Coping With Pain

It's just after one in the morning, and I can't sleep.

I recently had kidney stone surgery, which involved a lot of pain, mostly in recovery.  The procedure was simple, I am told.  Though I don't completely understand how, the stones were broken up with a laser, and since then I've been passing the pieces. 

Some days, the pain is so great I can hardly think.  All I can do is sit, staring at nothing, and trying not to bite my lip in half.  I had been prescribed some powerful pain medications, but they don't take all the pain away, especially now that it's been almost three weeks since my operation.

But the pain is not just from the kidney stone operation.  In the past few days, I've developed a staph infection.  I began feeling extremely sick to my stomach, and started shivering uncontrollably the other day, and was taken by my wife to the emergency room.  Staph was diagnosed two days later, after lab work was done with my blood and urine samples. 

I still feel quite ill, sharp knives are still stabbing my guts from within, and my left kidney still tries to push itself out of my back each time I visit the john, but I'm told I'm through the worst of it now.  I'm taking my myriad of pills like a good boy, and praying for the best.