Things were starting to look up...

Then it all went down hill, starting last Thursday. Well, Monday really. I started with this pain in my back that felt mysteriously like my kidneys feel when they are acting up. But it had been years since I had an infection & previously I would go months before having them treated with no problems. I also had just started my period & thought maybe it was just bad cramps.

Come Wednesday they weren't any better, but not a ton worse either. Advil was still taking it away but I couldn't get up & walk around too much or my whole pelvic area would ache. I went to bed that night & woke up around 1am with convulsive shivers that wouldn't stop. I actually woke Jon up I was shaking the bed so badly. The first time they happened I was shaking for a good 45 minutes straight.

I had Jon get me the themometer & I had a temperture of 103 at some points. I laid in bed & tried to sleep, but it just wasn't working & my pain was getting worse. I finally ended up going out to the couch & I was able to sleep maybe 2 more hours or so on & off, I had a couple more shivering episodes & my fever was still 101 or more.

Come morning I decided that I couldn't wait for an appointment with my doctor & I needed to go to the ER. We got Isis up & dressed, all the while my pain was getting worse. By the time we got out the door to take Isis to my MIL's, I was bawling & every little tiny bump on the road was agony. Jon decided to drop me off at the ER & then take Isis to his Mom's.

I bawled my way into triage & had pretty well decided by that point I had a kidney stone, not just an infection. They saw me really quickly & actually I had already seen the doctor by the time Jon got back. Between putting an IV in & trying to draw blood, they had to stick me *9* times before they found good enough veins.

But, once they finally got the IV in, they gave me Morphine, Tramadol & some anti-nausea meds & I started to feel much better. They did a blood & urine culture on me as well. The ER doctor came in originally & told me I had very "dirty" (read: infected) urine, so they put me in for a CT Scan. He said if the CT Scan showed that I didn't have any stones they would send me home on some Antibiotics & pain meds.

Well, the CT Scan showed that I had a small (2-3mm) stone that was blocking my ureter. Fluid was unable to pass through the kidney, so as a result of that the kidney was very large & swollen. There was also an obvious infection backed up behind the stone.

The ER doctor came back & told me they would need to admit me at least over night & do surgery to insert a stent (tube) into my kidney that would open the ureter & let the stone pass & also let the infection drain.

Needless to say I was pretty scared. They took me "upstairs" & admitted me to a room. The anesthesiologist came to see me shortly after I got there & said they were going to take me right in. In the middle of talking to me, he got a call for an emergency C-section so he ran away (literally) & came back another hour or so later. (Oh & just a note here, apparently the C-section never happened. The woman said she needed to push & she delivered vaginally on the OR table. How lucky is that?).

They took me to the OR, gave me some vercit (the anesthesiologist said "this will be like a 6 pack of beer with no hangover, all the men will look good). He was right, good stuff. They moved me to the OR table & gave me some oxygen & that's the last thing I remember before I woke up in the recovery room.

That was the first time I've ever been fully put under (I've been sedated before) & I was scared I would be sick. The anesthesiologist assured me he would do everything he could to prevent it & I kid you not I could have ate a 7 course meal in the recovery room. I felt great.

I spent the next day or so in a hospital room, bored out of my mind while they pumped me full of IV antibiotics & asked me a gazillion times if I had any pain (I had very little). Come to find out the stone must have passed after they gave me the Morphine when I relaxed, but the stent was still put in because my infection was so bad the ureter was swollen shut.

They sent me home & gave me a prescription for oral antibiotics. That's when I got sick. I went through 2 different ones before I finally told them to give me a different CLASS of them.

I'm on a new one now & finally today am feeling about 95% better. I never, ever want to go through this again. I have a CT Scan today to make sure the infection is going away & the stone is gone. Then on 4/2 I will have the stent removed in the doctors office.

I told Jon if I ever have cancer, he should take me out back & shoot me. I never want to deal with so many doctors ever again.

Mock DWI, NH, etc


Michele from our county STOP DWI program got ahold of me again a couple weeks ago. She asked if I would be interested in presenting at any of their Mock DWI crashes this year. I emailed her back & told her it would be dependent on the dates & times. I wanted to atleast send her an email to let her know I wasn't completely 'un-interested'.

A couple days ago, she got back to me & said the first one was on May 1st & said she wouldn't be able to be there, but she gave my name to the SADD director at the school (who I believe to be a student, per her grammar/spelling & the fact she addressed me as 'Ms.Towne'). The SADD director emailed me & said they plan on having a presentor for before & a presentor for after the crash.

I hmm'd over it & decided I should just take the leap & do it. I emailed her back & said I would, but I wanted to present before the crash because the last one I watched was so emotional for me there was no way I could have presented after.

Now I need to figure out what the heck I'm going to say. The last one I did was on October 20th, 2005. Which would have been my Mother's birthday & I figured that was sign enough I needed to do it. But now I have a lot more information about the accident & I'm a lot more removed from it. I'm afraid I won't get my point across as well. I sobbed through half of my story the last time.

The part I'm having the hardest time with is how I address the fact, that the woman that hit them...was charged with 2 counts of Intoxicated Manslaughter & walked away with a felony DWI...no jail time & not even a suspended license. In some ways it brings to light the failure in the judicial system, but in others it says "See if you drink & drive & kill someone, well its not THAT bad".

The other woman that presented with me last time (& I assume she will again, she does just about every one of them), lost her son when he was 16 I think? His friend was driving drunk. His friend walked away & her son died. She spends about 5 total minutes on her really heartbreaking story & the other 15 minutes of her presentation talking about kids having morals & responsibility & logic.

Both Jon & I agreed that she might be getting blank stares from some of these 16 & 17 year olds. I decided last time to focus instead on the sheer shock value of losing two parents at once, at a young age. Going as far as to give some of my sisters perspective, since she was 14 at the time. There were tons of kids sobbing at the end of my part & I really think *that's* the way you reach a highschooler. Not with a "You should be more responsible then that" speech.

Maybe I'm wrong?

On a lighter note, I booked our vacation yesterday. I'm so flippin' excited about that. We are going to Lincoln, NH. I know how did we come about staying in NH? Well, we planned on going back to the place we spent our honeymoon. However, the timeshare we use (MIL's & FIL's) didn't have dates available into May yet.

I kept waiting & they just never were coming up. I was afraid that either A) I couldn't give enough notice or B) they were going to jack the price when they fianally gave them. We paid $1100 for the week when we stayed for our honeymoon. Soo! We decided to look in NH & go for something "new".

My Step Dad grew up in Littleton, NH & Lincoln is apparently only 25 minutes from there. Its also 2 hours from Boston & 2 hours from Portsmouth, which is a coast town that has some good shopping I guess?

Yay for vacations!

My Grown Up Weekend


My MIL & FIL took Isis for the whole weekend! They hadn't seen her in three weeks because they were in FL for vacation, so they were more then willing to.

Jon worked a midnight shift on Friday morning (12am-10am), so he was still asleep when I got home from work. MIL & FIL came to get Isis around 6pm & then I went in to wake him up. We both laid in bed for awhile & watched TV, which was wonderful in itself.

Then we decided we wanted to have dinner, so we went to Lobster House at like 8:30pm & it was so nice & quiet in there & we talked the whole time, it had been along time since we had uninteruptted conversation where we didn't feel rushed. We had gone out for Valentine's Day but since Isis was with a sitter we were paying for, it was harder not to worry about the time & when we got home.

After that we came home & went to bed with the intention of sleeping in the next morning. However, Jon was up before 6am & I was up before 7am. I guess that's what we get for working so often & getting used to not sleeping in!

We hung around the house until about noon, read our books & just generally relaxed. Then we went & had lunch at Eben's (yes, we were taking advantage of getting to eat out since we haven't done it much since Feb 1st). After lunch we went to the Sugar Island trail that is near our house.

We had never been on the trail before & we were hoping to snow shoe. Turns out its not a great snow shoeing trail, because either end of it is paved & plowed before it starts the actual trail. We ended up just walking the paved/gravel portion of it (about a mile & a half). We poked around both the dam & the power house (which was very cool, we need to go back & get pictures).

Then we came home, got our snow shoes on & walked the 1/2 mile loop that Jon cut on our property. I sure did get enough exercise that day!

That night, we decided to go out & see Sandi & Derek. We hung out & eventually watched Jeff Dunham on DVD with them (so funny, I love him :). We stayed until about 9pm & then came home. Neither of us had dinner, but both of us were so whooped that we didn't even want to think about cooking something (I didn't even have the energy to eat), so we went to bed.

Yesterday morning we relaxed until Noon or so, when MIL got back from church with Isis & then we went over to her house to get Isis.

I feel refreshed & for the first time in awhile I wasn't dreading coming to work this morning.

I suggest for anyone that CAN to take a weekend to yourself with your hubby, it sure does make you remember why you married them :)