Mini-Vacation

Since some of you are curious about my little getaway this last week, and before I forget the sordid details, I'm giving a little recap - read at your own discretion :)Yep - the hospital. Friday night I was watching 3 extra kids while Kabe and Tyler went camping. We were having a great time and all 6 were asleep and I was laying in bed watching a movie when WHAM . . . . kidney pain. The most abrupt thwap of kidney pain I've ever had. There was no warning, no dull ache, no migrating sharpness, no burning when I went to the bathroom, just all of a sudden, knock me to the floor, I can hardly breathe PAIN!

What should I do? There are 6 kids here, Tyler is camping, I don't even know where and it's between midnight and 1 a.m. So of course I call Tyler. He talks me through a few coping ideas and says, "call in a half hour". This goes on for about an hour and a half while I try one thing after another and finally he says, "I'm coming home". He had to wake people up to move their cars so he could drag our son out of his sleeping bag to come home and rescue wimpy Mom. Oh well, they arrive and he takes care of things on the kid-front while I spend the rest of the night (no kidding) laying in the bottom of the shower. Tyler was constantly checking in, bringing me fluids and medication and we were both just waiting for this thing to pass. Saturday morning dawned with me still in the bathroom. Finally he came in and said, "I'm taking you to the hospital". This tells you where I'm at on the pain scale because I weakly said, "Ok, but we can't afford it." Tyler calls Dave who saves not only his children, but my own.
We get to the ER and they put me in a room and start an IV. Finally real drugs and lots of fluids. We have a CT scan, but not without a pregnancy test first (negative, whew). The scan shows a stone 9x7 millimeters in the left kidney, it's not moving. Wowsa, at least our nurse showed proper respect for the size of it all! Here's where it gets really fussy. After all day in the ER they transfer me to an in-between-care-place. They have a fancy name for it, but basically it's temporary pain management before admitting you into the hospital. Thing is, you're only allowed to be there for 23 hours. So I did my time in the holding cell and then they admitted me. On the floor they have even better drugs including my ever-so-familiar morphine pump. Hallelujiah for this thing!!! And get this, when the thing is working properly you don't have to wait for nurses to bring your medication. This can be a big plus.

Bottom line, we were there for 4 days, at the end of the 4th day the urologist finally got his act together and sent me to a different hospital for surgery. Lithotripsy is what it's called and there are different kinds. This time instead of a laser I got a shock-wave and woke up with a very interesting scar on my stomach that I can't really account for. The best guess we have is that it was a probe or something they stuck in me. Creepy.

The whole thing was harrowing and I'm thankful to be home home home!!! I'm feeling better today and after a few more days just laying around I'll be back to my chipper self.

Two things that need saying: I have the best ward ever! Seriously, I can't keep track of all the people that helped in a million different ways from taking our kids, picking them up, bringing us food, going to the store, dropping by chocolate, washing my dishes, feeding our dogs and the list goes on and on and on. I'm truly humbled!!!

MY HUSBAND ROCKS! Seriously, I've never met anyone who can do as much in so little time while keeping his cool, being my emotional support system and still maintaining a sense of humor. I swear he didn't sleep for 4 days! He kept our family together, the kids all safe and taken care of, the house was CLEAN when I got home!!! He was with me as much as he could be, he dealt with all of the hospital paper-work and insurance crap AND he had his clinic entrance exams in the middle of it all. Honey - I'll say it again, "You're my HERO!"