Petri dish teaming with bacteria

That's right.  You read it here.  My body is a petri dish just teaming with bacterial infection.  For the last month or more I've complained about the switch from Norco to Percoset and all that noise.  A few weeks ago the coughing started.  Two weeks ago I started antibiotics for a bronchial infection.

Last Thursday my mom took me to the ER because I was having this horrible stabbing pain in my right side. The ER staff started three tests simultaneously - blood, urine, and contrast dye CT to look at my organs (specifically appendix) because I had to drink this awful red dye solution that would take an hour.  That's the picture above  - me about to polish of the end of what seemed like half a gallon of the vile stuff.

Here's where it got fun.  Yes, there was the pain, but it was also eventful and entertaining.  After the initial blood draw and urine samples were taken, they sent in an EMT (who was just helping out because they were busy) to place an IV for the intravenous contrast dye for the CT.  They wanted a vein close to my heart and but good places are mostly in my hands and forearms because I've had a lot of blood draws and IVs and have a lot of scar tissue over those sites.

This poor woman was apologizing because she kept sticking me and losing veins and trying the other arm and she was a wreck.  I tried to put her at ease by telling her about how I used to go in about every other week to get my pump filled and that "professional" was so incompetent I'd walk out with at least half a dozen injections in my stomach "so this was nothing".  She final poked through some scar tissue and let me tell you, that sucker was a gusher.  It went everywhere.  She was not prepared.  The radiology tech who came in to get me for the CT soon after, saw the blood bath after the attempts to clean it up and commented about how the EMT must have gotten a good one.

I had my CT, which I think are fun because the machines are interesting and not claustrophobic.  The contrast dye they inject you with makes you feel like you peed your pants.  Since it was 9PM in Burley, Idaho, they sent the images to Salt Lake where a radiologist reviewed them and sent a report back to my ER doc.  Then all the tests were in.

And I had a bladder infection.  Did I have any symptoms of a bladder infection (beyond elevated white blood cell count/fever)?  No.  But did all my organs from my kidneys to my ovaries look just lovely?  Yes.  That's good to know.  I mean, you always go around assuming but to know definitively is kind of nice.

They put me on another antibiotic which I was to take with my previously prescribed antibiotics.  I asked the doctor basically, what the hell man?  I've never gotten one of these and there's no real reason for me to get one now.  Also, I have no symptoms of a bladder infection.  I think I got the medical equivalent of a shrug.

It's starting to feel less and less like I have shards of glass in my lower abdomen and although I'm still coughing a bit, my chest isn't feeling as heavy.  But Friday night I DVR-ed the Boise State game and went to bed at eight.  That says something. :)

Here's what WebMD says:

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/urinary-tract-infections-in-teens-and-adults-topic-overview