My Kidney Stones

Its been a long time since my last post. A LOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG time. August was kinda just busy and not a whole lot to actually blog about. September, well, this month has been totally different. On Sept 4th, I woke up with a significant pain in the left side of my back. It was pretty bad and had me in bed for about 5 hours until it suddenly just left. I thought I was in the clear until I woke up the next morning (the 5th) with the pain all over again, except this time it was WAY WAY worse. Nothing would help the pain and I was even throwing up from it. (I'm not a puker either. I have thrown up a small handful of times in my life and all were from pain) Jon put me in the car and rushed me to the ER and I was admitted immediately because I was 28 weeks along and clearly in baby-threatening pain. They gave me two doses of morphine (one in an iv, one was a shot in my butt) but that didn't even take the edge of. After a dose of Demerol (another pain killer) I was pretty doped up and finally getting relief from the pain. They took me for a CT scan and found a 7mm kidney stone in my left kidney and a small stone in my right kidney! If you have ever had a kidney stone before, you probably just cringed with sympathy pains. I had no idea kidney stones were so painful. It literally was a million times worse than childbirth, and I gave birth without any pain medication! Anyway, they gave me a room on the OB labor and delivery floor and basically gave me pain meds to hold me over until the morning of the 7th (my birthday) when I had surgery. My urologist placed a stent in my left ureter to help the massive stone pass easier. He wasnt able to actually remove the stone because it was so high up in my kidney. I was super nervous for the surgery because general anesthesia is potentially dangerous for the baby and Ive never been under before so I wasnt sure how I would react to it. Luckily, all went smoothly and I was able to go home later that night, just in time for birthday cake :)

I didnt have much back pain after that. I was put on bed rest for two weeks and given percocet to manage any post-opt pain. Then, on the 18th (just a few days shy of my two weeks being up) I had a very sudden onset of pain in the right side of my back. Just like before, it got way bad, way fast. My parents came and got Pax and Jon got me back in the ER.  Turns out, my insignificant right kidney stone decided to grow and move around. I had another surgery last night (the 20th). The urologist placed another stent in my right ureter but was actually able to remove the stone which had grown to 5mm. This time, however, I woke up with a catheter (NOT fun!) and was in much more pain. They kept me over night for the catheter, pain management and baby observation. This morning I woke up and started having contractions. My OB here told me it was normal and ok and not too worry so now Im in my hospital room waiting for my urologist to make rounds and discharge me.

Having kidney stones has been LOADS OF FUN!!! Just about as fun as losing a leg. Honestly, it was way WAY more painful than childbirth and Ive had a lot of people in the past few weeks tell me the exact same thing. But, the hard part is over for now. The two stents should hold me over until my baby is due (just 10 weeks away). We are crossing our fingers that this baby will stay put for at least 8 more of those weeks and keep cooking.

Ive heard/read all over that I probably havent seen the last of my kidney stones. Apparently once you get one, you most likely will get another, and another, and another. Thankfully, I have an amazing husband who took better care of me than any nurse could (except for the pain meds. LOVE the nurses when they bring in pain meds) and I have a wonderful mom and dad who took care of Paxton and loved him up for us. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and helping out so much. Jon and I have felt an enormous amount of love from the people around us and we are so thankful to have that.

this is what a kidney stone looks like. I had a 7mm stone and a 5mm stone

Here is an xray of what a stent looks like. Its a long wire like thing that connects my bladder to my kidney.