2015 has been busy so far

So how is your new year going? Mine started off rather badly.  First I noticed that my 17 year old cat, Scully, was having some problems in the litter box. Of course this had to happen New Year's Eve when no vets are open.  I waited until New Year's Day and she was no better. So I got ready to take her to the emergency animal hospital 45 minutes away.  As I was almost ready to leave I got a bad pain in my back and my side.  I tried to keep going but I could hardly walk. I finally had to give in and lay down with a heating pad on my back. I hoped that this would fix me so I could get Scully and go.  No such luck.  The pain kept getting worse, and I felt like I'd developed a bad UTI, too.  Pretty soon I knew that there was no way that I could drive for 45 minutes.  I tried sitting in a recliner, doing some stretches in case it was a muscle spasm in my back, I took 2 of my pain pills, a muscle relaxer, none of it helped. I did some symptom checking online which confirmed my suspicion that it was probably a kidney problem. My final push to go to the hospital was when I suddenly got very nauseous and threw up.  (I very, very rarely throw up.)
I didn't even get dressed, just left my pi's on and a coat and hat and off we went.  I felt horribly guilty that I was leaving Scully behind, knowing that she still needed a Doctor.  Once I got to the E.R. they checked me in and did a scan of my bladder to see how full it was (it's amazing what they can do).  Since there wasn't much in it, that told them there was no blockage from the bladder on down.  I told them the pain was different from my usual (chronic) back pain.  They hooked up some IV's, one for fluids and one for Dilaudid for the pain, and gave me a giant glass of contrast solution to drink so I could go for a CT Scan.  Oh that Dilaudid was such a relief!  The pain didn't go away but it became bearable, and I felt relaxed.  I watched TV, sipped on my contrast stuff and posted some #hospitalselfies (a rather fascinating tag to look at on Instagram).  Finally I got the CT, and the results of that were indeed a kidney problem.  There was a little kidney stone lodged just at the opening to my bladder.  What a relief to know I wasn't imagining things (my Mom and sister assumed it was stress causing my pain).
They gave me a bunch of other medicines to take home, and instructions to use a lovely strainer that they gave me whenever I had to urinate.  Oh joy.  The little things that remained in the strainer were to go to my urologist for examination.  Apparently some kidney stones can be as small as a grain of salt, and others break apart and those pieces are also very tiny.
So, that was the start to my New Year!  And now you know all about kidney stones, too. (You never know when you might need that info.  If you've got severe pain on one side of your back, not the low back but higher, and it seems to wrap around your side and down to your groin, think "kidney stone".)
That same night I managed to get Scully to the animal hospital, too, thanks to my Mom's driving.  She had a UTI.  So she and I were having similar symptoms!  The good news is that we're both feeling better now.
I'm hoping the calmness will last and we can get back to regular life things.  I've set up my new Fitbit and I'm ready to exercise and feel good.