I can't believe how long it's been since my last blog...
time is flying around here even though I've spent the last 3 weeks on the couch watching endless episodes of Food Network and reading The Twilight Saga (that's another story in itself). This is all due to the horrific kidney stone that my body could not birth despite it's greatest efforts. It has been a terrible episode in my life and here's the story...
Kidney stones run in my family and this is my third one. As soon as I felt it, I knew exactly what it was. I thought that I would be able to pass it [like my stone in January] so I just waited it out in excruciating pain. I've never birthed a child, but people say it's worse than labor pains. After a week, I had to go to the ER. They told me that I had a 4mm stone in my right ureter [mind you the ureter is 3mm wide], 3 more stones in my right kidney, and 1 stone in my left kidney. Greeeaaatttt. They gave me some time to try to pass it, and I woke up 4 days later in the worst pain of my life. I won't paint that picture for you. I went back to the ER and after much waiting I was scheduled for surgery. It was removed and a stent was put in it's place to help the healing process. The stent was almost worst in my opinion. This had me glued to the couch for another week. They finally removed the stent [which was traumatic in itself with little anesthesia] and it took me a few more days to recover from that.
[here is an image for the visual learners]
I was also scheduled for Lithotripsy.
[Pulverization of kidney stones or gallstones by means of a lithotripter or device that passes shock waves through the patients skin]
But once I got there the stones were too small to shock hopefully due to much prayer and the fact that I have been drinking Simply Lemonade by the gallons. Now, I am recovered and desperately trying to dissolve the rest on the stones so that I don't have to experience this again. I went through the exact same ordeal when I was 13 now 10 years later here I am. Apparently, my kidneys are not very good at dissolving sediment.
During this whole process, I learned how the kidneys work. If you don't know, then you should learn too. It's fascinating, and I'm a little ashamed that I made it this far without learning.
So, that's my sob story of sorts, and it's all to say that I hope you never have to experience this pain. I made it through by the grace of God and Prescription Narcotics. This telling of the story is basically the short of it, but the long version is not for the weak of heart and stomach. Now, I have to get myself ready to start school in 2 weeks and make up for lost time with friends. Thanks kidney stone for taking up 3 weeks of my summer, you're a gem.
But once I got there the stones were too small to shock hopefully due to much prayer and the fact that I have been drinking Simply Lemonade by the gallons. Now, I am recovered and desperately trying to dissolve the rest on the stones so that I don't have to experience this again. I went through the exact same ordeal when I was 13 now 10 years later here I am. Apparently, my kidneys are not very good at dissolving sediment.
During this whole process, I learned how the kidneys work. If you don't know, then you should learn too. It's fascinating, and I'm a little ashamed that I made it this far without learning.
So, that's my sob story of sorts, and it's all to say that I hope you never have to experience this pain. I made it through by the grace of God and Prescription Narcotics. This telling of the story is basically the short of it, but the long version is not for the weak of heart and stomach. Now, I have to get myself ready to start school in 2 weeks and make up for lost time with friends. Thanks kidney stone for taking up 3 weeks of my summer, you're a gem.
