Life as a Leach

Shew, the last 5 days have been pretty rough!  I've never felt so useless in my life.  It is SO not like me to lie in bed and watch movies all day!  The pain from the stint more or less felt like knives being driven into your kidney.  I was so proud of myself on Saturday for vacuuming the kitchen....then I had to spend the rest of the day in bed with severe pain for "overdoing it."  Apparently when the doctor said to limit my activity, he meant to do nothing but lie in bed...because that's pretty much all I could do.  Percocet and Motrin have been my lifelines. I pulled the stent out myself this afternoon (actually not as bad as it sounds!) and felt immediate relief!  I was thrilled that the pain was gone...but that was short-lived.  After about an hour, the intense kidney pain returned, along with some other lovely symptoms.  Dr. Google informed me that this is normal for the first 24 hours after stent removal, so I'm going to try to wait ...

Rocky was kicked out of his home inside my body yesterday afternoon.  Turns out, he had made himself quite comfy and had imbedded himself in the wall of the ureter.  He had no plans to go anywhere, so surgery was the only option.  Hearing this afterwards actually made me feel a little better, because I was dreading waking up and hearing that they didn't find anything!  I'm glad this was all necessary and successful. The stone was sent off for analysis so that they can try to figure out what is causing them.  I'll pretty much do anything to avoid repeating this experience!!   A stent was placed to help the ureter heal.  I was told I may have some mild discomfort, but it wasn't too bad.  When i asked if he had ever had one, he smiled sheepishly and said no.  Mm-hmm.   They gave me a dose of Dilaudid after I woke up, on top of all of the anesthesia meds, so I was feeling delightfully loopy.  Then they proceeded to go over a ton of impo...

Rocky's  eviction day is scheduled for next Thursday, the 11th!  Sadly, I can't take any more Motrin because it's an aspirin product.  It's the only think I can take during the daytime that seems to help, so this will be a fun week.  Maybe I'll pass Rocky before next Thursday!  

I've named my kidney stone Rocky.  He's quite comfy in my body and doesn't appear to have any intentions of coming out.  I went to the urologist today (where I was the youngest person in the waiting room by at least 40 years!) and he said I will have to have it removed under general anesthesia and have a stent put in.  Sounds like fun, huh?!  The scheduler is going to call me tomorrow.  In the meanwhile, I'm just trying to drink tons of water and learn how to coexist with my little friend.  

5 mm...tiny, right?  Welp, it's not so tiny when it's traveling through your body.   5 mm is how big the kidney stone is that I have right now.  I've had many in my adult life, but none this big.  It sent me to the ER last night because Dr. Google had convinced me I had a terrible disease! The ER doctor thought it was appendicitis.  With that prediction, I sent Matt home to pack me a bag.  After drinking 32 oz of contrast and getting injected with it as well, the ct scan showed my little 5 mm friend taking his sweet time rolling around inside.  He gave me lots of meds (including an antibiotic, since the size of the stone could cause an infection) and we came home around 2 am.  I'm going to follow up with a urologist because it's uncertain as to whether I will pass this one on my own.  Yay! And yes, stones can be worse than childbirth!  I've had 2 babies without drugs, so I can say that at least you get a break between contractions during...