A Medical Adventure

Last Wednesday and Thursday were days off for me and so April and I worked hard on moving firewood as well as beginning to re-roof our house.  At the end of the day on Thursday I was pretty sore from all the bending, lifting, and balancing on the roof.  Nearly 10 years ago I had a back surgery, so I’m not new to lower back pain.  But I was a little surprised at the amount of pain that persisted in my right flank, back, and groin.  After eating supper, the first of several episodes began as my body attempted to expel the kidney stone.  I wasn’t sure what was happening; I just knew I hadn’t felt pain like that before.  Around 9:30, after the second episode, we decided that we had better head into the ER.  A fellow Kidney-stoner, Herbie, along with Lisa were kind enough to come over at a moments notice to stay with the kids.

Once in the ER, I was taken in for a CT scan.  The radiologist confirmed that I had one kidney stone in my right kidney and it was about 5mm in size.  According to the Dr. that is right at the threshold of what a person can pass on their own.  So he prescribed some pain killers and some meds to help with the nausea.  We went back home and spent the rest of the night trying to manage the episodes.  They would range from 20 minutes to over an hour in duration.

Friday and Saturday were spent much the same as Thursday night.  But on Sunday morning the episodes became too strong to bear, so we headed back in to the ER (Thank you to Laura H for coming and keeping Jack and Lauren entertained!).  As this was our second trip to Medford, they immediately put in an IV and upped the strength of my medication.  That helped quite a bit in me getting comfortable.  After a few hours on the IV, they prescribed a tougher narcotic, scheduled an appointment with Urology in Wausau, and sent us on our way.

Right away in the morning on Monday we contacted the Urology department and traveled down to the hospital for x-rays and consultation.  After some conversation with the Dr. we decided the best approach would be to have an outpatient surgery as soon as possible.  So at 2:30 I was prepped and soon after the IV went in, it was lights-out for me!  The surgery was only about 50 minutes and they were able to remove the entire stone.  They did place a stent in one of the ureters, and so I will have to have that removed later this week.

At this point I’m feeling much better, without any of the painful episodes like before.  However, I’ve been immobilized for a few days, so moving around is a bit slow.  I’m sure that will change quickly over the next few days.

Again, thank you for your calls and prayers - It’s been an experience that opened a whole new threshold of pain for me.  I don’t know how I could have endured without the Lord, my wife’s patient care, and your thoughts.

PS - DRINK YOUR WATER!!!