A Stone Update

It's been a heck of a few days, 22 days to be exact! This update is my perspective of the events that occurred and I will try to be as accurate as possible. On August 28th, Ben was diagnosed with a kidney stone in his right kidney and one that had begun the journey from the left kidney into the ureter. {Biology lesson- there is a tube (ureter) that leaves each kidney and dumps into the bladder. Google it if you have no idea what I am talking about, lol!} They sent him home with pain meds and said "pass them"! The next days are a blur. Lots of pain meds and a ton of water for Ben and nothing was working. On Wednesday Sept 8th, Ben woke up very early in the morning in excruciating pain. The meds weren't working so the Advice Nurse sent us to the ER. It seems trivial as I write this but this was so hard for me. I know first hand the pain Ben was feeling. I've had several of those "get me to the hospital, I can't take the pain anymore episodes." It was so hard to watch him in so much pain. They got him hooked up to monitors and IV drugs and sent him for another CT scan. This one showed that there was no movement in the stone in the right kidney and a new one in the bottom of his left. While Ben was in CT, I walked over to the Urology office and gave them a heads up. My doctor was in surgery but they assured me that they would stay posted with Ben's progress in ER.

After consulting, they discharged Ben from ER and he was wheeled over to Urology. Dr. *****, the doctor on call determined that it was necessary to place stents in both ureters in order for the stones to pass. I don't believe this man has ever had a kidney stone because he made the decision that this could be done in the office under local anesthesia even though Ben was already in a lot of pain. After the "procedure" Ben got very sick and he stayed in the recovery area for many hours before he was stable enough to go home again "to pass them."

On Monday the 13th, Ben decided he could go to work. By 9:30 am, I was scrambling to clear my schedule so that I could pick him up from the Max station closest to the doctor's office. We went in to talk to the Advice Nurse face-to-face. "Bud" was great! He took all the background info and said he would go find Dr. ****. We stopped him and said to find Dr. Cutie instead. {I didn't ask my doctor if I could use his name on the blog so he gets to be known by the nickname of my choosing!}

Dr. Cutie took one look at Ben, ordered an x-ray, different meds and added him to the surgery schedule two days later! Tuesday, I spent at work while Ben rested much easier than he had for weeks. Finally time to head to the hospital! Since we left in plenty of time, of course there was no traffic so we got there really early. Valerie helped to get Ben ready and Dr. Cutie came in to go over everything one more time (remove one stone, blast the other). Ninety minutes later, the surgery was supposed to be done and still I waited. By two and a half hours, I was panicked. At three hours, Dr. Cutie came out and I said "you were freaking me out!" He laughed and told me everything was okay. It took much longer than he expected because there were two other stones that were very difficult to access. He used laser lithotripsy for all three of the stones that remained. A little while later, I got to go back and be with Ben. He was hilarious waking up! Some of the things he said, I really can't tell you. That just wouldn't be fair! But he kept asking for pudding so we used it as a bribe for him to keep his eyes open. He did really well and soon it was time to go home.

The last few days have been much nicer. Pain management is much better now. Ben is still sleeping a lot but he can sleep! He goes back to see Dr. Cutie on Monday and hopefully the stents will be removed then. Which means I can go back to writing about parades and birthdays and fun adventures coming up. Thank you to each and every one of you who have prayed for Ben throughout this time.