I visited the ER on Tuesday when I woke up in the night with very intense pain that either was stemming from, or radiating toward, my lower back so that my back was very painful. I had already taken the maximum of my pain meds and all of the other night-time medications and it was very intense and apparently not helped by the medications. When I awoke, I felt a bit better, but in the afternoon/evening I felt the back pain returning, this time higher up in my back and on the right side (in the early morning I would have said pain in the middle of lower back and some a little higher to the left). I was also having trouble urinating... Straining just for a trickle when it felt like my bladder was full. It was not as awful as when I had a kidney stone but the symptoms were new and not getting better so I figured I should get it looked at. My visit was pointless. I want to say it was beyond pointless, but I know that literally that doesn't make much sense. But it was how I felt when I was done.