My Night(mare) in Hospital

Yes, you did read that right. I was in hospital. On the long weekend. That is just so typical of my life. I literally wasted one whole day of my long weekend dying when I could've been on the internet or reading or something.

Only I would worry about how much reading time I've lost while writhing in pain in a hospital bed. Wow, I really do need a life.

It's just my luck that I manage to get extremely sick on all the important occasions of my life. I've had extreme nausea on at least three Christmases in my lifetime, and at least two Easters. I always - ALWAYS - contract some severe cold just before we leave to go on holiday, but only ever after schools have closed. Last year, when our grade went on an outing to the Apartheid museum - which was pretty crucial for our History syllabus - I contracted a kidney infection, and was booked off school for two days, yet I got better just in time for early morning tennis (which starts at 6 a.m. at my school) on Monday.

And now, on the one weekend that my school gives us Monday and Tuesday off because of Heritage Day, I manage to somehow contract a kidney stone. Like seriously. A kidney stone. That's not even supposed to be remotely normal for a teenage girl.

So anyway, I woke up yesterday morning with this weird pain in my side. After a while of just lying there in confusion, something clicked in my brain, and I realised the pain was really similar to how I'd felt when I had a kidney infection last year. As I was sleeping over at a friend's house after watching City of Bones on Friday night (for the second time, and it was still amazing, if not even better) I quickly called my mom and told her to come and take me to the doctor. By the time she arrived, I was writhing in extreme pain, and apparently even more pale than I usually am - which is pretty much so white that my skin is literally blue-tinged except for my freckles, so I don't really know how THAT's possible... After what seemed like ages, we arrived at the doctor, and she sent me to hospital, suspecting that I had a kidney stone.

Long story cut slightly shorter, two injections, one CT scan, loads of paracetemol (is that how you spell it?), a drip, several blood tests and blood pressure readings later I was told that I had - luckily - already gotten over the worst of the pain as the stone had passed from my kidney to my bladder, and I now needed to wait until it got out of my system. They insisted on keeping me in the hospital for at least one night, and for a while it looked like I would be there for two or more, to the utter dismay of my parents. But kudos to them, because somehow they managed to stay pretty calm when I was practically begging the nurses to drug me, and my dad even came to the hospital at 5:00 this morning just because I was lonely. (In hospitals, they wake you up at least three times in one night to take your temperature and blood pressure, which did not bode well with me, but I managed not to kill the nurse when she woke me up at 2:00 and 4:30, and I think that's a pretty big achievement.)

Eventually, the kidney stone came out (I'll spare you the details) and it was 3mm in diameter. Legitimately. I was almost dying from the pain, and had to be drugged up for at least 11 hours to stop me from writhing and screaming, because of a tiny 3mm stone. Pathetic, I know, but apparently it was really big for a kidney stone, and the nurse seemed surprised that I hadn't requested stronger medication. 

I'm not going to lie, the attention I got in my ward because I was the youngest person there was pretty cool. And the looks I got from a couple of old ladies when I went for the CT scan... I could've burst out laughing. I think they thought I was pregnant or something. LOL. Overall, the experience of "ehrmagherd I'm in a hospital" after the pain had subdued wasn't all bad, and the food was really good (what little of it I managed to eat) despite what everyone says about hospital food tasting like disinfectant.

They discharged me about two hours ago, and I have been taking advantage of my bed and WiFi to an almost horrific extent. Not to mention the fact that I'm drinking about a bottle of water every hour, just because I'm absolutely terrified of getting yet another kidney issue. But I survived! Thanks to all of you who visited me or sent messages - it was nice to know I was being thought of.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment below on your hospital experiences!