Medical emergency while riding

[TheAxeman]

On sunday afternoon I decided to take off on the bike for a bit. As I was cruising down the road I was suddenly struck by a violent pain in my left kidney that almost dropped me. I got the bike to the side of the road and was able to get off, get my helmet off and lay down. After rolling around a bit sweating profusely, I got nauseous, and of course, seriously concerned. After a few minutes the pain began to subside so I got on the bike and drove the 5 or 6 miles back home. The whole time, however, I could feel the pain getting more and more intense. I had barely gotten off the bike and now I got really hammered with the pain and was doubled over barely making it into the house. After the longest drive of my life to the hospital by Michelle who is an EMT, and a couple of quick doses of some morphineish drug, I finally was able to unclinch my teeth. My first, and hopefully last, run in with kidney stones. It frightens me to imagine what I would have done if I was much further from home on the bike and totally away from any civilization....

 

[Burnspot]

Oi, that sucks, but glad you got patched up! My buddy seems to get kidney stones on a somewhat regular basis...it sucks bigtime.

 

[FJRBluesman]

Glad you're OK, and a great post of things that could go worng on a ride, especially riding solo... OM...

 

[Patriot]

cell phone coverage good ???

from the description, I might have had to call the EMT's especially if I had hardly any clue to what was happening...I'd be worried a blood vessel had burst somewhere and I was hemmoraging and on borrowed time

I know too many who wouldn't have made it to the hospital without intervention in the ambulance for some unknown problem...I guess the symptoms weren't of a heart attack which is first scary thought

calls to 911, family, and to fellow local motorcyclists I think would have been to best move of the day unless I was sure it was "just a kidney stone" and the pain tolerable

I've had 3 attacks with only the first being downright debilitating...I had to hand off my bed upside down to stand the pain at times

 

[SacramentoMike]

I've had 3 attacks with only the first being downright debilitating...

Still looking forward to my first.

Glad you're OK, Axe. Or at least your teeth are unclenched now.

 

[bikesniffer]

dehydration will accelerate kidney stone pain...

glad you got rid of the pain with some wonderful meds, had them stones 3 or 4 times and can relate to the pain.

Alfredo

 

[dj bill]

vicoden is your best friend,better than a ********....lol

 

[wheatonFJR]

WHOA.

That sucks...

 

[GalaxyBlue]

There is nothing that compares to that pain... I passed a stone in 04 and let me tell ya, It ain't fun. Turns out i was dehydrated due to being in A/C all day long.

 

[cota95]

Crap Axe, that sucks! Steve had a bout of 'stones earlier this summer. The doctors said to just let them try to pass but he scuba dives-could you imagine being 100 feet underwater when the attack hits?

 

[Bustanut joker]

OUCH! Damn Chris! I've done that stone thing but once. Isn't anything I look forward to doing again soon :blink:

Good to see ya managed to make it home and got yourself fixed up without any further damage.

You take care man.

:jester:

 

[blkredlinedrvr]

I had a kindney stone at 23 years old. I was stationed in North Carolina and we were pulling 16+ hour days for over a month trying to keep up with maintenance on the birds. We were pretty much running off of AMP, Red Bull, Monster......basically anything that had unsafe levels of caffeine and other stimulants in it that was legal to use lol. I don't think I drank much if any water during that month.

After that pain I force myself to drink water and the occasional cranberry juice to keep the ol' filters cleaned out.

 

[tmc]

Had em a few times, they suck like nothing else.

There are some tissue relaxers available from the Doc that can help get things moving. Vicodin and the like can take the edge off, but the best thing is to pass the sucker ASAP.

 

[Silver Penguin]

Ouch! Glad you're OK now. I've seen second-hand that kidney stones can be excruciatlingly painful.

Andy's had a couple, the second of which struck on day 3 of a 10 day road trip. He was riding a very lumpy V-Twin cruiser. During the night he was woken with the pain, the cold sweats and throwing up. There was no way that he could get a helmet on to go anywhere, even two up on my cruiser. Fortunately the motel manager gave us a ride to a local clinic. The doc wanted Andy hospitalized but the nearest hospital was over 100 miles away via canyon roads. Those roads were flooded at the bottom, and snowy at the top. Or it was 200 miles by freeway. Either way, it was too far to go on the back of my bike.

We opted for hydration, pain/nausea control, observation and more hydration, in a motel room for a few days. He did manage to ride again during the trip, to reach our final destination but it was the last long trip he took on a cruiser.

 

[canyonman]

Yep they suck hard! Passed a few, last one was 3mm x 5mm urologist's jaw hit the floor when I handed it to him. Even had them and hurnia surgery in the same week. Now that was a great time.

Hydration, hydration, hydration.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Man...Sorry you went through that. I have been lucky to never have one, but Patch had one put him in the hospital. He had a friend call me to tell me he was in pain but ok. I was pretty concerned because Patch is a pretty tough mo-fo. Ugly as **** on a stick, but tough! :lol:

 

[Fred W]

Whoa... When I read the title I feared something worse had happened.

Really glad it wasn't more serious, and like you said... that you were only 6 miles from home.

But I guess if you were further away, the cell phone and 911 would be your best friend.

Never had the pleasure of passing any stones. Sure hope to keep it that way.

 

[MEM]

I could go in there after that sucker, Axe

Teasing you but it IS no laughing matter. The pain is prolly the male equivalent of labour pains (or worse) but I've had neither so my experience is vicarious.

As others have pointed, stones can't form in dilute urine so daily copious amounts of water should keep them under control.

ps - a hot gallbladder can be pretty damned bad, too

 

[BikerGeek99]

Dayum, Criss! Glad you're OK, bud!

Stuff like this is why I decided to invest in a SPOT tracker. They have that neat little 911 button, and after some of the areas we were in out west, there is a fair amount of the country with no cell reception, and nobody around for miles and miles except for livestock.