My Opening Message

I'm creating this blog because I think its important for me to remember what I went thru the past 2 weeks. I know time has a way of erasing pain, and as much as I'd like to, for some reason, I think it important to document what I went thru.

About a month ago, I went to a doctor due to pain on my right side. An xray showed I had 2 largish kidney stones in my right kidney. One was almost 3/4 an inch, the other about 1/2 inch. My urologist, Dr. Cubelli, told me what I needed to do: shockwave lithotripsy, and then go home with a stent in, which helps move the broken down stones, and I'd need to wear the stent for at least a few weeks.

On Thursday, June 5th, Joe took me to The Stone Center in Newark for the procedure. I was a nervous wreck, I dont think I have ever been so nervous in my life. To top it all off, while I was lying in my gown, waiting to go in to the procedure room, Dr. Cubelli tells me they wiull only be able to hit one stone that day, and I'd have to come back to get the second one done. WHAT????!!! I started crying, I couldnt believe I had to mentally prepare myself all over again to do this.

They bring me in, the anesthesiologist gives me oxygen - I was lying on the table and it took EVERY OUNCE OF MY BEING not to get up and run out of that room. The anesthesia burned going into my arm... and then I was out.

Woke up in recovery, wide awake and alert, no nausea thank god, but OMG!! The stent!!! What a horrible feeling it was! Never felt anything so awful!! Felt like I had to pee so bad, but nothing comes out. I spent 40 minutes running around recovery, in and out of the bathroom like a fool. I dont know how Joe got me home. I was perched on the edge of my seat, with the window opening, praying to just get home. Worst feeling.....

Got home, sat on the toilet while Joe went and picked up my Percoset prescription. Took 2 when he got home and slowly felt a bit better. Horrible burning when peeing, still feel like I have to pee all the time but dont.

Stent is very very very uncomfortable. Can feel it in there. Starts fucking with my head mentally. I cant believe I have to wear this thing for weeks! My whole summer is shot, I think - I spend the next few days drinking tons of water, taking pain killers and crying.

Finally, on Tuesday, June 9th, I call Cubellis office: "PLEASE. Is there any way I can have the stent removed?? My body does NOT like it!" After a run-around, I am finally told that if I get an xray done right away, the doc will look at it, decide, and remove it. I fly like the wind to St Clares, get the xray, and 2 hours later get a call from Cubellis office: if I get to the office right away, he will remove the stent. Hooray!

Throw the kids in the car, fly again to the office, and after a very uncomfortable and kind of painful few minutes, the stent is removed. My kidney and insides immedialty start throbbing a bit and I ask Cubelli how long till I feel normal again. He assures me I will feel better by that night.

Well. After an hour home I am in agony. My body was reacting badly now to the stent being taken OUT. My kidney had gotten used to it and was throbbing something awful. Started the Percoset again - took them all night. Woke up Wednesday morning and felt....

OK.

Wow. No pain. Just a percoset hangover. Took no pain killers on Wednesday and thought it was all behind me.

Thursday morning I wake up feeling decent also. Its now been a week since I had the lithtripsy, the stent is already out, and I am feeling hopeful. This wasn't THAT bad, right?? So I have to go back and get the next one done at some point but if it goes anything like this, well, it wasn't THAT bad.

10am hits and I am slowly but surely starting to double over from the pain that is hitting me. Intense. Right side. Agony. Take 2 percoset. Throw up violently an hour later. Tons of water that I had drunk all comes up. So my body is not absorbing my water. I am urinating ok but definitely not as much as I should be. PAcing the house, dont know what to do...

Call Cubellis office, leave a message. Cubelli calls me back. He is at the hospital all day, and tells me if I can't take it anymore, come to the ER, tell them he is my doctor, they will page him, and they will check me out and see whats up. 12:50 hits, the kids are about to walk in the door from half a day... I call Audrey to ask her if Kera or Kelsey will be around in case I have to go to the ER, so they could take the kids. Aud tells me she will be home in 25 minutes and hangs up. Kids come home and Aud gets there soon after....off to St Clares ER.

Throw up in the bathroom at ER, still dying of pain. They finally get some pain meds in me to give me relief. A cat scan shows I have an obstruction in my kidney/bladder. The broken up stone fragments have clogged me up and cant pass.

Cubelli does surgery on my at 8pm to clear the obstruction. I wake up in recovery feeling relief and have a morphine button for company, thank god. I get some much needed rest that night.

Wake up in the morning. When Cubelli did the surgery, he also put in a urethal catheter - which means I have a catheter INSIDE me AND outside me. There is a pee bag on the side of my bed and I spend the day watching my bloody urine flow in the bag. Because my body is so stretched and warped from the stent I had, the catheter on the outside isn't securing right and I leak. Getting up and sitting in a chair is painful, so I spend 2 days lying in my hospital bed, hitting my morphine and praying this is all over soon. The kids and Joe come to visit me with beautiful flowers - it makes me so sad to see them leave that tell Joe I dont even want them to come back, I want to see them at HOME. My roomate is awesome and her and her partner are the only things that kept me sane. Nurses SUCK. I go thru three different IV's, no one changes my linens or even offers me water. Will never ever go back to St Clares for a procedure again.

Saturday the 14th. Cubelli had promised I'd be coming home this day, and I wake up happy and fiull of anticiaption. Ha. the day drags on and on and he finally shows up at 12:30. Tells me I look good, removes the catheters (oh sweet relief!!!!!!) and tells me to just take it easy for about an hour before going. I do, and at 2:30, Patricia comes to get me. Poor Joe is home nursing an injured leg, and I tell him not to tell the kids I am coming, I want to surprise them.

I almost kiss my doorstep when I see it. I cant believe I am home. I am so scared though - that I will get hit by pain at any time. I take a Percoset when I get home, I feel soooooo sore. Like I did kind of from the c-sections. Very raw feeling. I spend the rest of the day resting and taking it easy, had some pizza for dinner, slept ok.

Sunday morning I felt pretty good as far as pain-wise. Its Fathers Day and I am determined that Joe have a good day. We went to his moms to have a bagel breakfast. Then we came home and went to Patricias for a little while. At about 6 we went over to Audrey's - she was cooking for the men and us that night. While there, Anna Q. tells me SHE has a kidney stone embedded in her kidney but the doctor told her that unless it was bothering her, not to worry about it. Hmmm. Interesting to know.

Sunday night the pain hit. Not godawful, but enough to have me pacing. Took 2 percoset and put some heat on the spot, which relieved me a lot. Went to bed at about 12, slept well, and woke up the next morning pain free.

Its Monday and I finally passed some "gravel"! Was sooooo happy! So that was why I was in pain the night before: the leftover gravel from the stone was passing. this is wonderful news!! I pass the gravel a few times during the day and am jubilant. The next few days pass ok.

Today is Thursday, June 19th. I have not had kidney pain since Sunday night, and am finally starting to feel that I may have passed it all. Its a horrible feeling to constantly be waiting for pain to hit. This has been such a goddawful 2 weeks. Today I felt HAPPY. Finally life is starting to feel like life again. Yet over my head looms the realization that I STILL have another stone to take care of.

I have decided to wait to take care of it. I have been researching kidney stones, reading the net, books from the library, you name it. I've learned that besides drinking tons of water, which I have been doing, tkaing supplements can help a) dissolve exisitng stones and b) prevent new ones from forming. I ordered some potassium citrate, magneium citrate and vitamin b6 yesterday. These are supposed to be the life savers. I plan on taking them every day, and after a few months, want to get another xray done to see if it is having any effect on my exisiting stone. I pray it does. I dont want to do this again. It kills me to think of it.

So that is my story. My plan is to keep this blog/journal updated with any progress, or unprogress.