Good afternoon,
My name is Kristina May, I am 34 years old and have been dealing with health issues since receiving cancer treatment in March of 2014.
Over the past several months, I have been dealing with recurrent kidney pain, bladder infections, and bladder pain. I have recently been diagnosed with bladder cystitis, caused by radiation burns lining my bladder. Nobody has been able to explain to me what is happening with my kidneys, or why I deal with unbearable pain on a regular basis.
This past Monday, July 24th, at around 9:00 pm, I was leaving an office in Georgetown and the pain became so bad, I thought I may pass out. My blood pressure was elevated, and I could hardly stand. Because I did not feel as though I could drive to a Travis county hospital, I went to the one that was less than 2 miles from my location.
I checked into the Emergency Department at Seton Medical Center, Williamson. The emergency room staff was amazing, they gave me medication to help manage my pain, ran tests, and discussed my symptoms with me. The CT scan that they did was unable to find anything, which is not new to me... whatever is happening with my kidneys is obviously being caused internally, which would also explain the recurrent infections. I left a urine sample and a dip showed an infection however, the lab did not agree with this finding. It is obvious at this point, that the infection was just starting because I have all of the symptoms of a full blown infection at this time.
After going over my test results, the emergency room physician thought that it would be best to admit me for pain management, and further testing. He noticed that some of the levels in the lab work that was completed were off, and there was not a clear reason as to why. After discussing the options with him, we agreed that I would be admitted to the med-surge floor. Upon arriving on the floor, Dr. George met with me and expressed concern for my issue. He thought that we could do some more testing, try some specific treatments, and see what, if anything, would improve my issue.
The following day, I was seen my Dr. Basu. She did a quick exam, asked me about my symptoms, and asked me that I had tried before. She attempted to get me to take muscle relaxers but I explained to her that I could tell that this issue was not muscular pain. While I cannot explain the exact feeling that I have, I know that it is not muscle pain. I told her that I had attempted muscle relaxers before and that they had done nothing to help manage my symptoms. She then suggested that we try gabapentin, in order to determine if maybe the issue was caused by nerves. I told her that I did not feel as though this was the issue, but that I was willing to try it.
Tuesday, around lunch time I had visitors, including my young nephew. I was still in a lot of pain but I took my pain medicine and walked down to the cafe to get my nephew a cookie so that he would not be so sad. Additionally, I thought that walking around may help with some of the side effects that I was experiencing from the gabapentin. While in the cafe', I saw my doctor and greeted her. I then walked back up to my room and laid down due to the increased level of pain I was feeling.
On Tuesday, at around 4:00pm, after receiving another dose of the gabapentin, I started noticing some awful side effects of the medication. I began making a list of strange things that I was feeling so that I could discuss them with the doctor when she came back. The list of side effects ended up being pretty long, and included:
dizziness
tiredness
strange LARGE bruises on my body
inability to focus my eyes
headache
increased pain in my kidney area
tingling in my hands and feet
severe swelling in my legs
These are just the ones that I can still remember, as I left the list at the hospital.
On Wednesday morning, at around 10, the doctor came back and, while she was palpitating my back, I was telling her about the horrible side effects, and that I was still in pain.
She then told me that my pain had improved, I attempted to explain to her that it had not improved at all, and was in fact, worse, as I had explained to the nurse earlier in the day. At this point in time she said that she saw me walking the previous afternoon so I must be feeling better and that she would not do anything to help me with my pain besides keep me on the gabapentin medication because it was obviously a nerve issue. At this time, I began crying out of sheer pain and frustration. I felt hopeless, helpless, and to be honest, a bit like giving up on life all together. Thank God that I am not having any type of mental health issues, this would have for sure caused me to consider taking my own life.
I have NEVER felt so much like a piece of trash before in my entire life! She refused to even listen to me. She did not care about the worsening symptoms that I felt, she did not care about the h read more