As I mentioned in my last blog post, https://liveplayrun.com/?p=708, I was quite sick for several weeks. I awoke the night of Monday, March 7th, a couple hours after going to sleep with great pain in my “right flank.” It was awful. I nearly had my husband take me to the ER but eventually I did make it back to sleep, went to work Tuesday and fortunately those good peeps I work with told me to leave early and get checked out.
To an urgent care I went and I was diagnosed with a kidney infection (after peeing in a cup 😂), given an antibiotic and supposed to be better in a few days. Whew…no surgery, appendicitis or anything like that.
Well by Friday I was not feeling better. My primary care said I should be improving so to go get seen at their walk-in clinic. Peed in a cup again, had blood drawn, and the suggestion was to change-up my antibiotic and all would be good.
Again, by Monday morning (March 14th), I was still feeling pretty badly so I called to get in for a CT scan, which is what they told me to do Friday if I was not better. I begged to get it that day as at first she offered like 2 weeks later! I was seen later that morning, my primary care called and nothing really showed up.
I saw my primary care that Wednesday (March 16th) and again peed in a cup, blood drawn and now was told maybe it’s a kidney stone. Fortunately my bloodwork looked good, but with how I was feeling I just wanted to have a diagnosis to treat! There was one slight thing that showed up on the CT so she referred me to a urologist.
Oh man! Let me tell you – stay on top of all of these folks! She gave me the name of the urology office for ME to call and “poke them” to get me in. Well ha – first they didn’t even have the referral so called my primary care back and got the referral sent. The urology office told me for days that they wouldn’t schedule me until after the doctor looked over the referral.
Again with how awful I felt and I expressed this to them, it was more than frustrating. So I suffered through another weekend and decided to find someone on my own. I called them but again couldn’t get in for over a week. But hey, at least they scheduled me!
It took some pushing on my part to get my primary care to get the referral and test results to them but they did, and I saw them Wednesday, March 30th. Peed in a cup – again! That day my urine had no blood or infection. I’ll give the NP credit as she felt bad not having much to tell me but that there wasn’t much to tell me!
It was within the next couple days thank goodness I was feeling much better. No one can answer why I had a kidney infection without any UTI symptoms (which is the norm) nor why it was like 3 weeks when these things usually resolve within days of antibiotics. Also, this is not anything I’ve ever dealt with before.
I suppose I will never know and am just so grateful to be feeling back to myself!!!
This few weeks stint of being sick has definitely strengthened my resolve to continue to become healthier, stronger, and leaner. Our healthcare system is a mess, and COVID-19 of course has exacerbated an already broken system. I don’t want to rely on anyone else for my health. It is up to me to take care of myself the best I can.
Unfortunately, that is the way it is. Our healthcare is not designed for optimal health but only to be there when you are really ill, and even then, it’s questionable.
And, I even see that in dentistry and it’s frustrating. It (medicine, dentistry, etc) is all set up to be profitable DOING something like surgeries, crown preparations, etc not in prevention and spending time educating.
For example, Sept 2021 I had gone to get a physical and establish a primary care doctor. I weighed in at 200lbs – the most ever and my cholesterol was 244 – the highest ever. All I got was a call from an assistant telling me my cholesterol was high and to work on my diet and exercise otherwise I’ll have to consider medication. I had told them I’m already an active person at my appointment.
Again, it’s up to me – thus I invested $4500 in a nutrition/accountability coach in December 2021. Best thing I’ve ever done as I now have lost 28 lbs and my cholesterol is 161 – the lowest it’s ever been! And, I’m still not done and working towards losing more weight and getting stronger.
It’s all so sad really. I know I’m fortunate I’m in a position with education and finances so that I’m able to do this sort of thing. Most people are not. Most are relying on our healthcare system, which from our country’s statistics is failing them.
The intention of this post is not to blast our healthcare system but encourage you to take control of your own health and maybe even inspire you to take control of your health.
Because really how many times can you pee in a cup? 😂