MckMama Drama - Including the Fire - Merge

[Guest Anonymous]

I'd never heard of her before this thread. I looked at her blog and couldn't find anything I did not like (except read some things about problems with her husband a couple of years ago)...she didn't even seem fundie! I assume there are probably some horror stories though?

[Koala]

I had one refuse to pass, it took over a month, they just kept sending me home with painkillers, or filling me up with an IV and sending me home. Kind of odd, but I know in the 50's-70's they did more hospitalizations. I haven't had surgery, but I do know that with the really bad month long one, they were going to go in the day after it passed. BUT they gave it time to pass before trying anything else, even though I was sick as a dog in that time. That's why I don't understand the day one: find a stone, day two: surgery. It doesn't match my experiences OR the experiences of the family members with the same issues. (as it's generally a genetic predisposition, even the calcium oxalate stones.)

My husband had his removed in 2007. We were actually in Disney when it started. We stuck it out for 3 days (he was convinced it would pass), but we finally came home to see his urologist. He was a mess by that point, and the doctor didn't think it could pass on it's on, so he went in and got it out the next day. Then to top it all off he needed at stint (spelling?). He said that was the worst part of the whole thing, and without going into a ton of detail I totally agree with him. It was pretty bad.

He starts throwing up within hours of them starting, and then he gets to a point where he is passing out. His urologist is really good about treating his pain aggressively and not letting it get out of control. The one time that we couldn't seem to get him ahead of the pain, he put him in the hospital for 2 days....totally the best thing for him.

[Koala]

I'd never heard of her before this thread. I looked at her blog and couldn't find anything I did not like (except read some things about problems with her husband a couple of years ago)...she didn't even seem fundie! I assume there are probably some horror stories though?

McMama is a nut :lol:

[Wolfie]

He starts throwing up within hours of them starting, and then he gets to a point where he is passing out. His urologist is really good about treating his pain aggressively and not letting it get out of control. The one time that we couldn't seem to get him ahead of the pain, he put him in the hospital for 2 days....totally the best thing for him.

I usually have lower back pain off and on for a while before the actual attack. I also tend to get blood in my urine before I feel major symptoms. BUT I really wish I had been hospitalized the time I had the really bad ones that didn't pass for a month. I was throwing up and passing out and all that jazz, and was just given outpatient medication. I failed and had to retake part of my student teaching because the school wouldn't accept that I was sick and just let me withdraw. If I had been hospitalized, maybe it would have been different. (I was actually told, "Maybe you aren't healthy enough to be a teacher.") I wish I had been able to get enough money together for a lawyer then.

They could very well be more aggressive with treatment now than they were when I was having the most stones (1998-2003). But, they tended to give it a couple weeks of watching even when my grandpa was getting them in the 50's and 60's. (though they would hospitalize him)

[TheJewAmongUs]

I don't get why she's blogging. In between the 2 posts about the ambulance/hospital she posted pics of her kids eating rocks.

When I had a tiny kidney stone (passed it after about 6 hours) I was too busy alternating between puking and crying in the fetal position. I was writhing around so much I ripped out the IV. (And, I'm not trying to brag, but usually I handle pain really, really well, this was just that unbearable, even after the morphine.)

I can't imagine wanting to type.

[ladypuglover]

I don't really understand the kidney stone thing, because they don't really hospitalize people for kidney stones anymore. (I am pretty sure I have one right now- which is why I'm still wide awake, it's been a heavy water and lemonade drinking day. Trying to get it to move before it REALLY hurts and I have to resort to the vicodin. All they will do at the dr's is give me a scan to see it, prescribe more vicodin, and if I have a ride home offer morphine before sending me home.) And after I had the first one, I knew what that pain was, and after the second I started recognizing the early warning signs... (which is what I have right now, for me it's cramping on one side of the lower back.)

ETA- I have driven to urgent care by myself when I shouldn't have. It's why I now have injectable migraine meds- the doctors were NOT happy with me. I look back on a couple of those drives and wonder why I was so stupid to get behind the wheel, since I'm otherwise very responsible.

I know you know this already but if you had been pulled over by a cop for any reason.... is the huge fine, community service, drug testing, probation and maybe even jail time worth it? I have a friend that has to do all that for the next 18 months for driving on a very mild dose of a painkiller when someone rear ended him. I found out when I helped out at MADD and saw my friend there. As he said, it is not worth the time for that crime.

[Vex]

Wow, another medical drama? I guess I can see how it could be that bad.

My mother has a kidney stone right now. She had to go to hospital (the emergency department) for the pain and she did stay overnight at the request of doctors while they ran tests. They sent her home the next morning and she had to take the week off work. She's been taking meds to dissolve the stone but they're making her ill. She had an MRI yesterday and the stone has shifted but she hasn't seen the doctor again yet. It's quite possible that she'll need an operation to remove it. Seeing how bad my mother has been, I sympathise with her more than I usually do.

I live in a country with affordable private cover (and my mother has it), but even then my mother had to pay about $500 out of pocket (which is a lot, emergency visits are usually free with or without private cover at public hospitals). I can't imagine how MckMama handles the bills.

[dcmhejbl62]

I'd never heard of her before this thread. I looked at her blog and couldn't find anything I did not like (except read some things about problems with her husband a couple of years ago)...she didn't even seem fundie! I assume there are probably some horror stories though?

She's like reality TV / Kate Gosselin in the blogosphere. Excellent lying, scheming, and manipulating her fans for a buck.

Visit MWOP and read the sidebar for a few highlights, those are actual incidents and you can link back to her blog for proof (the posts and comments are silly and just feed the crazy). Her "giveaways" are beyond unethical and illegal.

Beyond the big stuff, she uses keywords to exploit the tragedies of others and generate hits on her blog: example was using the title "Gone with the Wind" for a bunch of pictures of her child blowing dandelion seeds, the day after the Joplin tornado.

Really, she's just an extremely savvy marketer and publicity hound. Problem is she is marketing her children and her family, exploiting the emotions and goodwill of others, presenting it all as "reality" and attaching various labels, Christian, crunchy, homeschooling, etc. as needed.

[Wolfie]

I know you know this already but if you had been pulled over by a cop for any reason.... is the huge fine, community service, drug testing, probation and maybe even jail time worth it? I have a friend that has to do all that for the next 18 months for driving on a very mild dose of a painkiller when someone rear ended him. I found out when I helped out at MADD and saw my friend there. As he said, it is not worth the time for that crime.

I have NEVER driven with strong painkillers in my system NEVER. The reason I should not have been driving is the amount of pain I was in, NOT what was in my system. They will not give you certain meds unless you have somebody to drive you, and they have seen this person.

When I go in it is because I have been throwing up for hours, and either what I took hours ago didn't stay down, or didn't work and is no longer in my system. That's why I have an imitrex injectable now, it will stay in my system and I can take it before I am throwing up uncontrolably.

[browngrl]

My husband had his removed in 2007. We were actually in Disney when it started. We stuck it out for 3 days (he was convinced it would pass), but we finally came home to see his urologist. He was a mess by that point, and the doctor didn't think it could pass on it's on, so he went in and got it out the next day. Then to top it all off he needed at stint (spelling?). He said that was the worst part of the whole thing, and without going into a ton of detail I totally agree with him. It was pretty bad.

He starts throwing up within hours of them starting, and then he gets to a point where he is passing out. His urologist is really good about treating his pain aggressively and not letting it get out of control. The one time that we couldn't seem to get him ahead of the pain, he put him in the hospital for 2 days....totally the best thing for him.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone have surgery right away - unless there was some complicating factor- and none of those people was up blogging. I just read this woman's blog now - hadn't heard of her before. She seems a bit wacko IMO. Anyway "stint" is actually spelled STENT (I know, I know, I'm a bit obsessive about medical stuff).

[Witsec6]

Most insurance covers your kids as a group. So it would be the same for two children as seven. But, yeah, private insurance can be crazy. When I had Group Health it was $380/month for just me. It would have been like $50 more to add my kids. That's a lot of money!

This is disgusting. It makes me so happy to be Canadian.

[Katiebug]

I'm amazed she could blog. My husband had a small kidney stone in 2006 (I think) and I found him curled on our bedroom floor in a fetal position. He didn't want to pay our insurance's ER copay so he toughed it out until morning when he could see the doctor (I spent most of the night wondering how I would drag him down the stairs and into the car to go to the ER). They sent him over for a CT scan and lo and behold it was a stuck kidney stone and referred him to the urologist, who couldn't see him for close to a month.

At the time my husband was working in retail and had no paid sick time. He could have taken FMLA but we didn't know that at the time. Basically, he was told that he had to go to work or he would be fired. He couldn't take Vicodin and drive safely (obviously) or function at work so he loaded up on huge doses of Motrin to get through the day. His employer routinely violated labor laws and several times the store manager wouldn't let him sit at all during an 8 or 9 hour shift, give him a legal meal break, or even let him leave the sales floor to use the bathroom. :evil: His supervisor tried to help when he could but it was not a good situation. He'd get home, down a Vicodin and about a half gallon of water, and pass out.

It took 3 weeks before the urologist had a cancellation and could fit him it, and they did another CT scan to demonstrate that the stone was indeed still stuck. His next day off he had that shock wave lithotripsy procedure and that took care of it. His then-employer "kindly" let him take a day off without pay so he had two days in a row off to recover. Poor guy was pretty much in pain-filled zombieland for a month.

[mnb357]

Who is MckMama? Forgive me if it's a stupid question, but I'm new here.

[Childless]

Retail sucks. I'm so glad I have a college degree and do not have to resort to it to make a living.

[Becca]

Retail sucks. I'm so glad I have a college degree and do not have to resort to it to make a living.

FYI...I have a bachelors degree and worked retail for six years after that. With the economy the way it is, a lot of us are having to "resort" to it to make a living; a lot of my co-workers were BA or above degree holders.

[Wolfie]

okay, so how is she writing these things if she's in that much pain? I think that this is just a way that she is trying to get out of going to Africa....

(she has another post today)

[TheJewAmongUs]

Uh, she's posting from a phone whole on painkillers? Really?

[SunnyAndrsn]

Painkillers did not do a lot to help me when I had kidney stones. Unfortunately for me, I'm rather prone to them. I'm had 3 big episodes and ended up in the ER each time. First time was when I was 21 or 22 and I woke up--literally woke up--SCREAMING in pain. Mr. Sunny called an ambulance because it was right sided pain and we thought it was my appendix. After getting a urine sample in the ER, the dr. kept asking me if I had my period b/c there was so much blood in my urine. It had already passed at that point and I got toradol for the pain and was sent home. Thought I was going to die!!

The second time, I drove myself to urgent care from work. I had a great MD (who I still see) who is a strong believer in pain meds :-) When Mr. Sunny picked me up, he said I looked like I'd died. They did a contrast dye CT to diagnosis the stones officially.

Many years passed with only an occasional twinge until this past January. I knew it was kidney stones, and again drove myself to the ER. It was a miserable twenty minute drive, but I was not about to call an ambulance, especially from work. I actually had made an appointment at my clinic, and the md sent me to the ER. I was hoping to avoid the $250 co-pay--no such luck.

After 2mg of dilaudid, 30mg of toradol, and 8mg of zofran, I was *STILL* miserable. There just isn't much that can touch the pain for me when it comes to kidney stones. Luckily, they pass fast for me. I got to go home with a 'script for vicodin. If it wouldn't have passed, I would have needed IV meds for pain control and would have required admission to the hospital.

There is no way in hell that I could have been taking pictures and blogging from my phone. I called my husband on the drive to the clinic/hospital but that was for moral support and to tell him to get his ass in the car and to come and hold my hand!!

I do understand wanting to call an ambulance, but if she's feeling good enough to blog and post pictures, I don't know why she called an ambulance. I suppose Izzy had to stay with the kids...maybe that was why?

[ladypuglover]

I have NEVER driven with strong painkillers in my system NEVER. The reason I should not have been driving is the amount of pain I was in, NOT what was in my system. They will not give you certain meds unless you have somebody to drive you, and they have seen this person.

When I go in it is because I have been throwing up for hours, and either what I took hours ago didn't stay down, or didn't work and is no longer in my system. That's why I have an imitrex injectable now, it will stay in my system and I can take it before I am throwing up uncontrolably.

I'm sorry, I misread. I'm glad to hear that you don't do that. Here in Colorado they can now pull you over for taking even mild pain relievers and for having a breath test of 0.05.

I forgot to add that I am so sorry you are in pain and sick from it. I know that sucks and I hope you feel tip top very soon.

[Vex]

Since some people haven't heard of her, are there any links to the old site discussing her? It's such a shame MWOP had to shut down. I don't have the time to do a search right now but I might do so later and edit my post.

[snarkykitty]

I've had about ten kidney stones in my adult life. If the stone is blocking the kidney, they may hospitalize in order to get the surgery done.

My first stone had me inpatient for five days.

My largest stone was 9mm. I sat in the ER for 7 hours before they diagnosed it and gave me pain medicine.

I've had stints/stents? in a number of times (they mimic the wave pain of the stone, which sucks, they also suck getting pulled out), lithotrypsy, and a few other procedures to break up the stones. They aren't fun. I can't imagine blogging through one.

[Wolfie]

I'm sorry, I misread. I'm glad to hear that you don't do that. Here in Colorado they can now pull you over for taking even mild pain relievers and for having a breath test of 0.05.

I forgot to add that I am so sorry you are in pain and sick from it. I know that sucks and I hope you feel tip top very soon.

I don't think you're going to get any kind of breath test for a combination of tylenol and ibuprofen. (yes, a safe combination), or naproxyn.

Otherwise I have the imitrex, which does not stay in your body long, vicodin and tylenol 3, none of which I will drive with in my system. (the second two don't affect most of my migraines anyway, and mostly sit on the shelf until they expire)

Please don't ASSUME that I don't know the law, what is safe or what I'm doing. I have had too much experience with friends and family being injured or killed by drivers under the influence. I also live alone. Not everybody has the luxury of a spouse or roommate to take them in an emergency.

Migraines are something that comes and goes, I'm on some daily meds that help prevent them, they just break through sometimes. Like the kidney stones (which are now very rare) they are just going to happen, but I get them a lot less than I used to.

[ladypuglover]

I don't think you're going to get any kind of breath test for a combination of tylenol and ibuprofen. (yes, a safe combination), or naproxyn.

Otherwise I have the imitrex, which does not stay in your body long, vicodin and tylenol 3, none of which I will drive with in my system. (the second two don't affect most of my migraines anyway, and mostly sit on the shelf until they expire)

Please don't ASSUME that I don't know the law, what is safe or what I'm doing. I have had too much experience with friends and family being injured or killed by drivers under the influence. I also live alone. Not everybody has the luxury of a spouse or roommate to take them in an emergency.

Migraines are something that comes and goes, I'm on some daily meds that help prevent them, they just break through sometimes. Like the kidney stones (which are now very rare) they are just going to happen, but I get them a lot less than I used to.

Again, I want to apoligise for misreading your first post, I sometimes read what isn't written. I am sorry for misreading that. I also want to say that when I replied back to you that it was late and hadn't typed everything I thought I had. Proof reading on my part would have helped clear up what I was trying to say.

What I tried to say was not only was I sorry for assuming anything that I was glad that I had misread and that you are not taking risks. I do care even though I don't know you and I wouldn't want any harm to come to you. I also am sorry that you are in pain and understand how difficult that is. I have had some form of cronic pain since I was 13 years old and I know how taxing it is on the body.

What I was trying to say and failed to do so was that here you can be given a DUI or DWI for a blood alcohol of only a 0.05 breath test. If a person is suspected to be under some form of drugs ex; pain killers then they can do blood tests. I never assumed that you don't know the law or had any lack of respect of it. I am sorry that I led you to believe that I thought that.

I don't think that you would ever do such a thing nor that you are wreckless with yourself or others safety. I did not mean to imply that and that is my fault for not making myself clear. I also know not everyone has the luxery of having someone to drive them around to doctors or daily living. That is why I volunteer my time and gas for people/strangers in my area to help out where I can. I am truly sorry that I upset you and forever saying anything on the subject. I misread and misspoke and now am bowing out of this discussion and thread topic. I am sorry for my words and actions.

[Wolfie]

Again, I want to apoligise for misreading your first post, I sometimes read what isn't written. I am sorry for misreading that. I also want to say that when I replied back to you that it was late and hadn't typed everything I thought I had. Proof reading on my part would have helped clear up what I was trying to say.

What I tried to say was not only was I sorry for assuming anything that I was glad that I had misread and that you are not taking risks. I do care even though I don't know you and I wouldn't want any harm to come to you. I also am sorry that you are in pain and understand how difficult that is. I have had some form of cronic pain since I was 13 years old and I know how taxing it is on the body.

What I was trying to say and failed to do so was that here you can be given a DUI or DWI for a blood alcohol of only a 0.05 breath test. If a person is suspected to be under some form of drugs ex; pain killers then they can do blood tests. I never assumed that you don't know the law or had any lack of respect of it. I am sorry that I led you to believe that I thought that.

I don't think that you would ever do such a thing nor that you are wreckless with yourself or others safety. I did not mean to imply that and that is my fault for not making myself clear. I also know not everyone has the luxery of having someone to drive them around to doctors or daily living. That is why I volunteer my time and gas for people/strangers in my area to help out where I can. I am truly sorry that I upset you and forever saying anything on the subject. I misread and misspoke and now am bowing out of this discussion and thread topic. I am sorry for my words and actions.

I also apologize for my over reaction. I've had too many times of people assuming I am stupid and don't know what I am doing this year and tend to over react.... (buying a home as a single woman isn't easy!)

[QueenMother]

I have had kidney stones. In fact I currently have one right now. I am on meds, and if it is not gone by Wednesday I have an outpatient procedure to break it up.

I suspect her children have state benefits, and she and her husband may have them too. In order for them to have state benefits though her photo business must be under the table and cash only.

I thought the family was in Kenya about now?