Where to start?

I guess I should start at the beginning - just to catch everyone up to speed.

I was at work one day and I had to pee constantly. I mean all day - well at least I felt like I had to.

I would use the restroom - and yes, wash my hands - and return to work. Instantly I would feel the urge to go again. It went on like this the whole day.

This has happened once before - about a year ago, but it lasted only for a couple hours.

When my supervisor came into work I whined about it constantly. She suggested that perhaps I had a bladder infection and I needed to see my doctor. This was on a Thursday and I had an appointment to see my doctor on Monday. She said that I wouldn't be able to wait.

As fate would have it, my doctor's office was able to get me in to see me that day so once I got off work I hightailed it to his office. Once I got there, I gave a urine sample and waited - for what seemed like an eternity. It really wasn't, but I was in pain and every moment seemed like a lifetime.

I eventually fell asleep and when I woke up I was sweating due to a fever I seemed to develop. I kept shifting my weight seeing how no matter how I contorted my body, my back hurt. I started to walk up and down a hallway with my hand on my back. I looked like a pregnant woman who was in the third trimester and was trying to induce labor.

My doctor met me in the hallway and said he didn't need to test my urine he saw blood in the sample and he was sure I had kidney stones. As I sat on his examination table I must have shifted my weight about thirty times - I could find no comfortable way to sit.

He told me he would normally send me home with some Flowmax and have me pound it out with water, but the fever was worrying him and he suggested I go to the ER. He said they could put me on an IV and help me pass the stone(s).

I went to my car and felt the need to pee once again so I ran back in and used the restroom. On the way to St. Clare's ER I started feeling better. I don't know if I had passed a stone or it was the act that I knew I was en route to get help. By the time I got there I was feeling foolish and tried to leave.

But, thankfully, the nurse told me the doctor wanted a CAT scan to see how many stones I still had in me. After I did the scan, the ER doctor told me that I didn't have any more kidney stones, but I did have several gallstones and a black mass on my lower bowel that they didn't know what it was. I was to report to my doctor the next morning.

They hooked my up with some painkillers since my back still hurt and I went home oblivious to how the next few weeks were going to affect my life.