On Thursday evening I was quietly folding laundry and watching Hawaii 5 O, and minding my own business, when I suddenly felt an excruciating pain in my right side, accompanied by waves of nausea.
I threw up every bit of the awesome dinner my kids had made, much to my daughter’s disgust, but the pain just kept intensifying, and I kept telling Gav that I was dying and I got most annoyed with him when he had the cheek to say that I wasn’t.
Eventually I had to admit defeat and gingerly walked (crawled) down the stairs and agreed to let Gav take me to the Linksfield Clinic. I was crying like a baby by this time and Gav had to stop twice for me to be sick. Shame, poor people whose houses I threw up outside…nasty surprise for them in the morning.
The doc took one look at me and said he thought it was a kidney stone, so he gave me a cocktail of painkilling drugs through an intravenous drip and off I went for a CAT scan. The cocktail didn’t do much for the pain and the CAT scan and abdominal x-ray were a bit of a blur as I concentrated hard on not dying or throwing up all over that expensive machine!


Once the stone had been confirmed, the doc said they were going to admit me and hopefully I would pass the stone naturally, as it was quite low down. I didn’t want to stay but he asked me whether I was able to manage the pain at home, and I decided to take the pethadine injection and be admitted like a good little girl.
Thankfully, the pethadine had me flying 1st class around the world, with no pain for a few hours. Although I was sieving my urine (don’t even ask!!!), I didn’t see the stone pass, but miraculously at about 3 am the pain disappeared.
I saw the doc in the morning… gorgeous, young, thin, brainy (do u want to see someone like that when u look like hell after not closing your eyes once the entire night, and having no make up or even a brush with u!) Anyway, she said she would send me to have another x-ray and if the stone had passed I could go home. The alternative, if the stone had not passed, was too horrible to contemplate, so I won’t go into detail!
Anyway, thankfully, the stone was not visible on the x-ray, but “Dr Barbie Doll” decided to keep me in the hospital for another 24 hours just be sure <groan>
The lesson here?
Drink gallons and litres of water! You honestly don’t want to go thru’ the fun times I went thru!
Note: If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the uniquely detailed free weekly newsletter for parents in Gauteng – Jozikids – or KwaZulu-Natal – Kznkids