Final Kidney Stone Episode

Ok time to finish this up.

After a failed attempt to blast the kidney stone and going for another scan the next morning, I was asked to return to the Urologists office with my scans. The radiology lab and urologists office were in the same building so this wasn't a big deal. After analyzing the scans they found that the stone had moved down the ureter a good amount but because of the swelling and stretching my ureter had already experienced, they felt it would be best to manually remove it rather than hope it would pass naturally. It has already been over a week at this point.

They admitted me to the outpatient surgery center and they took me back, put me back into my little hospital gown and put me in bed. After all the fun paper work and IV crap they wheeled me up into pre-op. That was a bit spooky. Before I was already out before this point and in a different building. I could hear heart monitors all over and doctors and nurses in scrubs were walking all over the place. Since it was early and I was kinda tired anyway, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. That didn't work very well. Eventually they gave me my anesthesia and poof I was out.

When I woke I was in my little recovery room. They had othroscopically removed the stone. And yes they went in without and incision, so you can guess where they entered. All you guys can cringe now, though I suspect the women would as well. They replaced the stent as well. Or at least I think they did. They may have used the same one, but I don't think they did. The piece of suture hanging out of me was longer. Yes I had a piece of suture hanging out of my penis and it was taped to be secured. Anyway, I'm sure you all enjoy that picture.

Ok so I got dressed and...well I hate to admit this, but I've waited so long to post this that I don't recall who picked me up. They took me downtown to the Hilton. Pretty swank huh? Actually the company I work for was having a Users Conference at the Hilton, so my boss suggested I stay there. I shared a suite with him.

The company always gets the operations staff rooms since we have to be there early to setup the rooms. Yes I'm part of operations and normally I would have had a big part in the setup of the conference and I missed it all. I was and still am diappointed I missed it. It's always a lot of fun.

Dave, my boss, felt that it would be best for me to stay there so that I'd have someone on hand to take care of me if I needed help. It really was a good idea. I mostly slept on the couch and watched TV. I had not discovered how comfy the bed was yet. Actually I slept a good part of the night away like that, on the couch. The next night I slept in the bed. Man that was sweet.

Room service for food and no worries about cleaning and stuff. It was great really. I can look at look at it now and see how great it was, but at the time I really could barely appreciate it. I was pretty hoped up on pain killers most of the time. They made me sleepy and just generally "blah". I didn't feel like doing much of anything.

Friday (Sept 26th) at about 3 or so I was given a ride home by one of the admin girls who lives out my direction. She's a really good person. She went to the store and got me a few things, soup and bread among a couple other things. It was just what I needed. I had no desire to cook, so cans of soup were great.

I just took it easy all weekend and Monday. I was feeling a bit better at this point. Sunday I let the pain killers wear off a bit to see how things felt, but the stent and attached 'string' were very uncomfortable. My appointment to have the stent removed was for 1:30pm on Tuesday the 30th of Sept. However, due to issues at the doctors office, they had to do it sooner. So I was scheduled to be there at 10:45am. Finally at 11:15 or so the doctor came in, asked me to drop my drawers. He suggested I remove the tape, which had attached itself rather well at this point. It wasn't too painful, but it was a delicate operation and I'm sure it was more comfortable for us both for me to do that part. After I did that he came back into the room, asked me to lay back and take a deep breath. He said release it slowly and by the time my breath was done the stent was out. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but I DID take a pain killer that morning, just in case.

That stent was about a foot long with curly Qs on each end! It was only about as thick as a piece of spaghetti, but still, yikes.

The doctor highly suggested I go home, take some pain killers and take it easy as the stent removal would likely irritate the ureter and it could potentially swell and duplicate some of the discomfort I had experienced with the stone. Needless to say I wasn't interested in that! I had planned on working that afternoon, so I stopped in the office and let Dave know that I was going to take the rest of that afternoon off.

I went home and chatted with Melly a bit and napped. I did feel a bit of discomfort so I'm glad I took my doctors advice this time.

Wednesday I went to work. I was a bit down and dragging still but by Friday I was feeling much better.

Thankfully today I'm feeling 100% again. Many big thanks to everyone who helped, especially Melly, John and Dave. Thanks also go to those who sent their well wishes to me. Hopefully I'll never have to go through that again!