Kidney Stones Part 2

Okay....so I didn't split this story into two parts to be clever. Oscar was napping and that's all I could get out in that sitting. I apologize if I left any of you hanging by a thread. If I did....get a life. Moving on.

Tuesday morning I follow up with my urologist. I was an idiot and didn't go get my CT scans so he couldn't tell me much and made a follow up for Thursday. I've had absolutely no pain since the incident Sunday morning and I definitely have not passed a stone yet. I went for a run (my great friend Blair and I are SUPPOSED to be running another 5k on Saturday) and I felt like crap. The crap feeling had nothing to do with my stones and everything to do with me being out of shape. I went to dinner with the family and we got home and started our evening rituals. As we were bathing Oscar, I felt the twinge. It wasn't awful so I knew I had some time. I let Chris know I was checking out for the evening, put on my jammies, and swallowed my little white pill of relief; aka Lortab. The pain got pretty bad so I tried to soldier through the House I had on DVR while I waited for it to kick in. Nothing. An hour later I was screaming in pain and biting the covers. We called my uncle Mark to come over and sit at our house while we went to the ER. Weeeeelllll, the ER had a four hour wait. I was on the verge of puking and I remember what my sister told me during her bout with stones, "puke on their floor and they get you right back." As I bent over to begin the vomiting process I see a man go up to the desk to inform the attendant that his wife has vomited.....again and that they've already waited 3 hours. Abort! Abort! I repeat....do not throw up in the crowded lobby. You will only be embarrassed and you will still wait like the rest of them. So, I made a fantastic decision that we will just go to the Heart Hospital. Right around the corner. The kid at the desk acted offended but I told him I would literally die before my name was called.

We walked into the Heart Hospital ER and there was not a soul in sight. As I was checking in at registration, the nurse came from the back to triage my symptoms. They put me in a room (like a high end hotel room with a visible toilet by your pillow. But it did have a legit flat screen) and there were three nurses/assistants/techs waiting. One took my BP, one took my temp, and another started my line while I was explaining my symptoms and history to another. All in a matter of minutes. And just moments later, the Dr. came in. I was in tears by this point and he assured me he would take care of my pain ASAP. The nurse gave me some Zofran and then pushed the morphine so slow and ever so kindly. It didn't phase the pain. At all. After a negative pregnancy test we tried some Tramadol which is an anti-inflammatory. It helped but not 100%. By this time I am feeling like some zoo animal that the keepers can't get tranquilized. "The Rhino won't fall!!!!" So we tried another dose of Morphine and that did the trick. After watching one of my fave shows, "The Good Wife" we went home and went to bed.

Trip to urologist #2 went much better. We looked at the CT scan, took some X-Rays and made an appointment for a procedure tomorrow (Friday) morning. He thinks one stone might be in my ureter and he can take that one. The other ones he'll do Lithotripsy on. This is basically where they shoot it with water and high power sound waves in order to break it into smaller, more passable pieces. It should be pretty minor. The do a twilight anaesthetic so you pretty much just go to sleep and wake up sans kidney stones. So I am now enjoying a lovely magnesium citrate cocktail in preparation for tomorrow. Cheers!