I Went to Florida, Took My Finals, and Passed a Kidney Stone All in a Week

This is a story in three parts: Florida, finals, and the kidney stone. All of these things happened within one week. I was in Florida from December 7th-11th, Took my finals on the 7th before my flight and the day after I got back on the 12th, then I passed a kidney stone in the ER on December 13th. A very busy week indeed.

Part One: Florida

I guess this story starts with a final, since I had to take my geology final at 11 am before my flight to Florida at 6 pm, but that was boring, so we don't care about that final. My first day in Florida was pretty uneventful, since my flight got in at 10 pm or so, so I really just got picked up from the airport by my friends Cam and Shash (and Cam's mom, a true hero) and then dropped off at our Airbnb a little bit before midnight. This trip included a few firsts for me that my mom thought for sure would get me murdered: I flew on Spirit Airlines, went to Florida, and stayed in an Airbnb. My mom also thought my friends would murder me, since we all met on Twitter, but since I'm here to write this post, I can confirm that I am still alive. The Airbnb we stayed in was so nice, and we each got our own rooms, which was also nice. We didn't do a lot of touristy stuff in Florida, since we really were just there to hang out with each other, so I probably won't make a whole post about Florida for that reason. We spent a lot of time at various malls and thrift stores and just hanging out with each other and I had so much fun.

Look at how cute we all are. I miss them so much. 

This was actually my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean!

Part Two: Finals

My flight home from Florida landed back at DFW around 10:30 pm on December 11th, and my first final for the 12th was scheduled at 8 am. Sure, this wasn't great planning on my part, but in my defense, I really didn't want an early flight home. By the time I got back home and back to my room, I was exhausted, and the last thing I wanted to do was study. Plus, it was nearing midnight and I still had to shower and make sure I had everything ready for the next day. Since I took Spirit Airlines and I was only in Florida for a few days, I decided that I didn't want to pay extra for a carry on, so I just packed everything in my backpack since it fit the requirements for the free personal item. When I got home, I simply dumped out everything from Florida and put back some of the school things I needed for my finals like my wallet, my Chromebook, the textbooks I had to return, and the notes for my French and English classes. At this point, I was so tired and I knew that I had to wake up in just a few hours, so I decided not to study and to get some rest. I passed out and got like four and a half hours of sleep.

I dragged myself out of bed on the 12th by 6:30 am and left my house a little bit before 7 am. Usually, the drive to school is only 30-40 minutes depending on the traffic, but at 7 am, everyone seems to be going where I needed to go. The traffic was awful, which totally messed up my morning. By the time I pulled into the parking garage, it was 7:40 am and I still had a fifteen minute walk to class. I figured that would be fine, since it would leave me a few minutes to study (something I still hadn't done). As I rounded my final turn before heading into the building, I stop dead in my tracks as I remembered that I didn't move my pencil back into my backpack. I looked at my phone to check the time: 7:55 am. With five minutes until my final was supposed to start, I panic. Thankfully, I remembered that the University Center has a vending machine filled with test supplies. I also remembered a speedier way to get there, so I walked as fast as my short legs would take me, and I make it to the UC in just a minute or two. I went through a different door a little farther from the vending machine and I passed a little store that I've been in a few times to get a snack or some lunch. Somehow, I vaguely remembered that they sell some test supplies, so I steered myself inside and towards the office supplies. I saw a box of pencils that appeared to be sharpened, paid $2 for them, and rushed back to the geology building to take my final. By the grace of every single deity out there, I made it to my final by 8:03. This of course though meant that I walked into my final without having studied at all. Either way, I didn't care. I slung my backpack down, grabbed a test, and opened my box of pencils. What I thought would be four pre-sharpened pencils turned out to be one pre-sharpened pencil and three unsharpened ones. Just my luck. Either way, I shook it off, took a deep breath, and took my final. Thankfully, I finished in like 45 minutes and it wasn't that bad. I just messed up a few things, but it wasn't a big deal.

Between my English and French finals, I had about two hours to kill, so I went to the bookstore and returned my textbooks, then I went and studied for my French final. I had actually taken the review with me to Florida and worked on it a little bit one of the days, so I didn't have much I had to do to finish it. Once I finished the review, I "tried" to study older materials, but really, I just sat with my notes open for an hour as I listened to my queer bops playlist. So like, I tried to study, because my notes were out and open, but I didn't try hard enough to actually study. Also, my pencil was getting less sharp by the minute, and I didn't have a pencil sharpener, so I wasn't about to waste what little lead I had left before my final. 

By the time I had to go take my final, I was praying yet again to every deity to take pity on me and not let my pencil get too dull to write, or to at least let me find a pencil sharpener. The universe must have really found that funny because I got to my French class and noticed one of those really old pencil sharpeners on the wall, but it didn't have the container on it to catch the shavings. I then looked around for the trashcan that is usually right under the sharpener, but alas, it wasn't there. Of course it wasn't. It had been there all semester, but today, the one day I needed it, it was gone. I wasn't going to have a handful of pencil shavings and nowhere to put them, so I readied myself to use the dulling pencil. Thankfully, the test was pretty easy and my pencil didn't get too dull, but I think I was more stressed about that factor more than the actual exam. Either way, I handed in my test, successfully ending the semester. I went home and relaxed, grateful to be done with school for a few weeks.

Part Three: The Kidney Stone

((I wanted to post a little warning before this part if you don't like hospitals/ERs or being sick/throwing up, which I mention once.))

I was doped out of my mind on morphine here
and feeling pretty good tbh.

Done with school for the semester, I spent my first day of freedom in the ER. Okay, well actually I spent most of my first day of freedom sleeping in and making cookies, but it ended at the ER. I was happily making cookies for my dad's office party the next day when my side started hurting, and at first, I thought it was just a regular old cramp. I shrugged it off and finished baking the first type of cookie, determined to get them done. By the time I moved on to mixing the dough for the next batch of cookies, the pain got exponentially worse. I was also starting to feel nauseous and I started sweating. I went to my room and grabbed a barf bag and my peppermint essential oil, then went back out to the family room. I was in a lot of pain, so instead of going back to finish the cookies, I went and sat on the couch. I told my dad I wasn't feeling well, and he was just like "okay, just sit down and relax a bit" so I tried to do that, but the pain and nausea kept getting worse. I was texting my mom, since she's a nurse, and told her my symptoms and she told me to check my temperature, so I sent my dad to find a thermometer and once he left, I threw up in my handy dandy barf bag. At this point, I started sobbing. I hate getting sick, and I haven't been sick in a while, so that was the final thing that tipped the scales and made me lose it. By this point, I knew that something was seriously wrong. I've had kidney stones before, so I thought that was definitely a possibility, but since the pain was on my right side, I also thought it could be appendicitis. I just started crying uncontrollably and my dad walked back into the living room and was just kind of like "oh shit she's crying what do I do uhhhh emotions" you know, dad stuff, but he actually got really calm and tried to calm me down. After a few minutes, my little brother and his girlfriend come into the room and I was still crying and hunched over in pain. At this point I was in too much pain to be embarrassed, but rewriting it now is making me embarrassed lmfao. You see, I'm not one that cries in front of other people or lets anyone know my general emotional well-being, so me sobbing uncontrollably in front of various people isn't something I like to do. Anyways, they come in the room and my brother was being really kind and holding back my hair as I continued sobbing and being sick, while my dad was on the phone with my mom trying to see if we should go to the ER or not. We decided to go. My brother grabbed me a coat and some shoes while my dad grabbed a few things and led me to the car. My brother and his girlfriend stayed home, which I'm grateful for, since like I've said, crying in front of people isn't something I like to do. Thankfully, we went to the hospital my mom works at, which is only 10 minutes away and we got in really quickly. My mom was working that day, and her shift was almost over, so she met us in the ER.

The details are a little fuzzy once I make it to the ER, since I was in so much pain and so nauseous that I couldn't really focus on anything for too long. I got back into a room and got attached to all the machines and wires and stuff, and soon enough my mom met us down in the room. I do remember the bed being really comfortable, which was nice. I also remember the nurse giving me some morphine for the pain, and let me just tell you, I really loved that shit. I got wheeled down the hall in the bed and took a CT scan, then got wheeled back to the room on the bed again. I joked that a movable bed was something I needed at home and made another joke about how nice the morphine was. Some time went by, and soon the pain had faded completely. I was able to open my eyes and relax, and I even watched some baking show on the TV in the corner of the room. By this point, it had been a few hours, and I was starting to feel bad about going to the ER. I thought that maybe it was all fake, since I now felt no pain whatsoever, and I thought that I might have been over exaggerating. I was just about to apologize to my parents for making them take me to the ER when the doctor came in and told us that I had passed a kidney stone. My mom thinks that the morphine allowed me to relax enough to pass the stone completely, since I apparently got really calm and even took a nap after they gave it to me. Either way, the stone had been passed, and that's what all of the pain was. The doctor also said I had a UTI since the stone was a little bitch and fucked up my insides, but that had a simple fix with some antibiotics. They said that I didn't have any more stones, which was a relief, so the hard part was over. I was released from the ER pretty quickly after that, and my mom and I went to a 24 hour CVS and filled my prescription and got some cranberry juice. Then we went home and I went to bed as if nothing had happened. I felt back to normal, albeit a little sore.

I think the hardest part about having the kidney stones/the UTI was the fact that I couldn't drink coffee for ten days while I took my antibiotics. I ended up finishing them the day before Christmas Eve, so it was a true Christmas miracle that allowed me to have caffeine on Christmas. I haven't gone back to regular coffee yet, as I started small with one of those cans of V8 energy juice, since it has caffeine from green tea, plus a serving of fruits and veggies. After drinking a can, I was definitely aware of the caffeine getting to work. I tried a cup of decaf today, since it's been two weeks without any coffee and I've missed the taste, and while it was good, I also noticed that I didn't drink as much water today. Since passing the stone, I have been drinking so much water to flush out my system, and I noticed today that I didn't drink quite as much as usual, so that's something I'm going to look at. Also, I'm going to try to drink only one cup of coffee (preferably decaf) every few days for the next few weeks or so because I don't need coffee as much while on break, but also because now that I can have coffee again, I don't necessarily want it as much as I did when I couldn't have it.

I really haven't done much else this month, except Christmas a few days ago, but even then, we had a pretty chill holiday. I honestly don't plan on leaving my house until next year (ha I'm getting ahead of the New Year's jokes) and I'm good with that. December has been busy enough, and my bank account will thank me for not spending all my money. I hope your month has been good and if I don't see you again before 2019, happy new years.

~Maddison