The Stone

This week has been a pretty hard week for me. Last Thursday night I was making cupcakes for Bunco that night and my stomach started cramping up. I pushed through it and went to Bunco anyway. I had so much fun over at my neighbor Melissa’s house. The theme that night was Western so she cooked some taco soup, corn bread and had her house decorated for the occasion. That's why I made sunflower looking cupcakes. We did not have enough people to play Bunco so we just sat around and talked. I left around 9:30 that night and was in bed by 10pm. Jon stayed up on the couch watching TV and came to bed around 1:45am. When he got in the bed he woke me up and it was then that I realized that I did not feel good. I got up and went on the couch. My stomach was cramping up and then the pain moved to my back. At that point I knew exactly what it was…..a kidney stone! I sat on the couch googling kidney stone symptoms like a crazy person. I have had one before while I was in college so I knew what was going on with my body but I guess I was secretly hoping that the symptoms would pass but they just got worse. Around 2:15 I could not take the pain anymore and woke Jon up. I told him I was going to drive myself to the hospital so I quickly put on my clothes. I knew I was under a time crunch because the pain just kept getting worse and worse and I needed to make it to the Huntsville Hospital ER before I could not walk. We did not want to bring Beau with us to the ER so Jon called his dad to meet me up at there and he stayed home with Beau. I jumped in the car and drove off. The interstate is pretty calm at 2:30 in the morning and I did not pass any cars. I sped to the ER and did not care at all how fast I was going. Maybe I was secretly hoping I would get pulled over and get a police escort into the ER parking lot b/c on the way there my mouth started watering like I was going to throw up at any minute. I safely got to the ER and got checked in. Luckily there was only one other person in the waiting area so they quickly got me to a room. Jon’s dad got to the ER pretty soon after I did and sat with me the entire time. He really is a great father-in-law. The nurses were really on their game because I quickly got anti-nausea and pain medicine which made me feel so much better. The doctor came in and ordered an x-ray so they could see the stone. I was discharged around 7:30 that morning with an order of pain meds. I was told to go home and see if I could pass the stone. If I couldn’t then I needed to the call Urologist on Monday morning for a consultation. I went home and after a few hours I felt great! It was like nothing had happened. Jon and I enjoyed our weekend with friends and I thought that the stone had passed.

Monday morning rolled around and I get with Beau around 4am. I change his diaper and while I am sitting in the chair feeding him my back starts to hurt. It gets worse and worse and I knew that the stone was back! I put Beau back to bed and go sit on the couch. I email my boss at work and tell him that I could not come in and that I was going back to the doctor. I was in a ton of pain and realized that I had two options; I could go back to the ER or I could wait and make an appointment with the urologist but their office did not open until 8:30am. I really wanted to see a specialist so I sat on the couch and cried it out until I made my appointment. The doctor could see me at 1:30pm so I waited until then and it was the most painful morning of my life. Jon took me to the doctor and thank goodness we made it without me getting sick from all the back pain. The doctor took and x-ray and confirmed that the stone was too big for me to pass so he scheduled surgery for the next day (Tuesday) at 2pm. His nurse gave me two shots in the butt for pain and nausea and I was headed home. That night I went to bed really early and slept great. Tuesday I woke up and could not eat anything because of my procedure later that day which was torture. I checked into the hospital around noon and I went into surgery around 2pm. The surgery was a success and the stone was finally gone. The doctor said that the stone was larger than the basket could hold so he had to blast it and then grab parts of it. He said I was going to still have to pass the small stones but that I should not feel them at all. I went home tired and ready for bed. I went to work the rest of the week and felt much better. Kidney stones are much worse than giving birth and I really hope to not ever have another one again.