So, you thought Seth was having adventures…
My 2020 has not improved since my last update.
I'm still living with my friends. The real reason behind this is our collective plan to buy 5 acres and build a house for all of us to live in together. And while we have generic floor plans ready and we know where we're getting the land (who from and where it is), we've not done much else to advance this plan. More on that later, as I'm sure you'll understand as I tell my tale of woe.
So, May's update told what happened in April. As of the beginning of May, I found a job at a local convenience store which is only a few blocks from where we're currently living. And I do mean a few blocks. I've walked it once just to find out what it would be like. Not too bad for a guy who's spent most of his time behind a desk, staring at computers.
Yeah, a convenience store. My feet hate me. As does my back. However, neither of them were the ones to give me real grief. No, that winner was my left kidney. So, the Monday after I started work, I had to rush to the hospital for a kidney stone. It was a doozy! Some 5mm. And it didn't want to move. Weird part was, all the pain and such went away on its own, without fully passing the stone - or so I thought. Just the weirdest thing, because I've passed every stone I've ever suffered pain from. So, I went home and back to work.
Only, I wasn't feeling myself. My appetite was crap. And all liquids tasted like someone had spiked my drinks with fecal matter. Even bottled water tasted bad. So, it wasn't a surprise that I ended back up in the hospital (kidney pain again) on the following Saturday.
It was the same stone. It hadn't moved, but it was making me hurt. Hospital had a time trying to insert an IV too. I was severely dehydrated. Once they did, they started pumping me full of fluids. I remember going through three bags and not even needing to go pee (any other time, one bag would have been more than enough to make me ask for a potty break half-way through.). After more scans, the doc suggested either letting fluids flush out the stone (natural) or they could insert a stent. I opted for the fluids and ended up staying overnight.
By Sunday morning, the stone hadn't moved. Doc said a stent would be the only way for them to get to it. I agreed. I couldn't exactly take morphine or dilaudid home with me to wait for the stone to pass on its own. So, they knocked me out, and tried for the stone.
Yeah, "tried."
I woke up with the stent still in place. Doc told me they couldn't reach the stone even with the stent. However, after a week or two they would go in again, and break up the stone if needed. I didn't think it would be all that bad and agreed. Boy was I wrong.
Due to having been through surgery, I took a few days off from work. The store was having personnel issues, as in - including me - four people were out sick. I had already been out most of the week and decided to go back a day early to help out. I didn't expect to actually go to the bathroom every 10-15 minutes, but that's the way it started. IT SUCKED!
Worse, I didn't have the money to pick up my prescriptions. The job pays weekly, and my first two paychecks were both delayed because payroll had the wrong account number for me (to an old, closed account I had opened for my son at the same time as my own, so both numbers are on the same card I received from the bank with direct deposit info). I finally got that corrected and had three checks all hit at the same time.
Oh, but that's not even the end of the tale.
So, go to an appointment with the doc to find out how the stent and stone are doing. I hadn't had any pain from the stone. No, only pain was when I emptied my bladder! I even saw the x-ray this time. I thought the stone was in my ureter (tube leading from kidney to bladder), and the stent only went in a couple of inches or so… Boy was I wrong! The stone was still in my kidney, and the stent stretched all the way from my bladder to my kidney!! Holy crap!!!
So, the office schedules the day to have the stent removed. June 11th. Only the way the nurses were talking, they wanted it to be sooner. I didn't understand that at the time and just nodded like an idiot.
The two days prior to the procedure, I'm more pain when I empty my bladder, and there was a ton of blood in my urine. I'm scared, but I kept in mind that I had a foreign object in my ureter. Day of the procedure, I told the nurses and doc about the pain and blood. They shrug like it was nothing (wasn't nothing to me!!). Everything goes perfect. They broke up the stone, and even found a second, larger stone that they broke up and removed too. Stent came out, no complications, everything was perfect. They sent me home with a note to take a week off from work.
This time, I followed their instructions. Maybe too well.
So, one week later, I had a follow-up appointment. Everything was clear, no more stent, no stones. It was great. I even went to work that same night.
The very next day, I woke up with this pain in my right side. Up high, among my ribs. Too far out of place to be a kidney. More like a lung. I took some tylenol, went to work, thought nothing of it. The day after that, the pain was worse. Tylenol knocked it down enough that I could work, but it was like having a dull headache. Third day (was a Sunday), I was in so much pain, I could barely breathe. It was like I had this spike in my side with metal bands stretching out around my chest. I had to call my manager to have someone take my place at work and get to the hospital.
Keep in mind, I had been tested three times for Covid. I was cleared every damned time. And even this time I didn't have any of the normal symptoms (fever, dry cough, etc.). I really didn't understand what was going on.
Now, my friends and I live in a town about eighteen miles from the main city. On the way to the hospital, I had reclined my seat and found a position that was comfortable. In fact, I was able to breathe. By the time we got to the hospital, I wasn't in all that much pain either. I was scared and confused.
ER took me in, got me settled, asked me questions, drew some blood, got a urine sample (I wasn't dehydrated this time), and ended up running a number of tests. Results came back. I had a light case of Pneumonia and Pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in my lung). The Pneumonia was so light that the pain and difficulty breathing was completely overriding any symptoms. I had to be admitted because they needed to administer anticoagulants and blood-thinners.
I was terrified. I actually told them that I would rather deal with more kidney stones that blood clots in my lungs.
And yet… due to my inactivity while recovering after having the stent removed, I was my own cause for the blood clots. I had one day of semi-activity during that recovery period (went to a shooting range, grocery store, and bought a new laptop), but otherwise, I sat in this recliner that has doubled as my bed ever since the kidney stones started.
So, I was admitted. They couldn't give me pain killers this time, due to the type of problem. I did my best to relax, remain comfortable and tried to sleep. The only real problem I had was going to the bathroom. They suggested I use this bottle they left by my bedside, however, it was way too painful to lie in bed on my side so I could. I stood up and used the bottle, and while it hurt to do so, it was better than their suggestions.
Next morning the pain had spread to my right kidney, which made breathing even more difficult. Why? Because when you breathe normally, your belly expands and contracts, not your chest. People expand their chest for breathing while they're thinking about it, but your body doesn't do that during involuntary breathing - like when you're asleep. So, using my chest hurt my side (lung), and using my belly hurt my kidney. It wasn't fun.
However, I honestly believed my kidney was better suited to deal with the clots than my lung. It is a filtration system. If a clot was left while filtering my blood, then the build up of urine would likely break it down and I would pee it away. With the drugs they were giving me, it only took a few hours for even that to work its way out. By Monday night, my pain levels were tons lower.
Tuesday morning, I was almost completely pain free. The staff said I could go home but I would continue to be on blood thinners for the next three months.
I'm back at "home" with my friends, I'm back to work, and I'm doing my best to stay active yet take it easy. Finding time to write has been difficult, and finding any privacy to write the planned sex scenes in my story is pretty much impossible, which very likely means Free Magus will be on hold for a while.
I do, however, have a number of chapters written for another story I've wanted to write for a long time. For those that remember, I wrote a story called Crushed Heart. I posted it on SOL and then removed it with the hopes to have it published. Now, while I have created electronic versions of it and posted those on sites like Lulu and Amazon Kindle, it never really took off like I had hoped. The full, latest revision is posted on my Patreon account, and I will be posting chapters for its sequel, Small Deaths by the end of the month.
Again, my apologies for the delays. I only hope to make up for that soon.