I titled these weeks the “hell weeks” for a reason- they were exactly that.

The story begins when I arrived home from my hospital visit on April 14th, 2020, when I had been diagnosed with a bilateral kidney infection. I remained in bed for the remainder of the week and was in even more pain than I was before. 

We were calling doctors and hospital nurse help lines constantly trying to figure out if my symptoms were normal. It wasn’t until maybe the third day in, that I noticed my left rib cage swelling out because of the Cefdinir. We had assumed that meant the medication was “working”. 

When we weren’t on the phone desperate for answers as to what to do from nurses and doctors, we were left with the hellish reality that was my day-to-day life at this time. 

I was in such excruciating pain that all day and night my body was in fight mode. I was at about a pain level 10 24/7 unless it was spiking higher. 

I was unable to even roll over in bed and had to have my mom and dad roll me over. It was a very difficult time as when they would do so, I would scream out and cry in pain-completely out of my control. 

Getting to the bathroom was an absolute nightmare; I would have my mom or dad help me out of bed and the whole journey would be a 20-minute time commitment. I would sit on the floor and cry from the pain of getting out of bed and onto the floor, then would proceed to slowly crawl my way into the bathroom (again with the help from parents). I wasn’t even able to pull my pants down or grab toilet paper, so my mom had to do that for me. 

There became a point where I couldn’t crawl to the bathroom anymore- I couldn’t move from the pain. My family (who I just want to mention here are absolute SUPERHEROS) came up with a plan of how to carry me to the bathroom. My mom would grab one leg and my brother or dad would grab the other and did a 2 handed seat carry to the toilet. From there my mom would take over and help. 

I couldn’t shower so my mom would bathe me, and I had no way of getting a break from the pain. I struggled to be able to even watch TV on my phone- the pain was so loud that my body wasn’t able to be distracted from it. 

I lost so much independence during this time because of the illness, and I was so frustrated. 

My mom had offered to me adult diapers to try to avoid how painful the whole bathroom excursion was, but I refused to have the one piece of control I had left, taken away from me. 

My mom took time off from work to care for me full time. She even set up a fold out table and chairs in front of my bed so we could have family dinners there every night and I could hear what they were saying and be included. She also set up a TV in my bedroom in the hopes that the pain would lessen, and I’d be able to watch it. 

Amongst all of the pain I could hear- it was the one thing I could do that wasn’t painful. I felt so fortunate that my family tried to have me not suffer alone. 

This was such a sensitive and emotional time for my family, and it had its ups and downs. 

We switched primary care doctors and finally got someone to listen, doctors were beginning to get concerned with how bad my pain was and that things weren’t improving. I was then prescribed codeine to try and help with my pain. 

At the end of the first week (April 20th) I was finally able to almost stand up but unfortunately, after this one day, my symptoms all turned the corner again.

On April 27th when my Cefdinir ended, I was finally able to move around, and symptoms were more manageable, but I was still super bloated, and my left rib cage was still stuck out. I wasn’t able to get my bra on because of the amount of swelling. I thought it was odd but figured the swelling would come down eventually…

The first two weeks of May 2020 went relatively normal; I was back to moving around and wasn’t feeling sick aside from some abdominal tenderness and swelling. 

I think we all know that this isn’t going to last… if only Emma from the past knew…

On May 10th, I had the sudden urge to pee. Uh-oh. Not AGAIN.

I remembered this sudden urge to pee as it had matched with what had happened back in March that one weird day. I had no pain but just had to pee very frequently just that day.

Knowing that there seemed to be a pattern here, I went to the doctor to get a urine test done and sure enough, UTI AGAIN. 

We did a urine culture to try and figure out specifically what type of bacteria it was and why it seemed to be coming back. I was prescribed Nitrofuratoin (a very aggressive UTI medication) and after 4 doses (the second day of taking it) I had vomiting and severe abdominal pain from the medication. I discontinued this medication and had my urine retested to see if the UTI was still there. Yep- it was.

Because of this severe reaction, my doctors put me back on another 2 weeks of Cefdinir. 

At this point from taking 4 weeks of Cefdinir, my left rib cage was stuck out in the front and back and I contracted a yeast infection. We started to take notice of how much my abdomen was increasing in swelling, so I discontinued taking Cefdinir towards the end of my 2-week treatment. 

I had called my doctor to mention I was still having epigastric and flank tenderness, but they never got back to us even after multiple phone calls and portal messages. My family and I came up with a plan that if things got worse in the next few days, I would go to the hospital.

I think we can all guess what happened next-

May 31st, 2020, I was up all night hunched over just like I had been April 14th. I went back to the hospital and ended up getting the same ER doctor as I had when I went in January. They said they believed the incidents were all possibly connected but we all didn’t know how. I was in a pretty significant amount of pain so when I was physically examined, the doctor noticed hives all over my abdomen and back. We figured these were a stress response to the pain. I had mentioned why my left rib cage was so swollen and the doctor said that was highly unusual, especially if it was because of the Cefdinir. The doctor said they weren’t sure that I ever had a kidney infection because my tests weren’t adding up.

The doctor referred us to see a GI specialist to see their thoughts. 

I was prescribed Omeprazole again and told to try taking it to see if it helped with my symptoms.

Continue to the next story titled “The H. Pylori Story?” to read what happens next!