kids.
I felt "ok" that day (compared to awful) but by night it was flaring up again. I couldn't sit still and I was sobbing in pain. Knew going to the ER was pointless, since I was "obviously" normal. I found a weird uncomfortable position on the couch that miraculously made the pain slightly less and I was able to fall asleep. I woke up physically uncomfortable @ 2:30 am and had move upstairs. Took a while to fall back asleep, but finally did. Peed like 5 times in the night but other than that, I slept so so.
(DAY 4) Still feeling junky as all get out. I tried to get into a OBGYN's office to maybe have my uterus looked out for possible cysts. They can grow on the outside and put pressure on the bladder. And pressure it was I was feeling! Peeing a ton, unexplained abdomen/pelvic pain and a normal CT scan. Where's a girl to turn? GYN got me in but once they realized I'd just been to the ER they wouldn't see me without my ER records. What?! Are you blinkin' crazy?!! I am here because there is no records- everything is "normal". I was so desperate to get the pain solved. They rescheduled me for Friday. Convenient, thanks so much! Walked out and sobbed the whole way home. :( I was in so much pain and felt helpless. Beyond overwhelmed. My knight-in-shinning-armor wasn't having it. He was furious and called the office to "negotiate" a deal to help me out. My man got me an appointment for the very next day instead. Phew, ok, just get through one more night and maybe, just maybe they can help and get me some answers.
That night the pain escalated again! It was a long miserable night of tossing and turning and mysteriously peeing so much. Kind of made me think it was a stone but with 3 tests so far ruling that out....?
(DAY 5) Pain out of control again from about 5:30am on. By 6 am, I was on the phone with Jonathan (at work) panting and breathing heavy like I was in labor. I couldn't handle it and this time it wasn't just throbbing pain throughout my abdomen. It was also a sharp pain in my right side from the front clear through to the back. Jonathan was now worried it was my appendix about to burst. I hated again to bug people at 6 am and ask to drop off my 4 kids who were still asleep, so Jonathan decided he'd better run home. I couldn't wait and woke Carlaya up to tell her I was leaving and she was responsible until Daddy got here (15-20 min later). Sweating profusely and breathy like a fat giant, I stumbled into the ER once again.
This time they could tell my pain & knew I was back for a reason and hurried to get me into a bed, after peeing in a cup again of course. Within 30 minutes they had an IV in me to draw blood and then quickly got that morphine going. Aaaaah, ooo-la-la.....ooooooh! I hadn't had morphine before and let me just say, it is weird, but nice and relaxing. After a calm & relaxed, stoned little wait, I was off to get an ultrasound of my uterus and pelvic region. They knew my CT on Monday showed no stone, so they wanted to explore possible cysts or whatever else. I had the nice ol' internal and external ultrasound. Oddly enough, even on the morphine which took away all sharp pains and throbbing- my bladder still felt pressure and burned. By 9 am the cute young doctor came in baffled. Everything looked normal. They see no cysts, stones, tumors, etc.....? HOW?! WHY?! WHAT the...?! He too had hoped for an answer to help solve my pain. He gave me lortabs and basically wished me luck. Told me if it gets worse or symptoms change..to come back. Yeah right! For what......a "normal" result. At least he was really cute, and super nice. He tried. I'll give him that.
I still had my appt with the GYN, but with cysts ruled out I didn't see the point in going. Jonathan said it would be worth a try to see what they say. High on morphine, he picked me up from the hospital and then later took me to the GYN. Sitting in his truck out front with 3 kids trying to be patient, I went in hoping for a miracle. They wanted a urine sample of course, cause ya know, my pee had NOT been tested enough this week. I was so high, I peed in the toilet while holding the cup in my hand. Dang it, oops! I went out to tell them it'd be a minute. I drank some water and 15 min later, tried again. I was in the bathroom for 5-6 min and heard the nurse call my name. Aaah, I'm up! I hurried and peed and came out. The receptionist told me to wait right there. I waited, and waited and waited. After 15 min, I texted Jonathan to just leave and go get lunch cause I wasn't even in a room yet. I stood up and asked the receptionist where I should wait, she said, "right there is fine". oooooookay. 10-15 min later the office manager asked me to come back out front to the waiting room so she could talk to me through the window. (I knew in my gut there was going to be another issue! GRRR!)
"Um, mam, did you leave for a minute?" NO.
"Did you leave & come back?" NO.
"Cause we couldn't find you" Yeah cause I'm high and peed in the toilet and had to try again.
I was in the bathroom when the nurse called my name, so I came out and they told me to wait right over THERE!
"Weeeeell, here's the problem. It's way past your appointment time and the doctors are leaving for lunch. We couldn't find you, so they took other patients back. (Patient?! Don't call me a patient, there is nothing patient about ME!!!)
Almost in tears, pleading with them...... I just came from the ER for the 2nd time this week. I was sent away the 1st time from you guys. My husband is out front waiting for an hour now with 3 kids. I need to be seen!
"Unfortunately our doctors are booked up for this afternoon, but (since it's our freaking fault- even though we're trying to blame it on you) we have a nurse practitioner that can see you at 1:30 at our Mt. View office."
Um, seriously? Ok. (whatever I'm done and about to explode!)
I walk outside to the truck in tears. Jonathan was NOT happy when I told him what happened. He said, "Come on we're going back in and they ARE going to see you!!! This is bull s#*$!" Yeah right, I'm not going in with you to yell at them and then I can be all uncomfortable and embarrassed. I'd rather just leave. So he went in alone. LOL Unfortunately, even he lost this battle. We both stormed off feeling helpless and overwhelmed. He also refused to go to the 1:30 appt. for a "consult" with a nurse practitioner. What the HELL is that gonna do anyway?!
Tried to enjoy the rest of my day on morphine, until about 3pm when it wore off. Then resorted to lortab (A 1/2 cause I'm a lightweight). Slept like crap- yes, even on Lortab. (pain at about a 7)
(DAY 6) Busy day ahead. Kids to the dentist, then off to school. Jose to Oncology that afternoon. Day pretty much booked with back to back errands. Can't just lay around crying forever. Tried to buck up and deal. On IB since I can't be out and about on lortab ;) Pain lingering about a 7-8. Could be worse, right? At the dentist my friend from our ward told me about this voodoo witch doctor. LOL Actually, a lady that does Zone Therapy. (kind of like reflexology) LDS and from Logan, in town for only 3 days. Apparently can diagnose anything and tell you everything about your body. Desperate? YES I AM, I'll give it a shot. Lortab'd the night away, still totally uncomfortable in pain. When lortab doesn't make you feel numb, what in the world will? Seriously? If you know...I'd like the answer for next time my life nose dives.
(DAY 7) Patiently waiting (on pain killers) for my 3 o'clock miracle appointment that will solve all my problems. Made it through the day with my pain at a 8-9. Totally open minded and desperate, let the foot massage begin. (That's how this lady looks into your body, by rubbing your feet. All nerves in your body lead into your feet and she can feel your organs through them.) Only thing I didn't know? That is hurts like a mother! She is grinding her knuckles into the tendons on my feet and into the bone. UGH! AAH! EEK! Either way, the pain in my feet helped to cancel out the pain in my bladder. It was bizarre, let me tell you. She only said a few things that I didn't necessarily agree with. Problems she said could be the culprit that I don't think are to blame, but maybe they are there. Other than that, she was amazing.
"You've had a neck injury....whip lash. (um, yup- in my car wreck), oh, here in your eye (only in my foot) you have astigmatism, (what the? Crazy she'd know that) she said lots of little things that are totally true about my body. The main problem she could see was stemming from the intestines. There probably is an issue there because pain killers can....."bind you up". But I know this pain isn't there. She told me I was stressed and overwhelmed. True. She couldn't believe how hard it was to loosen my tendons in my feet. She said I had a lot of anxiety. This week- very very true. I was freaking out!
Normally, she just "zones" the feet. But since I was so uptight internally, emotionally, physically- she wanted to work on my spine. I laid on my back and she pushed on different points along my rib cage & hips. Then pushed under me on my lower back. She used the "energy" to "calm" things inside. I will say, as weird as that may sound, I could feel "energy" making things move inside. It was like twinkle stars going in circular motion throughout my pelvic area. The pain felt almost gone and I was so relaxed.
She told me several things to try from the health food store and what things to kick from my diet to help my overall health. I left feeling really good, but a little bummed I didn't have a definite answer for my problem. (well not in my mind) About 7pm the pain suddenly picked up again and against her advise I turned to lortab. I had to! Even on lortab, my pain stayed at an 8 all night. I peed lots and before bed even, I was peeing blood again. What the...?!!! Like clear water and just a pool of blood at the bottom. So weird, and not good. A few times in the night I'd turn on the light to check to see if there was blood in my urine. It was lessening as the night wore on. Around 3:30 it felt like something came out when I peed. I jumped up to look. Couldn't see anything. Hmmmm. (DAY 8) Back to sleep till I peed again at 5:15. (yes, I have been peeing that much all day/night ALL week) Peed normal amount, felt nothing. Turned on light just to check for blood. WHAT the HECK is that? I grabbed a razor and fished out what looked like a clot. It was rock hard. It was a kidney stone! Are you kidding me? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!! My urologist, 2 ER doctors, AND a witch doctor....countless tests and NO ONE saw this invisible kidney stone! It could have been blasted into tiny bits and peed out like specks of sand. But NO, it was better to have been in misery for 7 solid days. Making Jonathan miss 2 days of work (with NO pay) being cranky and miserable and snipping at anyone who got even remotely on my nerves, and looking dreadful every stinking day! Don't ask my how or why? I have no clue. But yeah. Then I felt kind of the same, so I crawled back in bed. Pain was pretty much gone when I woke up, just sore bladder. Still peed lots all day but by Sunday, pretty much back to normal.
I'm a little nervous because my right kidney has hurt a little bit off/on since. If there is another stone in there......so HELP ME! ;(