Friends and family have followed Doug's long and involved history of myriad injuries: broken hand, broken ankle, hit by car, etc. The man has nine lives. But there's a whole other layer of Doug's medical emergency legacy.Five years ago, on a kayaking trip in the middle of nowhere, he experienced a kidney stone attack. "Exquisite pain" - which rates 8 or 9 out of 10 on the pain scale - is how that condition is described. We were miles from the nearest lighthouse and a day from any kind of rescue. Lucky for us, that kidney stone behaved and went away. Last night we thought we might be in for a similar drama.
It was 3 a.m. and I was woken up by Doug bolting upright. We're quite familiar with these attacks by now, as we've been to Vancouver hospitals 4 or 5 times with them. But who knew how it would play out on Hornby Island - two ferries away from any hospital. While Doug was gearing up for the onset, I was thinking about Doug's colleagues at the Fire Hall showing up on an emergency call at our house... they are the first responders on this island. But none of that had to happen.
We called Dr Bob, as we fondly refer to one of the two on-call doctors here. They do house calls. Dr Bob asked if we could meet him at the clinic, which is a 5-minute drive from here. So, into the car we went, down the road, around the corner - and voila. Dr Bob arrived one minute after we did , opened the door to the clinic, sat Doug in a chair - and then the kidney stone disappeared. Dr Bob gave Doug a lovely assortment of blue and yellow pills to be sure the little #%$ stayed away, and the whole episode was twenty minutes from start to finish.
One more reason to love Hornby Island: excellent instant and personal medical service at 3a.m.
4 comments:
Hey,
Are you sure this wasn't just the Munchie Monday food?
Good "ol" doctor Bob, he is ono 1
Hi Doug: My (second)kidney stone attack is a little different than yours. I was four blocks from home, on my way to Toronto to meet Heather for a tour of Ryerson RTA. When the pain hit, I had a pretty good idea what it was, having gone through it before. I went home, and I remember laying on my back with my feet up the wall, figuring I could make it go back up the ureter. When that didn't work I drove the 6 blocks to the hospital, and was promptly given a clipboard with an admissions sheet on it, told to sit over there and fill it out. While doing so, all the while sweating profusely, our minister's wife came by. She was the hospital chaplain at the time, and took my hand and led my to a gurney in the back hall. Next I knew she had a nurse at my side with a demerol vaccine, and presto! pain gone. That episode led to my getting my second stone out in Toronto using extracorporeal lithotripsy.( Sound waves from outside the body.)The pain came later,as the neglected to tell me they had "hit" my kidney several hundred times during the procedure. I now take a kidney-flushing pill(diuretic) every day, and don't drink near enough water.(or beer,scotch,rye, and any of those other harmless liquids)
But at least I don't have to carry painkillers with me at all times.
Good luck. Love your blog. Unca Warren
The moral of Warren's story:
It helps to have a religious pusher.
I bet I will be going through this myself, as I am terrible at hydration.
After reading Rachele's "one year later" post, I am thoroughly convinced that, if there is any justice, Doug should suffer NO pain. I vote for kidney flushing drugs,lots of water on a regular basis and good wishes from friends as a preventative measure.
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