I hope you're feeling better.
Mike,
I'm sorry to hear about your ride to the ER. I had a similar experience, and before I went into surgery the doctor said " unfortunately just because you have ALS it doesn't make you a immune to anything else". It made me laugh.
In late summer of 2005, just out of the blue with no warning I started having pain when I urinated. The pain was consistent, and then there was blood, time to go to the doctor. He thought I might have some kind of bladder infection. Did some blood work, and an ultrasound of my bladder, and of course checked my prostate. They didn't really find anything, and I was leaving on a trip to Idaho the following day. I figured that what ever they found they could tell me about it over the phone and I can go see a doctor, and get whatever prescription I needed filled up there. Couple days later I phoned the doctor, they didn't find anything and suggested I come in for recheck. The following morning while I was still in Idaho, I had severe pain in the morning, and couldn't urinate. I felt as though I had to go real bad, and sat on the toilet for almost 2 hours in pain. All of a sudden the pain went away, but I still had blood in my urine. I self diagnose myself, and decided I had a bladder infection and needed a strong antibiotic. So up in Idaho I got one and started taking it. The bleeding cleared up within 24 hours. But the pain returned. So I decided to start driving home, straight home. The following morning I was in severe pain, and sitting on the pot again. After about three hours of this, (and yes I am a knucklehead) my wife took me to the ER. This was my first trip to the ER in about 15 years. Some things never change, emergency rooms here in California are excruciatingly slow. I arrived there at approximately 10 o'clock am. I was in their bathroom for approximately 2 hours before the doctor came to see me. They did an ultrasound of my bladder, and gave me a shot of morphine, didn't touch the pain. They gave me another shot of morphine about an hour later. Still no relief. And the ultrasound showed an empty bladder. At around two o'clock they gave me another shot of morphine. Still no relief. At around three o'clock they gave me a shot of Toradol, (I'm not sure how that's spelled). They decided to wheel me in for a CAT scan, within 15 minutes the pain was gone. By the end of the CAT scan I felt good enough to get out of there. They wheeled me back to my room in the ER. At about five o'clock or so, there were a number of doctors around me. One of the doctors began to explain to me what had happened. Evidently I had a birth defect, I had two tubes coming out of my left kidney, the kidney was plugged and the tubes were infected. so they admitted me into the hospital at approximately 6 p.m. I went into surgery that night and they fixed me up. Afterwords the doctor told me that my left kidney was plugged up with calcium. He left a stint in for about two weeks, the stint was about 20 inches long. At the follow-up visit two weeks later, the doctor sent me for an x-ray to verify the location of the stint. The stint had gone back in me, and was no longer hanging out. The doctor wanted to use a tool to fish it out, I declined that procedure and told him that when I urinate I can see it, so I'll pull it out myself. He agreed, and showed me what it looked like and how long it was, and how much drag it should have when pulling it out. I went home, went immediately into the bathroom, and pulled it out myself. That was not fun, although I should have had my wife videotaped it, so I could gross out my sons. :-D anyway, you haven't lived until you've pulled one of those out :-D I sure hope you're feeling better, and remember the magic word "Toradol" it worked for me.
Michael
disclaimer; Michael is a professional ALS patient, "Do not try any of this at home"