One Saturday while I was at work in December, Buck called me and could barely talk; he was grunting and panting. He told me that he had a horrible pain on the lower right side of his abdomen (I believe his exact words were, "MY GUT IS EXPLODING!!") I questioned him the quick assessment questions and he said that he was sweating, ready to vomit, and nothing he did made it better. He said he had never felt anything like this before, not even when he was stepped on by bulls and horses. I diagnosed him immediately: Kidney Stone. I told him he would have to come in to the ER for pain control and a cat scan, because Instacare would just send him to the ER anyway. So my sister drove him in.
We started an IV, did pain meds, and headed off to get a cat scan. In case anyone is wondering, one of these quick little tests right here, CT of the abdomen and pelvis with out contrast die, is $2,180. Fun little fact for everyone.
Once we got back to the room from doing the CT, he still wasn't feeling great. We waiting for the CT results to show exactly what I had guessed. A 2 mm kidney stone that was right at the end of his right ureter, about to go into his bladder. The Doctor gave him some Toradol, which was the money maker right there. His pain almost ceased immediately and we were able to discharge him home. He received a prescription for Flomax, a med to dilate his urethra because he still had to pass it though one more tube.
He felt much better. We sent him home, and I stayed at work. He called me a few hours later saying that there was a little dark stone in the urine strainer after he peed through it. It was out! He sent me a picture of the stone, which I can't find. I texted the picture to his family and said, "It's a boy! We're naming it, Lucifer." I told Buck we should save it and drill a hole through it and he can wear it on a necklace. Oddly enough, the stone was gone before I barely was able to see it.
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