To my surprise, John got stoned yesterday. Kidney Stoned, that is…
Oy Vey, ailments while on the road are another issue with which we have contended (remember when my back went out in early spring while we were in California?) but over which we have little control. Well, we do have some control, but often it is after the fact.
John, who is typically quite stoic, let me know on Friday that he was having some intermittent burning and aching in his right dorsal flank. The spectrum of what we puzzled through was whether it was musculoskeletal discomfort or metastatic disease related to prostate cancer — from relatively benign to dramatic hypothesizing. Over then weekend the discomfort remained intermittent with pain being fleeting to lasting for up to an hour. In between, we were able to hike and even got a bike ride in. Then, he awakened Saturday night around 2 AM with extreme discomfort that eventually abated after taking Tylenol (likely a coincidence), but we both had a difficult time getting more sleep after that. Yesterday, Sunday, was a combo day of hiking and driving, with the discomfort remaining intermittent. We discussed how to get him a CT scan of his abdomen to check for mets versus appendicitis, and whether we should turn around to go home or go to an ER.
After we set up camp, I went to shower, from which as I returned, John was putting everything away and told me he wanted to go to the small-town hospital in nearby Bedford, PA. This guy, who rarely has any physical complaints, experienced a whopping dose of pain while I had been showering, thus deciding he didn’t want to have another rough night. Off we went to UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Bedford) which is the epitome of a rural hospital, 16 miles away from the campground.
Rural = not busy. Rural = immediate care rendered. Rural = low-tech. All of which worked to our benefit. I was able to accompany John as was taken right to a bed, had his blood drawn and while he provided a urinalysis. The ER doc came in shortly thereafter for her assessment; but John beat her to the H&P piece — he rattled off all that he wanted her to know, in clinical terms (as any fellow-doc would do!); as she took it all in, she asked, “are you in the medical field?” to which John replied, “I used to be”… Anyhow, she did her physical assessment, then pronounced that she would order a CT scan to see what was going on. Just what John wanted in the first place! He was pain-free all this time. She returned soon to say that the UA showed microscopic hematuria (blood in the urine), so … it’s a kidney or bladder issue.
Literally ten minutes after he returned from the CT, which itself only took 10 minutes, she returned with a print out documenting a renal calculus, ie. kidney stones, one in his right ureter and one already in the bladder. Appendix normal; no evidence of metastatic disease; no other anomaly.
Kidney Stones: John is not a big water drinker on a good day, but on the road, he drinks even less and with colder temps this trip, he hasn’t been motivated by thirst to drink much water at all. Dehydration likely contributed to the stone formation, and perhaps that fact that we have a large spinach/veggie salad every eve for dinner? We are on it though, that man is going to be drinking a lot of water going forward and I will switch to salad greens without spinach!
We walked out of the ER 1 hour and 45 minutes after having arrived, after having received efficient and thorough care, with a prescription for a short-term course of Flomax, an anti-nausea med, and a few pain pills. Mostly though, John left knowing there was no cancer growing outside of his prostate. That was the best medicine.
PS. John has read and approved of this shared post! xo
