Kidney Stones!

Well, here's the latest...

We had a nice relaxing day yesterday. It was like Saturday for us. Laundry, cleaning house, showers and baths etc. Steve was able to get up and around a little. Moving slow and still in quite a bit of pain, but it was nice to see him moving around. We slept good last night...better than the nights past. He only got up once around 1am to take his pain pills. Actually, he was sound asleep, but I woke up and asked him if he needed it.

Our discharge instructions were to call today and schedule a "KUB" and office visit. Apparently, a KUB was in essence an x-ray of the kidneys, ureter and bladder. Rach was kind enough to stop by and pick up Jenna this morning and drop her off at school for me. We didn't know what time Steve would have to go in and I didn't want to drive all the way in to Nashville, come back and then have to turn back around to go to the urologist's office. So, I got up early and got Jenna up, dressed, breakfast-ed and out the door. Then I laid back down until 8am when the urologist's office opened.

I called right at 8am and they answered. After being transferred to about 3 people (how hard is it to schedule an appt?!), they tell me that they have an opening TOMORROW at 1:45. 'Scuse me?! Tomorrow? So, I ask, "do you have anything sooner than that?" I, of course, am thinking TODAY would be nice! She starts looking and then says, "Oh, no, that Tuesday appt. isn't actually available. But we have one on Wednesday at 3pm". OK. This is getting worse. I said, "He has a kidney stone the size of a jelly bean lodged in his ureter. Are you SURE there's nothing sooner?" She puts me on hold to get her supervisor (I was nice, I swear!!) and comes back quite a while later to say she tracked down the doctor that Steve had while in the ER and he said come on in today. So, they worked us in at 9:30.

We went in and went through all that for them to tell us that the stone hadn't moved. Um. Yeah, we know. Being that he's in excruciating pain and all and there's been no jelly bean in the toilet, we kinda figured that out. Anyway, they began scheduling for a lithotripsy procedure. After alot of back and forth, we were able to get it scheduled for Wednesday. It was the first time they had available...we have to be there at 7:30am, so that will work out well. I can drop Jenna off at school at 7:00 and then head on over. It's going to be a long day Wednesday and there is a very real possibility that due to where the stone is lodged, they won't be able to use the lithotripsy which means a more painful, invasive procedure, however, we have to get the stone out. If the lithotripsy can be used, they can also break up the other very large stones in the kidney so that we don't find ourselves going through this again in a few months. One time every 13 years is plenty for us both!

So, I'm headed back to work tomorrow and Steve's going to try to make a few hours. He's going longer and longer without pain meds and we have our parent/teacher conference tomorrow at 7am, so he wants to do that and see how it goes...if he doesn't feel great or the pain is too intense, he'll head home. I can't wait for our conference. We love her teacher so much and it's going to be so sad to see the end of the year come. Tomorrow night is my last night of Bible study with the girls (well, this study at least!) and I have to prepare for Wednesday night, so I don't know if I'll have time to update, but I will let you know how the conference and surgery went on Wednesday afternoon once we return home.

Until then, we appreciate your prayers. It's been a rough go since Friday, but I think the end is in sight!