Remember when I forgot to mention in my last post that I made a new friend in the first month of this new year? New friends are the best...they are fun, don't inflict any pain unless you want them to, make you laugh, and let you sleep at night (unless they're a really great friend and drunk-call you in the middle of the night). Um, no. Not this one. This one is more like the snarky Lucy Van Pelt from Charlie Brown.
My new friend is a kidney stone, proudly revealing itself via CT scan at the ER on January 28th. Yay for this friend. It is NOT fun, inflicts severe PAIN, and makes me CRY! The ER told me this friend was 4 mm big, supposed to pass over the next few days, and the pain would subside soon but I would now be susceptible tothem in the future so be sure to always drink lots of water. A week later my pain had subsided and I figured it had broken up and passed through.
This friend had other plans and decided, unbeknownst to me, to hang out for a while, enjoying my kidney-shaped couch. Well, this past Saturday, February 26th (one month later) it knocked on my inner door again and, when I didn't immediately answer, decided to ring the bell very loudly. I was surprised that another would form so quickly and decided to ride it out with pain meds. By Monday I had all the symptoms of a bladder infection and figured I better go to the doctor soon. Saw one on Wednesday, was immediately referred to a urologist and seen on Thursday. This guy told me the ER didn't give me correct info...it is 6 mm in size and I should have been referred out right away. Apparently 5 mm and above can be dangerous, requiring surgery because they rarely break up on their own and pass. Mine had traveled down to just above my bladder and decided to comfortably camp there. I say comfortably meaning IT is comfortable there. I am not comfortable with it there. It's blocking the tube from my kidney so everything is backing up and causing swelling. Again, yay. I need minor surgery to get rid of it. I'll spare you the details given by the doctor on how he will be approaching this friend. Google it if you must. I'm sure Wikipedia has a good description of how the procedure is done. :::sigh:::
Anyway, I should get some sort of immediate relief (yay - as in 'there was much rejoicing...yay', like they do in The Life of Brian) and my friend will be gone soon. It will be zapped with a laser (ack!) and ride through the stent tunnel with the backed-up tsunami that will come from my right kidney when it expresses it's sighs of "relief". (again, yay)
(me) Hoping it doesn't happen again. (me, again) Doesn't like the word "susceptible". I'll let you know the "outcome". The end.
No comments:
Post a Comment