Once More, With Feeling . . .
Alrighty then . . .
I got the stent out on November 1st and I definitely had some cramping/spasming, which wasn't fun, but I took some Tylenol and laid down on the sofa in the sunroom with the heating pad on my back - where I promptly fell asleep for about 30 minutes. When I woke, the pain was gone. Yay!!
But - not so fast . . . I never did feel "OK" again. I still had flank pain off and on, but I went back to work on November 2nd because I was out of leave. Didn't feel great. Left early. Spent the weekend not feeling great and missed a family birthday party.
And then, last Monday morning, I went to see my regular urologist at the top hospital in my state (and one of the top hospitals in the country). My blood pressure was up around 160/90. This is not normal for me. I mentioned that I was in pain and asked if that had anything to do with it. They took it manually and it was 135/80 - still high for me. For weeks I had been telling J that I just wish I felt better, and I told the doc the same thing that day. The doc ordered another CT scan - my third in as many weeks - and they got me in pretty much immediately that same day. The doc thought that the original surgeons had missed a stone fragment.
I had to go right back to his office after the test - and he came in to the room and said, "no stone." I just looked at him and said, "why do I feel so rotten?" I walked back to the train and just came home. I was, once again, worn out.
I got in to my pajamas and got the heating pad out again. I was lying on the sofa when the call came in - around 5 p.m. - that the doc wanted to talk to me. Something about there being a stone after all.
So, yes. When the radiologist's final report came back, they had found a 5mm fragment that was left in my ureter. That means that either the original surgeons missed a piece (which can happen), or something else fell out of my left kidney after the surgery.. They called two drugs in to Walgreens for me - and I went there in my jams to get them.
One of them I didn't tolerate well and had to stop it after two days. The other is, essentially, potassium citrate, which makes me more alkaline and should, in theory be able to dissolve the uric acid stone (the only type that can be dissolved in the body). I had instructions to see the doc the next day again. Which I did. I felt better that day and my pain was gone. Unfortunately it was the drug I couldn't tolerate which made the pain go away and I had to stop it the next day. Oh well. My pain came back, but did lessen over the next week, and it was never the horrible pain that comes with a blockage.
The doc was clear with me that if I couldn't pass the fragment he was going to go in and get it. It could not just stay there in my ureter, but he wanted to give it 7-10 days. So I was to come and see him again on Monday (ostensibly to check my urine pH), and have my fourth CT scan in as many weeks, this Thursday.
I went to the doc yesterday and he decided not to wait after all.
I'm having surgery again this Thursday. It is the same procedure that I've had both times before, a ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy to break up the fragment, after which they slide the fragments out with a little basket sort of thing that grabs them and keeps them from damaging anything further. This time I will be off work until the Monday after Thanksgiving, because, of course, surgery requires another stent and I find it very difficult to go to work with a stent inside me. The stent will come out the following Monday, which is Thanksgiving week and I will have those few days to recover and hopefully begin to feel more like myself again after this month of feeling exhausted, worn out, and not well.
I'm already listening to Christmas music, and so I'm going to leave you with Randall Thompson's And The Child Grew. If you've sung choral music at all, it will likely be familiar to you. When I was in college (and yes, I sang in the Hope College Chapel Choir back in the way back - and wore one of those interesting robes - orange for being an alto (the robe link is the last one on that page), And The Child Grew was always the final piece in the Christmas Vespers service. If you want to hear the entire service from 2015, feel free - it's always pretty amazing and beautiful. If you just want to hear this final piece, it starts at 50:00. I think I can still sing the alto to this after all these years - or I could if I had any voice left, which I don't, thanks to powdered steroids I've had to take for asthma for decades - but that's another story.
You might just put this on and enjoy it. It's always very beautiful and uplifting.
I got the stent out on November 1st and I definitely had some cramping/spasming, which wasn't fun, but I took some Tylenol and laid down on the sofa in the sunroom with the heating pad on my back - where I promptly fell asleep for about 30 minutes. When I woke, the pain was gone. Yay!!
But - not so fast . . . I never did feel "OK" again. I still had flank pain off and on, but I went back to work on November 2nd because I was out of leave. Didn't feel great. Left early. Spent the weekend not feeling great and missed a family birthday party.
And then, last Monday morning, I went to see my regular urologist at the top hospital in my state (and one of the top hospitals in the country). My blood pressure was up around 160/90. This is not normal for me. I mentioned that I was in pain and asked if that had anything to do with it. They took it manually and it was 135/80 - still high for me. For weeks I had been telling J that I just wish I felt better, and I told the doc the same thing that day. The doc ordered another CT scan - my third in as many weeks - and they got me in pretty much immediately that same day. The doc thought that the original surgeons had missed a stone fragment.
I had to go right back to his office after the test - and he came in to the room and said, "no stone." I just looked at him and said, "why do I feel so rotten?" I walked back to the train and just came home. I was, once again, worn out.
I got in to my pajamas and got the heating pad out again. I was lying on the sofa when the call came in - around 5 p.m. - that the doc wanted to talk to me. Something about there being a stone after all.
So, yes. When the radiologist's final report came back, they had found a 5mm fragment that was left in my ureter. That means that either the original surgeons missed a piece (which can happen), or something else fell out of my left kidney after the surgery.. They called two drugs in to Walgreens for me - and I went there in my jams to get them.
One of them I didn't tolerate well and had to stop it after two days. The other is, essentially, potassium citrate, which makes me more alkaline and should, in theory be able to dissolve the uric acid stone (the only type that can be dissolved in the body). I had instructions to see the doc the next day again. Which I did. I felt better that day and my pain was gone. Unfortunately it was the drug I couldn't tolerate which made the pain go away and I had to stop it the next day. Oh well. My pain came back, but did lessen over the next week, and it was never the horrible pain that comes with a blockage.
The doc was clear with me that if I couldn't pass the fragment he was going to go in and get it. It could not just stay there in my ureter, but he wanted to give it 7-10 days. So I was to come and see him again on Monday (ostensibly to check my urine pH), and have my fourth CT scan in as many weeks, this Thursday.
I went to the doc yesterday and he decided not to wait after all.
I'm having surgery again this Thursday. It is the same procedure that I've had both times before, a ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy to break up the fragment, after which they slide the fragments out with a little basket sort of thing that grabs them and keeps them from damaging anything further. This time I will be off work until the Monday after Thanksgiving, because, of course, surgery requires another stent and I find it very difficult to go to work with a stent inside me. The stent will come out the following Monday, which is Thanksgiving week and I will have those few days to recover and hopefully begin to feel more like myself again after this month of feeling exhausted, worn out, and not well.
I'm already listening to Christmas music, and so I'm going to leave you with Randall Thompson's And The Child Grew. If you've sung choral music at all, it will likely be familiar to you. When I was in college (and yes, I sang in the Hope College Chapel Choir back in the way back - and wore one of those interesting robes - orange for being an alto (the robe link is the last one on that page), And The Child Grew was always the final piece in the Christmas Vespers service. If you want to hear the entire service from 2015, feel free - it's always pretty amazing and beautiful. If you just want to hear this final piece, it starts at 50:00. I think I can still sing the alto to this after all these years - or I could if I had any voice left, which I don't, thanks to powdered steroids I've had to take for asthma for decades - but that's another story.
You might just put this on and enjoy it. It's always very beautiful and uplifting.
Comments
Hope you continue to feel better. My thoughts and prayers are with you!
Janice H.