Crushing Stones

Well yesterday was the big day. I was scheduled to be at St Vincents at 9:30 to get prepped for the Lithotripsy procedure to crush my kidney stone. We had ice on the roads Tuesday and lucked out driving there other than the traffic was terrible and people were crawling across the bridges. They were quick to get my paperwork done and we didn't have to wait less than 5 minutes after that to go back to pre-op. All the nurses working pre-op were watching for me already as my sister used to work in that area and knew all of them, so she warned them about me.

I don't remember her name but the first nurse was so nice. Had me get naked and put on the hospital gown. Annette had to tie the back for me but not before she took a picture of my behind. No telling where that will end up but it won't be on here!

Another girl came in and got blood, another did an EKG, they took blood pressure, temp and all that stuff. My nurse started me on an IV around 10:45 and put some drug in there to ease secretions in the mouth. Well, I couldn't eat or drink after midnight so I was starving and dying of thirst already. But I couldn't have anything. I did get one swig of water when they gave me some pills for something.

I was scheduled for the procedure at 11:30 and really up until about 11:00 we stayed quite busy. About 11:30 the nurse came back and said that there had been a delay, the doctor had gotten tied up on a surgery before me so it was going to be at least an hour. Well, I had already been laying on the gurney for almost an hour and I was getting pretty bored. Annette was falling in and out of sleep between text messages with people checking on me. About 12:30 a nurse came back and told us it was going to be another hour. This was really starting to suck. Laying there with nothing to do at all but stare at the walls with an IV stuck in me. Finally about 1 they came to get me and take me for an xray to make sure the stone was still there. That takes all of 15 minutes. After that I went into the Urology Surgery Center at a waiting area. More waiting......I was so tired of waiting. Lets just get this over with!

Finally about 2 they rolled me in the room. There was a machine that looked like an xray camera and a bed underneath it. They wheeled me next to it and told me to scoot over under that thing. Well, the funny thing was, this was not a regular bed or table. My butt was put on some kind of rubber looking thing and then it felt like I was laying on a metal bar. Not very comfortable. The rubber thing reminded me of an over sized condom. Really weird. But hey, the anistesisologist said he was giving me something to relax me and then next thing I knew I was out. Whatever happened there stayed there because I remember nothing of it. I was glad too, because they were also running a tube/camera up the front end to look into my bladder. I was most happy to be out while they did that.

I woke up in recovery looking at the monitors going and listening to my heart beat. It probably wasn't 5 minutes and I was wide awake and felt great. I guess my vitals were great because it wasn't long and they were wheeling me back to the pre-op area where I started. Annette met me there along with my sister. I felt like I needed to pee while I was in recovery and they gave me one of those jugs to use but I just couldn't pee laying in the bed. The rule was that you couldn't go home until you could pee. Well, I was ready to go home so I was determined to pee.

Back in pre-op I had a male nurse named Walter who was very nice. He gave me another jug to use but I told him I wanted to go to the bathroom across the hall. He said that would be fine but that I still had to use the jug. Guess they wanted proof! Well, that wasn't at all pretty. Looked like I was peeing blood which it was but it was expected. They said small sand like pieces of the stone would come out for the next 48 hours.

The doctor told Annette that everything was great, no other issues to worry about. They gave me a prescription for some pain medicine, an antibiotic and some med that was suppose to open things up so whats left of the stones will pass more easily. By the time I was dressed and released it was almost 4:30pm. And we had expected to be home by 2 or 3! Delay after delay and all the waiting. But we were not done yet!

We hit rush hour traffic going home. Annette had called our personal pharmacist and running friend Kelly to see how late they were open. They were open till 5:30 but she was going to wait on us. I knew I had to have those meds. By the second traffic jamb I just wanted to be home. I felt like I had to pee but with what I was peeing I couldn't just do it anywhere. We rolled in the pharmacy about 5:20 and Kelly got us in and out of there in record time. I was never so happy to be home and be done with all the waiting around.

The night wasn't too bad. I did end up needing one of the pain pills and finally got some food. Annette kept me drinking all into the night which really helped clear things up pretty quick. I got to pee through a strainer so could save any pieces of the stones for the lab to check. The stones look like extra small pieces of sand or some say they look like cuckleburs. I was going to take a photo but they are too small to show up.

Today Annette put the girls on me. I was getting multiple text messages and emails asking how I was and telling me to drink, drink and drink some more. Thank you ladies! You guys are the best and I love all of you! By the way, I drank everything in the house!!