Previously, on "Sunday in the ER with Greg": After vomiting several times Saturday night, we took an obviously dehydrated Greg to the Olathe Medical Center emergency care, where he was treated with anti-nauseal medications and fluids through an IV.
Exactly one week ago today I was sitting in the Olathe Medical Center emergency room with Greg while he received fluids through an IV. After vomiting eight times in 24 hours, he was dehydrated. As I mentioned in my previous posting, I bypassed the urgent care facility and took him straight to the ER. It was a good call. Three hours later he was released. He went home and slept for about 14 hours straight.
Over the next few days he complained of mild abdominal pain, but he (and we) figured it was caused by soreness from all the intestinal turmoil. So it was quite a shock when the school nurse called me at work on Thursday to tell me that Greg was experiencing severe pain in his back, lower right side! When I arrived to pick him up, she brought him out the front door in a wheel chair. For the second time that week Greg went to the ER.
Once again, an IV was started, and Greg was given zofran for nausea and morphine for pain. They took a urine sample and did a CAT scan. When the results came back, it was just as the school nurse and ER staff had suspected -- Greg had a kidney stone. It showed up on the CAT scan as no larger than a grain of sand -- hard to imagine something so tiny causing so much pain. The composition of most kidney stones is calcium; they tend to lodge in the ureter, blocking the flow of urine. The pressure from the "back-up" is what causes the intense pain until they dislodge and pass into the bladder. From there, they generally dissolve and exit the body through the urine. Fascinating stuff. Greg's stone apparently passed while he was in the ER, probably on his way back to the exam room from the CAT scan. The ER doctor assumed it had passed because Greg immediately felt better -- no pain! Greg was cleared to go home.
Before Thursday, the only family member I recalled having had a kidney stone was my dad. He was in his 40s when his stone developed. His stone did not pass -- it had to be surgically removed. A few years later my dad suffered a heart attack. To this day, he is fond of saying that, given the choice, pain-wise, between a kidney stone and a heart attack . . . he'd take the heart attack. I've heard women remark that the pain of a kidney stone was worse than the pain of childbirth -- no wonder Greg was in so much agony!
Still, how often do teenagers get kidney stones? I've always thought of a kidney stone as an "old person's" affliction; I've never heard of a 17-year-old having one. And yet, the ER doc told us that he had seen a 15-year-old girl with a kidney stone earlier that same day. In fact, to hear him talk, Olathe, Kansas must be the Kidney Stone Capital of the Midwest. He told us that in Chicago, where he did his residency, he saw maybe three kidney stones a year. Since moving to Olathe, he often sees three in one day! Who knew?
Last night and earlier today Greg still had a little "residual" pain, but it seems to have disappeared now. He read some information online about kidney stones: it's normal to still have a little pain (after the stone has passed) just from the irritation it caused while lodged in the ureter. Home care involves drinking lots of water (he does), avoiding soft drinks (he does), and taking pain medication as needed (he did). Hopefully there won't be an "ER 3" any time soon. But stay tuned . . .
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