I was 18 weeks pregnant and had the most unbelievable knife-like shooting pains in my left side. I actually fell off the toilet, writhing on the floor in agony. No cell phones then. Couldn’t even crawl to the phone. My husband was in trial in downtown Los Angeles, and when he came home, he found me on the bathroom floor.
We went to Cedars Sinai emergency, and they gave me an enema and said I was constipated (pregnant woman do not get enemas). It was a Friday night, and I screamed and cried all weekend. It wasn’t until I walked into my ob/gyn’s office doubled over sobbing that anyone took me seriously. After several tests it was determined that I had third stage hydronephrosis of my left kidney.
So I ended up in the hospital with a surgeon performing microsurgery, where he takes a small basket and moves it up through the urethra and up to the kidney and removes the- the- “Oh, shit, there’s no stone!” said the urologist.
I had a fibroid tumor that was impacted in my pelvic region and mimicking a kidney stone — not the same thing — but the same goddamnbitch of pain. Morphine. Lots of morphine and a long hospital admission. And then a premature baby from all the pain. And yes, “they” say it’s the equivalent of labor pains, but the truth is, it’s worse.
