I wound up going to the ER today because the pain got pretty bad, as did the nausea, and the people in family medicine suggested I go to the emergency department based on how my symptoms sounded. Had a crap-load of blood work and some urine cultures done and just about everything came back negative/normal. White blood cell count in my urine was only moderate instead of high this time, and a couple other values were a little elevated, but not enough to warrant further testing/imaging.
Neutrophils and lymphocytes were elevated, both of which I believe are related to immunity - one deals with a response to bacteria, the other to viruses. My ALT (something related to the liver) was a teensy bit elevated, like 5 points higher than normal, but the doctor said it's only when it gets to be 80-100 higher that it becomes a cause for concern. Since my kidney function was totally fine and palpitation of the sore area didn't make me want to haul off and punch the doctor (which he said is the response by which he can tell if it's actually the kidneys acting up), I was told that the pain I've been feeling wasn't related to my kidney, but is probably muscular in nature and I just need to take aspirin for it.
Also, I seem to have a yeast infection, which I knew about from my testing from last week. Makes me wonder if that's what was throwing off all my test results and causing so many things to be just ever so slightly elevated. It's still an infection, so I suppose that means it's entirely possible that it could elicit an immune response.
The doctor who ordered the original tests last week was apparently just a student doctor and his last day was last Friday, so he couldn't have given me anything anyway. But the doctor I saw today prescribed me Diflucan for the yeast infection (only one pill, must be strong shit) and said that was my biggest health concern. I feel like a right idiot having gone to the ER to find that out and wasting the staff's time (I apologized profusely to the doctor), especially when I went in having a slight meltdown because I felt so awful all day and I honestly thought something was very seriously wrong. My chest hurt, I had heart palpitations, I felt like I was on the verge of throwing up, the pain was spreading across my back and up into my ribs, I felt short of breath... and these were all on top of the flu-ish symptoms I was having. Some of the new symptoms may have been caused by stress/anxiety, but that doesn't change the fact that I felt like crap. Also, the nausea meds and pain meds they gave me intravenously didn't even work.
Can't wait to see the bill for this mess. I'm insured, but it seems that even things that are allegedly 100% covered (copay included) still cost me money through my insurance. Anyway, since this was a false alarm, I'm probably gonna delete this entire topic, but I wanted to reply to you before I did! :)