All this past week (since Monday) I had been experiencing low-grade nausea but not enough to throw up or to stop eating. I attributed it to stress even though stress has never affected me in that way before. Also I was constantly thirsty. On Wednesday evening in addition to the nausea I started to feel cramping in my left side which started quite quickly. It started under my ribcage in the back left side and radiated around a bit to the front. It would cramp and throb and would get worse if I sat or lay down. Also I was getting more and more tired each day. I commented to Dave that all I wanted to do was take a nap all day but I had too much to do.
It's easy to put all of these things off as things that are "in your head" because I don't want to come off as a complainer.
Anyway, yesterday (Thursday) my nausea got progressively worse such that I wasn't able to eat normally. When it came to dinnertime I couldn't bear the thought of eating anything and my side was cramping so much. I was so tired but lying down to rest did me no good because I couldn't get comfortable. When Dave got home from walking the dogs I told him how much discomfort I was in and told him I had also called the oncologist to see if I should go to the ER. Shortly afterwards he called back and said yes, go to the ER. So, we did. After an hour wait in the waiting room I was finally taken to an ER room and given some anti-nausea and pain medications. They admitted me overnight (El Camino Hospital's room are something like 80% private) so that they could monitor my nausea and pain and gave me medications as needed. This morning at 7:30 the urologist showed up to place that stent that was scheduled to be installed next Monday. Apparently my kidney just had enough and started to get very angry.
I am home now and the pain and nausea are gone. Looks like the stent is doing its job of opening that tube so that the urine can drain into the bladder as it should instead of backing up into the kidney.
