Thursday, August 02, 2012

No Fun in the Dells

Years ago Denny vacationed in the Wisconsin Dells area with his first wife and he thought I'd enjoy taking a ride on "the Ducks" so I arranged a stay at one of our affiliate membership campgrounds a few miles south of town.  Of course they snagged me into signing up for a sales pitch with the offer of discounted golf here at the resort as well as a gift card before I had hardly finished registering for our campsite so we had a commitment for that before we'd be able to do our sightseeing.  But first we had to find our campsite and set up, which we did.  Too many trees for our DISH TV satellite, but the resort has decent cable so we were okay with that.  Cell phone reception is very spotty but the aircard works for Internet access with the use of the Wilson antenna and the amplifier so that was good.  What wasn't good was as soon as we had eaten Denny became nauseous and his back started hurting.  I gave him aspirin and he rested a while but when he said he was hurting worse I took him into town to the urgent care center which was getting ready to close up for the day.  The nurse practitioner said from Denny's symptoms and the location of the pain she thought he might be getting shingles rather than suffering from a kidney stone as he has in the past.  However, she didn't take a urine sample and told us simply to watch for a rash and to continue taking aspirin.  So I took Denny home.  Which only lasted a couple of hours before I had to drive him to the hospital ER in Baraboo, Wisconsin where it was discovered he had two 5 mm kidney stones.  After absorbing a full IV bag of medication for pain and nausea Denny was finally comfortable and after getting his prescriptions filled at an automated medication dispenser in the lobby of the hospital (because it was after midnight and there were no pharmacies open for 50 miles) we were able to leave, arriving back at the rig shortly before 1 AM.  That made for a pretty long travel day!

We were able to make the sales appointment on Monday but by Monday afternoon Denny was uncomfortable for the rest of the day.  Tuesday dawned pain free so we left early in the morning to ride the Ducks and take the boat tour of the upper Dells (another post) but by the time we were finished the pain was creeping back.  Yesterday was a very bad day with Denny staying in the recliner most of the day trying to find a comfortable position and having to make use of the pain meds.  Today so far there's no pain but he's still queasy/not hungry so I figure the stones are lurking around waiting to make their moves once again so we're just kind of hanging around waiting to see what will happen.  It's raining today so it's a good day to just hang around and the rest of the week may just be too hot and humid to play golf even if he felt good so we'll just play the wait-and-see game, hoping the kidney stones will pass soon.  I have to say, it certainly is hard to watch someone you love be in so much pain and not be able to do a thing about it.  Stupid stones.

The Wisconsin Dells area is really popular with families as there are water parks and miniature golf as well as an amusement park along with the various resorts and campgrounds, somewhat along the lines of a Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Baraboo is a few miles down the road with its circus museum and show and there are shops and touristy things to do all around the general area.  Denny and I located a farm stand and were able to enjoy some real field grown tomatoes and corn on the cob before he lost his appetite.  I think I'd like to come back to the area again, perhaps later in the season and minus the hospital visit and the kidney stones, of course.

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