Romancing the Stone

The past week has been up and down as far as my health is concerned. I won’t go into all the gruesome details – don’t worry. Last Friday and Saturday, while at work, I noticed that my lower left back was bothering me. On Sunday, while tutoring, I could hardly sit still my back hurt so bad, and I was kind of uncomfortable all over. I had to excuse myself to get some pain medication, and then suffered through it to finish the session. When I got home, I took my temperature and saw it was 101.2 (thus began the temperature chart pictured here). I felt bad, but I honestly didn’t feel like I had a fever that high. I let the babies’ mom know, and she gave me Monday and Tuesday off work in case I was contagious. Wes and I sat up watching a movie Sunday night. I felt icky, but not flu horrible sick. Monday I piddled around the apartment feeling generally fine, and I taught class Monday night. Then Tuesday morning, around 4am, I woke up with horrible stabbing pain in my lower left back again. I was in tears from the pain, and I finally woke Wes up. He was worried and asked if I wanted to go to the emergency room. I figured it would pass like it did on Sunday and said we could wait (I’ve had episodes of abdominal pain like these in the past – the pain comes and goes). He said we’d wait twenty minutes and go over if it didn’t stop. He medicated me and lay next to me trying to help ameliorate the pain. Sweet boy. The pain did indeed pass, and I passed out in a drug-induced stupor. I felt no after-effects from it all. I actually went in to Kaplan and worked for extra hours Tuesday since I couldn’t nanny.

Wes’s unofficial diagnosis – based on symptoms and no labs – was that I’d had a small kidney stone. He told me to call my general internal doctor on Tuesday and let them know what happened. I did, and the nurse told me to come in and see the doctor. Naturally, there were no same-day appointments (and Wes wonders why the emergency room stays so busy here). So I went in Wednesday. By this point, I had no symptoms whatsoever except that it felt a little weird to pee (I know, I know – but it did). I didn’t see my regular doctor, and the woman who did see me left something to be desired. As a rule, I don’t like doctors. I know several doctors as people – most notably my husband – and like them, but I’ve not had a good history with doctors that actually doctor me. This one was no better. She was confused as to why I’d come in if the pain had disappeared, unsure of what I was wanting to hear, and seemed to have no general opinion on what had caused the pain, fever, and general malaise. The minute she heard that Wes was an ED doctor, and that he had expressed concern about a kidney stone, she said, “Oh, so let me guess, he prescribed you an antibiotic.” What is that?! Of course he didn’t prescribe me anything, especially not an antibiotic when he no evidence of an infection. Besides, for all she knew, my husband could be the head of the ED or the world’s leading authority on kidney stones. She was rude and condescending the entire visit and exhibited no people skills whatsoever. She said there was no sign of an infection, but that my urinalysis did show other indicators of a kidney stone – but she was pretty sure it wasn’t that; I probably just had back spasms. Sure… I didn’t expect this woman to tell me exactly what had happened. There’s not always a good way to tell if someone’s had a kidney stone. I understand that. If she had just said, “Well, we don’t see any evidence that it was a kidney stone, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t. There are no signs of a kidney infection, which is good. We want you to come in if you suspect a stone because we like to check for infection. In the meantime, we want you to drink plenty of water and go to the emergency room if it happens again. Be well!” then I would’ve thought she did a great job. She just handled everything so…awkwardly. I don’t like to be made to feel as though I’m an idiot for having made an appointment – especially when a doctor (an intern, yes, but a doctor still) and a nurse told me to do so.

I understand what doctors do and what all they put up with at work. But a general internal medicine doctor spends all day seeing patients in a clinic setting like this. Is it that hard to be the slightest bit personable and friendly? I guess I see it like this. As a teacher, my job is to educate students. My being nice to my students has nothing to do with that, but it’s expected that I will be respectful and supportive of my students and friendly to their parents. A doctor’s job is to administer to my health needs – to keep me alive, basically, and help me get better when something’s wrong. The doctor’s job isn’t to be nice to me, but in the same vein as a teacher, it seems reasonable to expect these people to be respectful and understanding. I know it’s easy to become jaded. I do live with a doctor. But really. I just find it all so frustrating. Herbal medicine, here I come.

I’m feeling better now and hope to NEVER again have a kidney stone (or whatever it was). Ugh.