What does my title mean?
Well, 4122 is where I've spent the last 24 hours. Well...not exactly the whole 24 hours, but much of it. The jelly bean will come later.
Let's see, last night, Rachel and I went scrapbooking...you know, first time since our retreat and we were going to get back in the swing of things. I was really looking forward to it. Steve went bowling and took Jenna to the alley with him. He called about 8:30 and said he was done and they were headed home. About 9:30, I'm thinking that it won't be long before I wrap things up because I'd gotten increasingly tired, my cell rings again and Steve says, "You better come home now. I need to go to the hospital". Could there be any worse words to hear? I asked him what was wrong, though I inherently knew. There's only one thing that would cause him enough pain in 60 minutes that he needed a trip to the ER. KIDNEY STONE.
For those of you that don't know, Steve's battled kidney stones most of his life. We were only engaged the last time he was hopsitalized for one. His kidneys are lined with bunches of little stones that hang out until they are big enough to drop off and hopefully pass. In the nearly 12 years we've been married, I have lost count of the number of stones he's passed...some more difficult than others and 2 just THIS WEEK.
Anyway, because of where I work, we chose to drive all the way in to Centennial Medical Center where I had just been only a month ago for the stomach bug. As with me, they took him right back and did a CT scan which showed a 6mm by 10mm jelly-bean sized kidney stone lodged in the middle of the ureter (I think). That size of a stone is clearly not going to pass on it's own. They drugged him up good and admitted him in the hospital. Luckily, Rachel was kind enough to keep Jenna at her house overnight so that I did not have to worry about taking her to the ER. Good thing seeing that we were admitted! I slept on one of those pull-out chair/couch things which wasn't very comfortable. I think we got in the room about 1:30 and by the time I laid down it was 2:08 because I checked the clock on my cell. Even though the nurses didn't bother Steve much in the night, I barely slept because every time I heard him move, I'd wake up to make sure he was OK. It was like having a newborn all over again!
The doctor on call came in about 6am and said they'd scheduled him for surgery this morning but since there was no "schedule" per se on the weekends, it was first come first serve and there were 4 others in front of him. They came to get him about 10:40 and by 1:00 he was done with surgery and by 1:30 he was back in the room. The lithotripsy suite (or team) is not there on the weekends, so they inserted a stent to expand the ureter and relieve the excruciating pain. They thought if the stone had moved down to the bottom of the ureter already, they might be able to grab it and remove it. No such luck. It's still firmly in place exactly where it was during the CT scan. While the stent relieves the pain, inserting the stent is not fun especially for a man. If you don't know what that involves and are curious, go to webmd and search for kidney stones.
They came in and released us to go home about 8:45pm tonight. I had picked Jenna up as soon as they took Steve into holding for surgery. She was SO good considering she was cooped up in a hospital room for about 8 or 9 hours. Steve is in bed and Jenna has crashed (she had a late night last night with Hannah!) and I'm going fast. I just had to post so that everyone would send up a quick prayer for us in the next few days. We have to call the urologist on Monday to schedule another x-ray and then the actual lithotripsy. I'm praying that it can be done early in the week as possible. Steve worries about missing lots of work and let's be honest, we all just want this done and over with so that we can move on.
I have more to say...I have to tell you about all the ways God showed Himself to me the last 24 hours. You wouldn't believe some of the things and I can't wait to share. God has had His hand on us every step of the way...
OK, I'm tired...going to bed now. :) More tomorrow when I'm more lucid.
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