When I was growing up, I had sideaches. On my right side. And they killed. For example, I had a sideache one of the days we were at DisneyWorld when I was 12. I stayed in the hotel rather than go to the parks I was in so much pain. Something about being the youngest made it so nobody ever believed me. Here's an excerpt from one of my very first journal entries ever: "3-31-88: Today I went to my cousin Val's house. I complained that my side hurt but nobody believed me. But it really did!" Everyone thought I was making it up for attention. Even doctors. My mom came and got me from school once in third grade because it was so bad and took me to an urgent care center. The doctor suggested it was "growing pains" and that I take Advil. Sometimes it even worked. I remember one night when we lived in Maryland that it was so bad I was literally writhing in my bed in agony. If you've ever had kidney pain, you'll know what I mean. Then when I was thirteen, my mom took me to a new doctor and suggested he look at my kidneys because she had noticed it always hurt worse when I had had lots of soda or kool-aid to drink (thanks, Mom). They did an ultrasound and discovered I had a blockage in my ureter right underneath the kidney, that it likely had been there since birth, that the kidney had never drained properly, was twice the normal size, and had little to no function. I had major reconstructive surgery that summer and subsequent surgeries throughout high school to remove and replace a stent that was keeping the ureter open. I wanted to yell from the rooftops "buzz droopy drippy EVERYONE!" (a major insult in my family) and felt vindicated at last. It was still causing pain up through my freshman year of college so we scheduled surgery to have my whole kidney removed the summer after my freshman year. But my right kidney has about 15% function, which according to my urologist is worth it to keep the kidney in, even though it still causes sideaches occassionally (it was bad when I was pregnant with Isaac, but not Noah). So here's my point: Advil works. Even though the doctor I saw in third grade was a moron, he was right. It helped ease the pain. Not just for sideaches, either. I get killer headaches sometimes. I don't think they're migraines, but they hurt bad and Advil always works. I hate when I'm pregnant and nursing and can't take it. I took some this morning for a sideache I'd had since yesterday and it was gone in less than an hour. I know some people don't like to take medicine, but I am not one of those people. Why suffer when you don't have to? It's like natural childbirth. More power to you for doing it, but having done both, I would choose an epidural any day. There's just no need to suffer through it. I especially love Advil Liquigels. They work. So here's to you, Advil, and your sweet healing properties. Thanks for the help.
11 comments:
I am all about Advil too, it saves me from headaches and cramps like nothing else will. Thank Heavens for Advil! And by the way, I totally love your blog! I guess you can call me a blog stalker if you want. :) I look at it almost everyday. It makes me miss you!
Love ya, Diane (your cousin in case you know more Diane's)
What a hard thing to have to deal with! It does feel good to know when you're vindicated though, huh?
Plain Advil's weird for me- sometimes it helps, other times it does nothing. I usually go for Excedrin for migraines and headaches.
I think kidneys are odd. Spencer was born with only one, in my anatomy class at BYU (the one I skipped a lot to go with you to the pool) a cadaver had 3 on one side, and every time the ultrasound technician points out both kidneys I breathe a small sigh of relief.
I was never a fan of advil, more a tylenol girl, until I started running. Now I fully appreciate the advil. It's heaven.
andrea, i didn't know that about spencer! weird.
em, my husband takes excedrin but i took it once and couldn't stop shaking (i think it was all the caffeine) so i don't take it anymore. i think my husband gets headaches now because of withdrawal from the caffeine if he hasn't taken any for a few days!
diane, i didn't know you read my blog! i love yours too but can't figure out how to leave comments.
ellen, do you take it every time you run or just when your foot hurts?
Three cheers for Advil! Hip, hip, hooray! This post was so funny. I'm so glad you're my friend!
i still think those sideaches are fake! heh heh heh. i did enjoy visiting you in the hospital when you were doped up on morphin, hilarious!
Diane has comments turned off on her blog. How annoying huh? :-D Love you Diane!
I LOVED this post. You are so darn funny. "and your sweet healing properties"...that had me chuckling.
I never knew that story about your kidney! scary!
I do advil for muscles and excedrin for headaches. I used to be addicted when I had headaches all the time (and even experienced the rebound pain that you might be referring to with your hubby) but I take daily meds for my headaches now so luckily I take both of those meds a lot less now! yay!!
I want the comments back on, but I don't know how to do it and Ryan's too busy to do it for me...one of these days!
Em, this post cracked me up. Mostly because last night I was debating posting about how muchI love NyQuil. My kids have all been sick for a week and I'm battling it like crazy cuz if I get it, I will end up with a sinus infection and SICK for a month. Anywho, I've been living on NyQuil (at night at least) for a week - it's the only way I can get any sleep. Anyway, I'm glad Advil works for you and that your sideache is gone. Miss you!
ugh, my kids are sick too and it's killin' me. noah wants a bink, but then he can't breathe, and they all have snot all over them, and his yucky eye is even yuckier, and they both get up a thousand times a night and i'm TIRED. i sure hope you don't get it. you'd probably die if you ever got that bad staph infection that's going around schools you're so antibiotic resistant.
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