How can something so small be such a problem?

What a couple of days! On Monday evening, I had begun having really bad cramps in my lower left abdomen till 2:30 am. At that point I had thrown up all the pain killers I had taken and finally decided it was time to go to ER. It was a fast trip but frightening. I have never been to the ER and this was my first time. I have always been afraid that maybe I am making something up or the pain is in your head, etc... Well, the results were in and I wasn't making this up. We took Jackson with us because I was in so much pain and he was a trooper. Mike took him to Claudia's after I was checked in and they were working on me. Lesson 1, Morphine causes me to puke. The poor nurse, she asked me if I got sick with morphine and I told her I wasn't sure. When she did put the morphine in I asked her if I could get a cracker, then said a bucket and before she could even get up... I hurled all over her and myself... opps, she said it happens all the time but if it did I think she would have been more prepared. Lesson 2, if your back hurts and at times you have pain that you can't pick up your son... you may have a kidney stone. Well the ct scan said that I have a 6mm kidney stone that I probably won't be able to pass. Therefore, I left the ER with plenty of scripts and a number of the urologist to call in the morning. I call the urologist and go in for an appt on Tuesday for a consult to see what we can do about this. We decided to do a stent as the first procedure...

A kidney stone stent is a flexible plastic tube inserted between a
kidney and the bladder to facilitate the passage of a
kidney stone.

I was ready for the procedure and scheduled it for that same evening at 6pm. The procedure went well, but the urine that was being blocked and then released was very concentrated with bacteria which ended up putting me in the hospital. I ended up being diagnosed with "Sepsis"

Sepsis is a life-threatening illness. Your body's response to a bacterial infection usually causes it. Your immune system goes into overdrive, overwhelming normal processes in your blood. The result is that small blood clots form, blocking blood flow to vital organs. This can lead to organ failure. Babies, old people and those with weakened immune systems are most likely to get sepsis. But even healthy people can become deathly ill from it. A quick diagnosis can be crucial, because one third of people who get sepsis die from it.

Sepsis is usually treated in a hospital intensive care unit (ICU). IV antibiotics and fluids may be given to try to knock out the infection and to keep blood pressure from dropping too low. Patients may also need respirators to help them breathe. This is from the internet and pretty much sums it up! For the next 4 days of my life I have been in the intensive care unit at Queen's Medical Center being not allowed to eat or drink anything. I was hooked up on oxygen which after looking at the item analysis bill costs 500 bucks for 9 hours! The nurses kept warning me that if I couldn't breathe well I was going to have to be incubated with a tube and then couldn't talk... I was determined I was not going to be one of those patients with a tube down their throat from Grey's Anatomy... My white blood cell count was over 30,000 and a normal persons is 10. Yep! You read that right, I am currently down to 13 and getting back to normal. I even had the luxury of being the patient that had a central line put into them not once but twice. Yeah, that was fun and I am not looking forward to the bandage coming off of my shoulder/chest...

So what happens next... I am going to be on antibiotics for the next 10 days because the urologist wants to make sure all the bacteria is completely cleaned up and then I will go in for the next procedure where he uses a scope to break up the kidney stone and then he collects them and I will not have to pass the stone anymore.