romancing the stone

I was racing to school 1 to print my final project for diversity class when J called me Tuesday with a shaky voice. The pain he'd been feeling that morning had grown to active labor proportions. (he couldn't speak during contractions...) He was dropping S off at a friend's house and going straight to the ER on the orders of his PCP. After hanging up the phone I laughed at myself in baby mode, probing questions, calming voice, earnest reassurance followed by mad speed and frantic tying of loose ends the second I hung up. A trip to the hospital in my recent experience has lasted consistently upwards of 24 hours and with my busy life these preparations have become an ingrained behavior. As have the mental prep in the car. Quick call to child care person (who, incidentally, seemed quite well versed in the baby routine herself), a few deep breaths to drop everything in the hands of the universe followed by a quick scan of events leading up to this point, possible outcomes, and my role in what's ahead.

events leading up to this point:
J feels abdominal and CVA tenderness in the am,
ruled out UTI, (no fever or burning with urination)
ruled out appendicitis (wrong side)
wondered about amazon massage of previous day
(she couldn't have bruised a kidney?)
checked for tenderness or rigidity attributable to abdominal bleeding
decided to see PCP if pain worsened or changed

the poor man drove all the way to Ann Arbor to see our PA who said yes, he should go to the ER (in Ypsi).
J is on his way there when he calls me, shaking, twitching and moaning with the pain of it.

possible outcomes:
another blocked ureter (had one at four and at six years of age)
bruised kidney and abdominal bleeding
rupture of some other internal organ
gall stones
kidney stones

By the time I met him at the ER it was 4 pm.
He'd been there for an hour. There were no rooms, but a condescending PA took his vitals (kind of), called a tech to run a saline IV and sent us back to the waiting room. Apparently there was some sort of rule about administering pain medication to people who are not in rooms, but some kind nurse (he actually called her an angel of mercy) came out to him with a syringe of delodid. Here begins the romantic portion of our night.

With a much better PA on the case, an almost diagnosis of kidney stones (not too scary, just painful) and the benefits of modern medicine coursing through his veins, my J started to look downright happy. I was relieved and so glad to see him feeling better that we became almost giddy. We spend a good deal of time together, but it's almost always working on stuff or planning how we're going to fit in all the working on stuff that we have to do. If we do get a sitter it's usually because one of us has a show or we're hanging out with other people. Trapped in the ER waiting room, we realized that this was the most time we'd spent just talking to each other in months. The people watching was great, we'd just come through a minor crisis together, our babysitter was gracious, and our PPO footed the bill.

We ended the evening with Sidetrack takeout and Talladega Nights.
J's pain was all but gone by the time we got home, we can only assume that he passed the stone in the hospital urinal. All those lovely strainers gone to waste...