GRADUATION! oh and a small trip to the ER

       On May 1st I finished my last final and was ready for graduation. It had been such a crazy semester and I have never wanted to be done with school so badly in my life! On May 2nd I was awakened to a severe pain in my back left side and I could barely walk. It was 5:30 am and Nate left early for work so he could make it to my commencement ceremony that night. I wrapped a heat pad around me and took some Tylenol and tried so hard to make it stop. I was worried about the baby so I called my Ob and she said I should go to the ER. I had never gone to the ER before and I thought you had to have a limb falling off to even be admitted. I tried to wait it out a little longer because I didn't want to go. Believe it or not I was thinking about how expensive it would be so I thought I could just wait until an urgent care was open at 9 am.
       Nate decided to come home to take care of me and the second he walked into the door I said, "I think I need to go to the hospital!" That is when the vomiting started... and we cruised to Alta View. I couldn't even stand when we were trying to check in and they had to put me in a wheel chair just to get me to a room. I remember coming in and out of consciousness and having to throw up until there was nothing left. They told me I most likely had kidney stones but that they were unable to give me a CT scan because of the baby and the radiation that it would expose him to. They pumped some morphine and some fluids through me and got me an ultrasound. They said my kidney was inflamed but that they couldn't really tell from the ultrasound if their were any stones. Even with Morphine I was still completely in pain. They told me that they couldn't conclude that I had kidney stones but that was probably what it was.

       They admitted me to the hospital and I was sent to the women's center so they could observe my baby and keep him and me hydrated through an IV. He was doing great, just kicking like any normal day and his heart rate was perfect through the whole thing. He is a champ. I was still throwing up even though I hadn't had any food since 5 am and it was now 3 pm. It wasn't fun. The meds still weren't working and they finally gave me a shot of dilaudid in my thigh and it seemed to do the trick. I was still sore but I was able to stop humming and moaning and actually function. As soon as it would wear off though I was done for! It was a really rough night.
        The next day I was feeling good and thought I might make it to my social and behavioral science commencement ceremony at 2 pm. The doctor took forever to see me for discharge and by the time he did I was having another large pang of pain. We left at 1pm and that was the time they said to be in your seats at the Huntsman Center... so that said, I didn't make it to graduation...
       That night though, my family threw me a party and I was able to wear my cap and gown and celebrate my 4 years of rough road at college. It was great to have everyone over!

      It took a few days for the pain to be completely gone but then I was completely fine. It was so frustrating not knowing exactly what was wrong with me but my symptoms and the way my pain started and traveled seemed to conclude small kidney stones. I never saw them pass but my nurse said that she rarely ever sees them pass unless they were so big they were surgically removed. She also said that it is a little more common for pregnant women to get them because of the way a baby can lie on the kidneys and back them up, creating stones.