Throwing Stones...Again

Caesar and I spent a few hours Saturday morning at the Urgent Care. I'd been experiencing some abrupt and acute lower back pain since Thursday accompanied by a color change in my urine. Friday night, I talked myself into waiting until morning to visit a doctor -- the pain was subsiding, the color was returning to normal. Then, I woke up Saturday, used the bathroom and off we went to the the doctor.

Of course, we arrived to an empty parking lot, thinking that 8AM on a Saturday was a good time. I hobbled up the steps and hand my hand pulling on the door when I noticed the hours posted on the right. We were an hour early. I hobble back to the car, my lower back wincing with each step, and we headed to Polly's for a leisurely breakfast so that by the time we returned, the clinic would be open. And wouldn't you know it, we return a few minutes after 9AM, and about 10 people sat in the waiting room.

WARNING! You may want to skip the next paragraph!!

After an hour, the nurse called me back, checked my vitals, showed me to an exam room, handed me a plastic cup and directed me to the bathroom. I unscrewed the lid, setting on the back of the toilet, and started to give a sample. I'm almost through when I see a large lump painlessly plop into the cup, scaring me enough that I nearly dropped the entire thing into the toilet. I cleaned up, screwed on the lid while gazing in awe at the almost kidney-bean sized lump at the bottom of the cup. That came out of me?!

I showed the nurse whose mouth dropped open. He asked if I felt any pain while going, and I told the truth, the I didn't feel a thing. He taped a label across the lid and asked me to wait in the exam room, that a doctor would be with me shortly.

I tried to read while waiting for the doctor, but the room lights clicked off every few minutes thanks to my sitting motionless on the table. To keep them on, I finally stood and walked around the room as I read until the doctor came in. I told him what was happening, described the lump in the sample cup and waited. He listened to my breathing, asked if I had any fever or felt nauseous, had me lay down on the table while he pressed both sides of my abdomen.

"It could be a kidney infection," he said, but his eyebrows were knitted together so I'm not sure he believed it. "Usually, you'd have a fever and some nausea or vomiting to go along with the large amount of blood in your urine. It's more likely that you're passing a stone." AGAIN!?! "What appeared in the cup was a blood clot. It's possible you may have already passed the stone since you don't seem to be in any pain now. But, we are sending your sample off for further testing in case it is an infection and not a stone. I'm also prescribing an antibiotic just in case."

Kidney stones again, a year after passing the last one. Someone needs to invent a drink that will just dissolve all those deposits in my kidneys so I will never, ever have to suffer through this again!!