City Tour…by Ambulance

I’m typically pretty low maintenance.  No prescriptions, no health issues, no real complaints.  This week however was not a low maintenance week. 

To back up, I spent last week (my first week at my new job) flying to Chicago.  I conquered O’Hare like a champ, didn’t get lost (though the car rental place almost sent me off with an expired registered car!), and had a good week getting to know my teammate and partners I’ll be working with.  I didn’t really have time to explore Chicago, but I’m sure there’ll be other opportunities.

So this past Monday was to be my first day in my NC office.  Ah, but my “low maintenance” body had other plans.  Enter:  Kidney Stone.  Evil.  Pure evil.  As if the excruciating pain wasn’t enough, I didn’t know what was causing it and that was scary.  And, I was in a new city.  And, we didn’t have a doctor or any idea of best hospital to go to, etc.  When you’re in that much pain, vomiting, and shaking in a sweaty mess, you call 911.  Or, you yell to your husband to call 911.

The inside of an ambulance is not where I expected to be touring as a new resident of NC.  But there I was at 3:00 am Monday.  I remember the EMT asking questions of Scott and of me that were going down the path of heart history….what??    Fortunately, there was no issue there (though they had a hard time getting temperature and blood pressure) and it was later confirmed through CT scan that the little bastard kidney stone was there.  I spent Monday in bed and NOT at work – yes, that felt like a sure fire way to move up the corporate ladder (not!).  They gave me pain medication and anti-nausea medication, since my kidney stone was too small to actually do something more invasive about it.  I went to work Tuesday, feeling exhausted but without pain.  Once the pain stopped, it was over.  As if it had never happened.  Oof.

Tuesday, though, brought on a head cold.  Now, I don’t get sick too often, but here I was throwing down kidney stones and a nasty head cold back to back.  What happened to “low maintenance Lisa”?  Like a good new employee, I worked the rest of the week, stoically sitting at my desk, fully drenched in leaking eyes and nose.  Yeah, I was pretty hot.  A hot MESS that is.

Tomorrow, Scott and I are registered for the Get Your Rear In Gear 5K for Colon Cancer Coalition.  I’ll probably walk it with the girls I’ve met at our apartment complex.  I’m grateful the kidney stone episode passed quickly and I know this cold will too.  I’m also grateful the kidney stone episode didn’t hit while I was travelling to IL and Scott was road tripping it to our new home in NC.  Even if I crawl at this 5K, I’ll be grateful to be out of bed and moving again.  Touring our new city by foot is much better than touring by ambulance!