As I mentioned earlier in another post I've been to the emergecy room twice -once in November and once in December. Unfortunately one visit only partially diagnosed me and the other grossly underestimated my condition. Kind of scary that two emergency rooms at two different hospitals both messed up, but I suppose that's beside the point. I was finally able to get an appointment to see a urologist this past Monday. What I thought was going to be a quick "in & out/pee in a cup" kind of visit actually turned into a 5 HOUR ordeal resulting in surgery! Who knew!?!? I should have known something was up when my doctor came bounding in the room and his first words to me were, "Well hello! Come with me! You sure are an interesting case!!!" So I followed him out of the exam room and into his office where he sat me down in his chair (for a better view he claimed) of my "impressive situation".
Turns out I had a severly infected kidney and a kidney stone the size of a marble (10 mm)!!!! A far cry from the 1mm "bird seed" stone the emergency room claimed I had. My doctor was so concerned for my condition he immediately handed me some antibiotics and a dixie cup of water. Lovely. He then went so far as to tell me that, "You must have REALLY good karma, because someone in your condition well, they shouldn't be walking around." Seeing as my kidney was so infected he said it could very easily become septic and possibly fatal. Just what everyone wants to hear!!! I don't know if it was the shock or my red hair (well, that is my natural color...LOL!) that made me defiantly protest, "I don't have "good karma" sir, I have a good God!" From there my life was a whirl wind and I came home those 5 hours later completly deflated and terrified. I absolutlely HATE needles, blood and anything of the sort. Not to mention having to sign on the dotted line that YES I understood the risks involved with the procedure and NO I didn't have a living will. I think I literally spent the rest of the day mourning my situation vegged out in the recliner. Tuesday was a complete blurr and when Wednesday morning rolled around I had literally made myself sick with worry. With LOTS of prayer I calmed myself down and Jarred and I arrived at the hospital at 5:25 AM for my 7:00 surgery.
Here I am all hooked up and ready to go!
Supposedly the doctor came to visit with me after the surgery, but I guess I was still under too much anesthesia to remember. However, Jarred said the doctor came out and told him although he had to "work for his money", the surgery was a success. He was able to use a laser to crush "el Jefe" and collect the majority of it for testing. He also had to place a stint in that goes from my kidney to my bladder to help drain and decompress my kidney. It is also supposed to help reduce the discomfort from further irritating the site of "el Jefe's former residence". I have yet to feel a "reduction in discomfort" as I'm still nursing pain pills round the clock. Thankfully, he also said that there was no permanent damage to my body from the stone - something he was pretty concerned about.
Yeah! All done!
I dressed head to toe in my favorite color (pink) in hopes it would somehow make me feel better. Well.... I tried at least! Morphine definitely goes a lot further! LOL!
So, there you have it. 6 months of misery literally blown away in a little less than 2 hours of surgery. I must say I had overly optimistic hopes of a "pain-free" recovery, but after 2 days and numerous phone calls to my doctor for what is "normal", reality has set in and I finally feel like I'm making progress. I will be SO glad when this whole ordeal is just a memory, especially my "restricted diet"... I'm not supposed to eat dairy (aka ice cream), sugar, AND the worst... no CHOCOLATE! I have to confess I haven't neccessarily followed all those restrictions..hey, a girl needs some comfort! LOL! Hopefully my stone diagnosis will be back soon and I will have a better idea of what caused this whole mess in the first place! I only have one thing left to say to sum up how I feel at this point...
"HASTA LA VISTA EL JEFE!!!"
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