Pyelonephritis (Kidney Infection)

         I'm not sure when this infection really began. I unknowingly had a silent UTI for 1-2 (maybe even 3!) weeks before I started experiencing kidney pain. Friday July 6th, while driving to and from Oklahoma, I started to feel a small pain on the lower left side of my back, just under my rib cage. I thought it was from sitting up so strait. I never felt it again until Monday. Monday afternoon, the pain came back, except in a very sharp, unbearable pain. I thought I must have pulled a muscle. I took Ibuprofen around the clock for the next four days. It was so painful, that I had trouble standing up straight, and would always lean onto things for support. (Mike ran around calling me "the little hunchback").

       Thursday night, while on Ibuprofen, I all of sudden felt like I got hit by a bus. My entire body ached, I started to get a high fever, and had chills that would shake my whole body. I was awake the entire night. Friday morning, I could barely walk. I crawled into the living room, laid on the floor in pain, and watched Marley & Me until Mike woke up about 90 minutes later. Luckily, Mike has Fridays off work.  Once Mike awoke, the decision was made that I needed to go to the Emergency Room.

       Once inside the E.R. I was hooked up to an I.V. because I was severely dehydrated and needed serious pain medication. The E.R. bed was where I found the most relief. For the first time in 5 days I was not in pain, and they gave me 2 warm blankets to cuddle in while they ran a few tests.  A couple hours later they confirmed what we believed-  acute kidney infection, but I was surprised to learn I also had a UTI, and that was what had caused the kidney infection. He said I would begin to feel better in a couple of days. I took this to mean, Saturday I start feeling better, take Sunday easy- "just in case", then back to normal life on Monday. Later I was released from the E.R. and Mike took me home. Little did I know, that was just the beginning.


       The next 72 hours were the most faith trying hours I have ever experienced. I was placed on an antibiotic 4x a day for the next 14 days, and told to take Advil/Tylenol every 4 hours. Friday night, Advil stopped working for the pain. It would conceal the kidney pain for about an hour and a half. Then I would have to suffer through the next 2 hours before I could take meds again. My fever continued to climb, and the chills turned into almost full body convulsions. My dad and Mike gave me a blessing of strength, recovery, and comfort. I hardly even remember friday, it is all a blur. That night I took 1000mg of tylenol PM, and I was actually able to get some sleep


       Mike had to work on Saturday until 2, and usually gets home around 2:45. Saturday morning I continued to have severe kidney pain, and doubled up on Advil, but by this point, nothing was working. My friend Shayla gave me the idea to use a heating pad on my kidney. This ended up being a life- saving idea. The heating pad did not leave my side for the next 3 days. Shortly after waking up, I started getting terrible stomach pains, and feeling extremely nauseous, on top of the fever and other kidney symptoms. I realized that it was from over dosing on advil. I was beginning to feel like death. Advil didn't work for my kidney pain, and only made me feel sicker, so I stopped taking pain meds all together. Just as 2:00 was starting to hit, all medicine had worn off and I was experiencing the pains from the kidney, fever, and stomach to the max. While laying on the bathroom floor I completely lost it. Mike came home to find me laying on the bathroom floor, crying and writhing in pain. ( honeymoon officially over..) He called the Dr. who prescribed me hydrocodone. One thing I found incredible, was with in 15 minutes of Mike being home, I was able to calm down, and my pain was severely lessened, just by having him in the home, close by, talking to me. Words cannot describe how, with out being on any medicine, I was able to feel so much better. However, as soon as he left to get the hydrocodone, the feeling was gone, and he came home to find me crying on the couch, in severe pain again.

The hydrocodone helped with the pain a lot, but not as much as I thought it would. I was able to take a nap, and I was able to have my pain under control. About 11:30 that night, out of nowhere, my kidney felt like it was exploding. In desperation, I took 2 hydrocodone (3 hours into the previous hydrocodone.) (So practically on 3 hydrocodone at once.) Biggest mistake ever! I began to feel incredibly loopy, and I started having panic attacks because I was afraid I was going to die in my sleep from overdose and no one would know. Mike must think I am completely psychotic now. I made him wait up with me for an hour and a half because I was panicking that I would die in my sleep. We finally go to bed about 12:50, and I am having the weirdest dreams.  I wake up around 1:45 to take my antibiotic again, and hop in bed. About 20 minutes later, in my sleep I kept itching my nose, and I was thinking "why is my nose itchy?" Then I woke up in a panic and was like "I'm having an allergic reaction!" (I'm allergic to penicillin, so the Dr. warned me I could potentially be allergic Keflex too.) My whole body started to itch, so I ran in the bathroom and started seeing little hives on my skin. I ran back into the room, practically punching Mike yelling "Mike Mike Mike", and he slept thru the entire thing! So I ran back into the bathroom and call my mom. By the time she answers I am in full panic mode, crying, hyperventilating, I could fell my throat closing up, hives everywhere, and then my lips started to swell. FINALLY Mike wakes from the dead and runs into the bathroom to see what is going on. He stares at me for a moment, and said "Sarah, get off the phone". Apparently the entire thing was a giant hallucination. He had me sit down and wait for about 45 minutes, until we could go back to bed with out me thinking I would have an allergic reaction in my sleep. So finally, just after 3:30, we were able to go to bed. Luckily I slept until 9.
I made a vow to Mike that I would never taken more than 1 hydrocodone at a time for the rest of my life.

Sunday and Monday were spent rotating between the bed, floor, and couch. My mom and sister came to visit, and my parents brought us Chicken Express and pizzas so Mike wouldn't starve. I ate crackers, mashed potatoes, oatmeal, mac and cheese, and bagels for 4 days strait. Finally on tuesday morning, I started to feel like myself again. The best part, was being able to laugh with out being in pain! Mike said it was good to have his partner back.

I am so incredibly grateful to have had such a caring and supportive husband during this event! He was by my side every step of the way, and he deep cleaned our kitchen for 45 minutes! Every day I think about what a blessing he is in my life, and I am just so lucky that I get the chance to spend eternity with him!!