It Almost Killed Me
Although it has been almost a month since this entire saga began, I am still having trouble dealing with it. I am an almost 50 year old female, relatively healthy, and a stuck 5mm stone almost killed me.
This was not my first kidney stone- have been dealing with calcium stones for about a decade, and I thought the sucker had passed. Five days later, huddled under a blanket and feeling like absolute hell, I had the realization that I might be going septic. By the time I was admitted to the hospital, I was in a state of severe sepsis, shock, my fever was over 103, and my blood pressure fell quickly enough that I had emergency surgery before 8am the next day to place a stent. I spent three days in ICU, and have been recovering since then. I had a lithotripsy to remove the stone on the first, and the ability to pee without pain is amazing.
My biggest takeaway from this is to not ignore my symptoms and try to tough it out. If i had not had the insight that I was going septic, I would have waited until the next day to seek medical attention, and I might not have made it.