The longest day ever...

Yesterday was quite a day, to say the least.  As I wrote about previously, I have been dealing with kidney stones since July.  I decided to finally have a procedure done, called a lithotrispy, which basically blasts the kidney stones into tiny pieces, making them easier to pass.  I scheduled this procedure over 4 weeks ago.  I had been hesitant to do it, but after passing 3 stones in 2 weeks, I decided it needed to be done.

To prepare for it, I had to get blood work done, urinalysis and have an image taken, called an IVP.  It's been quite an ordeal.  I also had to do a bowel prep (sorry, gross I know) for the IVP and also the day before the surgery.  So my last meal was Sunday night and starting Monday morning I could only have clear liquids, broth and Jello, as well as drinking an entire bottle of magnesium citrate, which is absolute torture.  I complied and drank only water, a glass of chicken broth and an entire box of Jello.  But on the day of the surgery, I wasn't able to eat or drink anything.

Originally, the surgery was scheduled for 2:00 pm, with a check in time of noon.  Well, I got a call around 11:00 that my surgery was pushed back an hour.  Which I thought was no big deal.  Until I got another call around 12:30 that it was pushed back now to 4:30 with a check in at 2:30.  At this point I started to cry and wondered if I should rethink having it done at all.  I was hungry, tired, had no energy and a terrible headache at this point.  But Joe was with me and we decided to go ahead and go to the hospital at 2:30.  Then as I was in the admission waiting area, I got another call that I was bumped again another hour.  At this point I was about to lose my mind.  The poor admission woman who was helping us, got the brunt of Joe's and my frustration.  She called up to surgery and found out that my doctor's first surgery of the day had complications and went 3 hours over what was expected, which pushed all of his surgeries back.  There was no guarantee when I would be able to have my procedure done.  We decided to get admitted and wait for a bit and if we got bumped one more time then I would have to reschedule.  I was getting delirious at this point.  The sweet woman from admissions, came up to the waiting area where we were and apologized, even though she had nothing to do with us having to wait, but she felt so bad that she went to her supervisor and got us a $25 gift card to the gift shop as a way to make the situation a little better.  It was such a sweet gesture and she really made me smile.

Finally, at 3:30 I was called back to pre-op.  I got my gown on and got hooked up to an IV, as well some leg contraption that helped circulate the blood flow in my legs.  This was all a new experience for me and I was nervous.  I had a wonderful pre-op nurse who was so helpful and eased my concerns.  Around 4:00 my doctor came in and apologized for all of the delays.  He had one more surgery before mine, but was hopeful that we would be able to start the surgery around 5:30.  Finally around 6:00, the anesthesiologist came in and introduced himself, followed by my surgical nurse and then I was saying goodbye to Joe.  I went into the surgery room, they moved me to the machine that does the lithotripsy, then started feeling very tired and I was out.  I woke up in recovery a little over an hour later feeling extremely groggy, but so relieved to be done.  I was able to see Joe maybe 20-30 minutes after I woke up, got dressed and was released.

I felt good coming home, still groggy, no nausea or anything.  It was around 9:00 when I got home and it had been 26 hours without anything to eat or drink!  A friend had made dinner for us, and I was so happy to finally be eating something.  I slept fantastic and woke up to some soreness.  It felt as though someone had kicked me in the back, but the pain was not nearly as bad as I thought it might be.  My girls were so excited to see me and I was beyond excited to see them.  We spent the morning snuggling and watching cartoons in my bed.

Overall, I'm glad that I decided to have this procedure done.  Yesterday I was really second guessing it. But I have already started passing pieces of the kidney stones, with no pain.  Praise God!  Unfortunately, I have to do this surgery all over again in a few weeks to blast the other kidney and stones.  They were unable to do both sides at the same time in case there were complications and couldn't leave me without a functioning kidney.  So I'm praying that the stones on the right side don't pass while I'm waiting for the surgery.

I am so incredibly grateful for my amazing husband, who held my hand and got me through yesterday. I am also thankful to my wonderful friend, Ali, who watched my girls yesterday and my mom who watched and put them to bed last night until we got home.  My friend, Tricia, came and spent the morning with me, helping me take care of the girls.  I have the best of friends who are bringing me and my family lunches and dinners for the week.  There have been so many family members and friends who have been praying for me and encouraging me during these past few weeks.  It's such an enormous blessing to have such incredible and selfless people in my life to get me through difficult times.  So thank you to everyone who has reached out to me!  I appreciate it more than you will ever know.