Medical Update
History of Present Illness
Some people have been wondering exactly what has been going on, so I’m going to take this opportunity to give you all an update (if you care…and if you don’t, I doubt you’ll be reading this anyway).
Last Friday, I woke up with severe pain on the right side of my lower back (right flank) and I had Robert take me to the ER. We were in northern Kentucky at the time visiting his parents, and so we went to St. Elizabeth’s. I figured that there was some problem with my kidney based on where I was feeling pain. They did an X-Ray and CT scan and found that I had a relatively small kidney stone (3mm) that had just left my kidney and was located at the top of my ureter.
The doctor told me that 95% of people can pass a stone that is less than 5mm, so he sent me home with some Percocet once the pain was under control. For the next few days, I had moderate pain off and on that was controlled by the pain meds more or less. At 2am Monday morning, however, I woke up in extreme pain (as in, the worst pain I had ever felt in my life) and I went to the ER here at the University of Kentucky. They tried to take care of the pain with Dilaudid (which one doctor described as “morphine on steroids”), but all that did was take the edge off. They did another XRay and told me that the stone was now almost to my bladder, at which point the ureter narrows and that is why I was having so much pain. After I was feeling better later in the day, we all assumed the stone had progressed into my bladder and the doctors sent me home to pass it.
Time for Surgery
Wednesday evening, I awoke yet again to severe pain and so we went back to the ER. At this point, I was getting EXTREMELY frustrated because the stone didn’t seem to be moving and I was really sick of not being able to go to class and get the things done that I needed to do. So when the urology intern came in and told me that they were going to send me home YET AGAIN without doing anything, I was furious. I told him (as politely as I could manage) that I was not going to sit idly by incapacitated by pain for an indeterminate amount of time and that they needed to do something to take care of the stone.
The intern told me that invasive measures are only indicated if I had a fever or if the stone was too large to be passed naturally, but assured me that he would talk to the attending physician in urology just to double check on this. In a few minutes, he came back and said, “apparently if you are having uncontrollable pain and have made multiple trips to the ER, that’s also an indication for an invasive procedure.” Well, no kidding!
They did another CT scan and found that the stone had not moved at all since the previous XRay, and so they decided to try to remove it surgically. They said that they would place a scope into my bladder and up the ureter in order to find the stone, break it up, and pull it out. They told me that there was a small chance that they wouldn’t be able to get the stone, at which point they would have to place a stent in the ureter in order to stretch it out.
So yesterday evening at about 5:00, they put me under general anesthesia and performed the surgery. Unfortunately, they were not able to remove the stone. They said that I had abnormally narrow ureters, which is why I had not been able to pass the stone on my own. They placed the stent all the way from my bladder to my kidney, which they are hoping will stretch the ureter enough that they will be able to remove the stone later.
I always get really sick after being under general anesthesia, and so waking up after the procedure was not very fun. But after they got the nausea under control, I was doing okay. I’m pretty sore right now, but they gave me Percocet for the pain, and that seems to be keeping it tolerable. I feel like a pharmacy right now because I have so many prescriptions that I have to take at the moment! For my PA friends or others in the medical profession who are interested, here’s a list of my meds:
-Percocet, 5mg-325mg PO, prn (for pain)
-Prosed/DS, prn up to qid (for the elimination of bladder spasms as a result of the surgery)
-Bactrim, bid (prophylactic for any infection that might develop after surgery)
-Promethazine, 25mg, prn (for nausea from the Percocet)
-Miralax, 17g every day (to take care of one of those not so fun side effects of Percocet…)
I am also supposed to drink at least 2 liters of water daily to flush out my urinary tract.
Unfortunately, I have to go back to the hospital for another procedure in two weeks. They have to take the stent out surgically and will try to remove the stone again at that point. (They said that the stone should not pass naturally with the stent in place.) I will be under general anesthesia again, so I’m not really looking forward to it, but it will be worth it if it means that this whole ordeal will be over!
Thank you!
Finally, I want to acknowledge my wonderful boyfriend, Robert, for taking such good care of me for the past week. He has been so amazing throughout all of this, even though my middle of the night trips to the hospital have caused him to miss a lot of sleep and even class. He has been with me through the pain, gone to the pharmacy to pick up all of my medications, driven me to and from the ER, stayed with me so that I didn’t have to be alone, taken care of our puppy Dexter, cleaned my house, and even did my laundry! I don’t know how I could have done this without him and I am so so thankful that God put him in my life. (Love you, babe)
My professors have also been really understanding throughout all of this and haven’t given me a hard time about missing class. They even extended the deadline for my master’s paper rough draft (due last Monday) so that I didn’t have to worry about writing the paper while I was sick in the hospital.
And thanks to all of my friends who either came to visit me or sent words of encouragement through texts and Facebook. I love you all!
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about tomorrow
…Then shall i turn my face and hear one bird sing terribly afar in the lost lands.
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Vacay…ain’t it grand?
Our summer semester ended yesterday and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Not that I’m not excited about learning and all that jazz, but I think I’m more excited about this break. I have three weeks off to do who knows what and I plan to enjoy every second of it.
My plans so far involve: hanging out with Robert, chilling with my Dad when he comes to visit next week, and possibly making the drive out to Virginia. Not sure about that one though. Anyone want to go with me?
This is a cliche, but I’m going to say it anyway: it always amazes me how fast time goes and how quickly things change. If you asked me three months ago to paint a picture of what my life would be like today, my answer would have been so far off from reality that it’s crazy.
I don’t have anything especially enlightening to say right now because my brain is in vacation-mode. But stay tuned.
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A little John Donne
I remember reading this poem in high school and it was very powerful to me.
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurped town, to another due, Labor to admit you, but O, to no end; Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, but is captived, and proves weak or untrue. yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain, But am betrothed unto your enemy. Divorce me, untie or break that knot again; Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor even chaste, except you ravish me.
“Laughing With”?
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”
That is such a true statement. Unfortunately, I am the type of person who thrives on security and five-year plans. When my plans are thrown off course, I don’t know what to do with myself. My first instinct is to cling to whatever I can control and do everything in my power to get my feet back on the ground.
In my recent effort to do this, I swear that I can hear God laughing in the background. I wish that I could simply trust that everything is going to turn out okay. In theory, I know that it will. But I’ve always been one to listen to my heart instead of my head and be ruled by my emotions.
Maybe what I fear the most is that God’s definition of “everything turning out okay” is different than mine. I want a PA-C degree, a nice job with reasonable hours, a loving husband, a mindful puppy, and 2.5 children with pretty blue eyes. I want to be comfortable. I want to live where the sun shines and the beach is within an hour of my house.
Shh! Can you hear it? Somewhere, someone’s chuckling…
15 Things I’m Looking Forward To
Might as well remain optimistic. This list is in no particular order.
1. My wonderful sister is coming to visit me next weekend.
2. Being reduced to laughter and tears (of hilarity) by Melissa.
3. Bible study on Wednesday nights with Caitlin.
4. Listening to Doug’s spot-on impressions of certain professors…
5. Conversations with Katie in which she talks some sense into me.
6. Having some of Leslie’s contagious positivity rub off on me.
7. Reading about Waxbrains, the invention of my brother, Matt.
8. Shoe shopping with Kris.
9. Movie nights with the girls.
10. Whatever the Onion dreams up.
11. Finding out what the heck Sarah Palin is up to.
12. Having another first kiss.
13. Being able to watch the news and not hear about Michael Jackson.
14. Keeping up with my favorites — Beth, Katie, and Amandas Schoener & Perrin.
15. Harry Potter, numero seis.
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