A Pain in the... Side?

So, of all those pregnancy fears, I never thought of one scenario that played out this weekend.  It doesn't involve labor and delivery though, in case you were getting excited.  We still had a middle of the night emergency, and I still ended up going to the E.R. and my husband still had to get work off for two days, but no, there's no baby to show for it.


Saturday, I woke up with a suspicious pain in my right side, more in the back.  I was pretty sure, it wasn't my appendix, and I vaguely remembered having a similar pain when I had kidney stone pains during my second pregnancy (never passed, just went away on its own), but it wasn't too bad, and I hoped I had just slept funny and my back was kinked or something --which is likely, since we sleep on a futon mattress in the middle of our living room floor these days.


Luckily, it mostly went away, and I had a very productive day.  I have to admit, I still suspected something was up, so I figured I should make the most of feeling well.  I cleaned the house, my sister even came over and helped me reupholster our ugly pink chair (pictures will be coming soon), and we took the kids to the swimming pool that night.  I figured that floating in warm water would make whatever back muscles that were bothering me relax, but by the time we got out of there, I was done.  I made a few calls, to see what my options were if I happened to have a kidney stone and the pain got unbearable, but I really hoped it would just go away.


Long story short, at about 3:00 in the morning, I decided that we needed to go to the hospital.  I really didn't want to, especially since that meant getting the kids up and dragging them out in the middle of the night, which made me feel so guilty, but I couldn't handle it anymore. The kids did great, and though they looked like little zombies, they never went back to sleep.  My husband stayed in the car with them while I checked myself in, and when I was settled, he took them back home.


It was a long day.  I was put on an IV for  pain medication.  The morphine they gave me, took a bit of the edge off, but I was still in pain.  They tried Demerol, which just made me feel really loopy, but didn't change the pain that much.  I was so tired too, that combined, I was talking like a drunk person and could barely keep my eyes from going cross-eyed. Still, I couldn't sleep for the pain.


They finally did an ultrasound --which was actually quite painful since she had to really dig down to follow my ureter-- and lo and behold they found a 7 MILLIMETER KIDNEY STONE!


I felt suddenly validated.


All my fears that I was just being a baby over nothing vanished.  I did have a good reason to be there, to wake my kids up in the middle of the night, and I was actually proud of how long I had lasted.  Now I just hoped I hadn't done too much damage by being stubborn and waiting so long.


The OB on call was the midwife from my clinic, and she had hopes that I could pass it with enough fluids, and that if they could manage the pain through oral meds, I could go home.  If I couldn't pass it on my own, the best they could do for a pregnant woman would be to put in a stent until after the baby is born and then remove the stone later.


Well, for some reason, I started to feel better, and they gave me oral Vicadin (sp?) to see if that could control the pain so I could go home.  (As I mentioned though, I was already feeling better before the meds, but they decided to think of it as their success anyway --I wasn't convinced.) My husband and a friend came to give me a priesthood blessing, and although I was really hoping to hear the words that I could pass it on my own and be free of pain, I'm afraid that's not what was in store for me.  It was more a blessing of comfort, and that we would find out more about how to deal with this problem and be able to make the best decisions concerning it.  So much for what I knew.  I'm glad to know that God understands things better.  Read on.


 I stayed overnight, so they could keep an eye on me and the baby, and in the morning, I was feeling pretty good, so they let me go with a prescription for Percocet for the pain, and some stool softener (to fix the problem that all these painkillers were causing).  Since it had been Sunday, I hadn't been able to talk to the Urologist, but they told me to go home and set up and appointment with him for that same day and they would fax my info to his office for him to assess.


A few hours later, I got an urgent call from the urologist who had just gotten my ultrasound and other info.  First, he asked why they ever let me leave the E.R., then he said that he wanted me back there to meet him in the O.R. so they could put the stent in immediately.  Apparently whoever read the ultrasound before didn't realize that a 7mm stone would never budge on its own, and that the ureter from my right kidney was completely blocked, which if left untreated would cause the kidney to become infected, or eventually shut down altogether.  I asked why I wasn't feeling any pain even though I hadn't taken any medication since early that morning, and he replied that that was actually a bad sign --that my kidney was most likely becoming numb, which is a precursor to shutting down.  Ack!  (By the way, I'm really not blaming my OB doctors for anything, they did their best.)


So, we went back.  Pre-op had a really hard time finding a vein for my IV--especially one that hadn't already been poked recently, and I was beginning to feel like a human pincushion.  The biggest concern was that the procedure would cause me to go into labor, and another major concern was that because I had eaten too recently (since it was sort of short notice), the anesthesia would cause me to choke or aspirate something, or stop breathing, etc. so, I wasn't put all the way out.  I was merely made numb from the rib cage down.  Because I'm pregnant, I wasn't given any kind of sedation, nor was I given whatever they give you to forget the whole thing --which always weirded me out anyway.  I was completely conscious and aware for the most part. Of course, I couldn't move or feel a thing --which was good, but also really, really unnerving.  I have to admit, when the anesthesiologist gave me the shot of Lidocaine, he hit something that sent a painful shock through my leg, it felt like getting struck by lightning.  That sent me over the top, and after after being tough for so long, all barriers broke down, and I started crying.  I couldn't stop really, and it was kind of embarrassing since it didn't hurt but for a moment.  It was just the shock of it all, and of course, I was exhausted, and then all my worries about whether the baby was okay and such came to mind, and I just couldn't stop crying.  The sensation of being completely helpless and numb didn't help things, and then I started having a hard time breathing.  I was on my back, so this big ole' baby and uterus was sitting on my lungs, but only half of my lung muscles were in operation.  It took all my concentration just to make sure that I wasn't going to stop breathing.  At least, that's how it felt to me.  I guess in a way it was good, because it distracted me enough to stop crying, and to ignore whatever else was going on beyond that big belly of mine.


It was actually a very quick procedure, and they had me out of there sooner than I expected.  It took a while for the numbness to wear off, and I have to say I have just a little more empathy for paraplegics.  The weirdest sensation was to feel my belly, and have the baby kick my hand, but not be able to feel it from the inside too.  I guess that's what everyone feels when they ask to feel the baby kicking, but to me, it was so detached and foreign that it really fascinated me in an unsettling kind of way.  I admit it was a relief to feel him moving in there though.


They kept me overnight again, to make sure that I didn't go into labor, keeping me hooked up to all sorts of monitors and having me sleep in a bed that was made for labor and delivery --not for sleeping in.  Needless to say, it was a long night.  The nurse offered me Ambien to help me sleep, but I don't think it would have helped considering all the times I had to get up to go pee since I am pregnant, and pushing the fluids, and had been on IV's for two days straight.  Ugh.


In the morning, I was feeling very little pain (except for a throbbing headache, and being sore and achy from having to sleep on my back, half sitting up, in that horrible bed), and they said I could go home anytime.  However, the thought of going home to sleep on a futon in the middle of our living room didn't seem very restful to me, so I asked if I could just stay there and sleep for a few more hours without any monitors or IVs or anyone even bothering me for my vitals.  They were very understanding, and said that I could stay as long as I wanted, and that they would even keep room service from bothering me.  They unhooked me from everything (I was so happy to get away from those itchy belts!) and I was able to roll over and go to sleep!  --Of course, after I had a hearty breakfast.  I finally came home after getting a few hours of sleep and another good meal (that I didn't have to cook, which always makes things taste better.  Although, I have to say, that the food there was really good.  If I hadn't been in so much pain, and if I hadn't had a huge baby taking up all the room in my stomach I probably would have enjoyed it even more.  Honestly though, the cheesecake was divine, and I viewed it as a small consolation for all that I had been through in the past few days.  I also had to laugh when I saw that I could order a Buffalo Burger from the menu.  Only in Wyoming...)


The kids had been a little thrown off by the whole thing, and though my husband did a wonderful job of taking care of them and the house, I could tell that everyone was glad that I was home.  So was I.


I'm still not out of the woods yet.  I've still got some pain, which could be from any number of reasons, and the stone still has to come out at some point.  I hope it doesn't cause any extra pain or complications during childbirth, (as if I needed any more scenarios to worry about) but the plan is to use lithotripsy to break up the stone into tiny pieces using shockwaves, right after the baby is born --like while I'm still in the delivery room, and hopefully that will be the end of it.


So that's my kidney stone saga, and all I can do is pray that everything will come to a quick and positive conclusion.