too hot to think
| July 15th, 2006 at 21:43 |So far this summer has been warm but not hot and I keep thinking, “Dude, what were we complaining about last year? This isn’t so bad! Boy am I glad we didn’t waste my tax return on an air conditioner!”
Holy fuck. That all changed yesterday when the weather gods decided they hate me.
In looking back through my entries, it appears I’ve left out some important details.
I mentioned that my doctor did a urine culture, which came back negative. Whatever it is that’s making me feel like I’m prolapsing a kidney probably isn’t an infection. But that made me think about the last time they thought I had a kidney infection. I had stabbing pains in my back, and front RLQ pain, so I got a CT that showed no stones except in my appendix. This time it’s LLQ pain, and it’s disappearing similarly. I occasionlly still get the dull aches wherever there have been stabbing pains before. I think it’s almost like I have to suffer with a few weeks of stabbing, and then whatever it is never fully heals. I have another spot on my LUQ, more centered.
I also had a HIDA scan, and that was a little surreal, since that’s what I do for a living. I made them put a 20g in my arm, since that’s my gauge-of-choice when starting IVs, and they seem to think it’s cruel and unusual. I gotta say, though, when the difference is 20 to 22, I couldn’t tell. It’s just that he hit a valve and then proceeded to infiltrate, that’s when it started to hurt. Anyway, I will continue putting 20g IVs in the patients whose veins will support them, because I feel like I have better control. I won’t let their taunts stop me. The scan itself was rather uneventful. I turned on my iPod, tried to zone out, but couldn’t keep my eyes off the screen. Okay, there’s my bowels, there’s some reflux back into my stomach, there’s my CBD … where’s that gallbladder? Is that it? It’s so tiny! Well, let’s give it more time. It never did end up getting bigger. It just kinda laid there like a tiny lump.
It kind of looked like this one, only with the straight line at the bottom of the graph instead of the top.
Anyway, that’s called gallbladder dyskinesia, and that’s why taking it out is elective. If I had stones, it would be more along the lines of emergent.
I’ve got an appointment for a consultation with a surgeon on the 26th.
My doctor has given me a refillable prescription of the pain medication I got in the ER. What a relief that stuff is. It makes me pretty sleepy/loopy, so I only take it in the evenings, after work, though. Between the number of pills in the bottle and the number of refills I’m allowed to get in the next 15 months, I have approximately 238534257823902309834 more than I need.
Anyway, it’s so hot that my fingers and ankles are swollen and making me miserable. Maybe things will be better tomorrow.
2 Responses to “too hot to think”
By iAN | Jul 30, 2006 at 22:59 | Reply
I’m not sure what most of that meant, except the part about having way too many pills.
Also, I remember when we totally ran out of needles at the aid station and ended up sticking guys with 14 gauge for about a week and a half.
By d | Aug 4, 2006 at 21:06 | Reply
That sucks. The hospital has decided to switch to safety needles only (they’ve got a slidey thing that covers the needletip when you’re done, which means no more recapping). Unfortunately, to keep radiation from dripping on the floor, we need to recap ours, and so our department is screwed. We’ve gone to every department and nursing floor and scrounged up all the old needles everyone else was getting rid of. It should last another month or two, and then I don’t know what we’re going to do.