June Has Not Been My Month

For those of you who haven’t heard, this month has been a little rough on my health. On the 1st of June, I woke up around 3am with a really intense pain in my lower right back that was radiating to my stomach as well. It was making me nauseous as well. Somehow, I just knew I had kidney stones. I told one of my friends on the squad and with her went to find our leaders to let them know I needed to go to a hospital. 

Thankfully, my squad and I were in Tegucigalpa at the time so medical care was right at our fingertips rather than an hour of off roading to get off the mountain. Or so we thought. We got into a taxi, drove up to the hospital, only to discover that it was closed! The taxi driver said he knows another hospital and started driving toward that one. Sometime later, we were on a bigger and busier road and the taxi started slowing down until it fully stopped and rolled backward a bit down the hill we had been on. 

The taxi broke down. We were now stuck on the side of the road. The driver was trying to start the car back up, but nothing was working. I was in so much pain that it felt like we had been in that taxi for hours. It really wasn’t that long, but I was desperate for a hospital. The taxi driver told us that he had a friend coming… or we could just walk. I was sick in the back of his taxi, groaning in pain and he seriously told us the hospital wasn’t far and we could just walk!! I was in complete disbelief. 

So, we got out of the taxi and started walking. Thankfully it didn’t take us long to flag down another taxi and let him know we needed to get me to a hospital. He drove us around the corner. Sure enough, it was within walking distance. Although, I’m really glad I didn’t have to walk… especially considering that this hospital WAS ALSO CLOSED!!!! Are you freaking kidding me. 

After a while of struggling with some Spanish, we finally communicated to the driver that I needed a hospital that was open. He went to start his car and it didn’t turn on. Had we really found ourselves at a second closed hospital and in a second broken down taxi. It’s dramatic, I know, but at this point I thought I was gonna die. I didn’t. I’m okay. And, the taxi was okay too. It started the second time he tried and he drove us to a third hospital that morning. 

Thankfully this one was open. Although, they seemed really confused about why we were there. We communicated to them that it was an emergency and I needed medical attention asap. I walked into the hospital room and went straight to the bathroom since I still very nauseous. I knew I couldn’t stay in there though so I walked to a bed they had set up for me and somehow managed to stay still while they gave me an iv, drew some blood and then gave me painkillers. 

The dr’s were also pretty certain it was kidney stones, but I would need to wait about 3 hours to get an ultrasound. In those 3 hours I slept. The painkillers had kicked in and the nausea finally went away. I got an ultrasound and they didn’t find anything, so they told me I needed to get a CT scan. They also told me that I would need to go to a different hospital for that scan because their machine was broken. So, we got into a 3rd taxi of the day and drove to the 4th hospital. 

There, I got the CT scan, found my kidney stone and talked to a urologist. He gave me two options: surgery, or pass it naturally. I opted out of the surgery went to the pharmacy to pick up some painkillers and headed back to the hostel to rejoin my squad. A few days later, my squad went back up the mountain and I stayed at a hotel still waiting for my stone to pass. It didn’t take too long and I quickly rejoined my squad on the mountain. 

Only to still be in pain. I was told residual pain is normal, but just had a bad feeling. So, on Friday the 10th I went back down the mountain to go to another dr. They did another ultrasound and found that I still have a couple kidney stones. Yay! I’m now waiting for those stones to pass as well. 

Wait, there’s more. On the 15th I got a covid test. It came back positive. So I’m now in quarantine with covid and still waiting for the kidney stones to pass. Thankfully my symptoms are very mild. The pain from the kidney stones is very mild also. 

So yeah, June has been a wild month so far. Through it all though, God has shown me how he is our “ever present help in times of trouble” -Psalm 46:1. I have been covered in SO much prayer and have a lot of people who have been helping take care of me. God is good and this too shall pass. (literally.. the kidney stone will pass I just have to wait it out). The timing of all of it was definitely in the hands of God. Really praying that from here things get better and the month of June doesn’t try and throw anything else my way. Whatever happens, I trust that God is in control and I’m in his hands. He is my strength and boy am I thankful for Him. 

Blessings, 

Kaci