Kidney stone surgery

[Guest guest]

The dime-sized kidney stone which the urologist said was too large to ever

escape my kidney did just that. I was notified of this event about 4:30 pm

on Palm Sunday afternoon by sudden pain which I suspected was related to

kidney/bladder. An hour later a major mito crash occurred--the worst in over

a year--and within a few minutes I could not get up from a chair or walk.

This piggyback event told me the pain was " significant " , but I was so weak

that it would have been difficult to get to a doctor and go through tests. I

opted to wait and rest. All during Easter week, the stone inched its way

down and by Saturday night was causing intense pain. When I tried to get up

Easter Sunday morning, a second major mito crash occurred, this time

accompanied by a stroke-like event, during which my speech garbles and I

have difficulty thinking. The combination of kidney stone pain and

stroke-like event was a bit overwhelming. Le could not get me to ER himself

and called 911. Three paramedics took me to ER where Dr. Hunt did x-rays,

trying to locate the stone. It didn't show up on their x-rays, which we now

know is common. They gave me a pain shot and we opted to go home and call

Dr. Stuever Monday. The rest of Sunday we ran J-tube feedings continuously

to try to normalize my speech and offset the stroke-like event. But the tube

feedings put additional pressure on the kidney and worsened the pain. We

finally had to shut it off about midnight and I sipped formula the rest of

the night. When we saw Dr. Stuever Monday, he said I had a fever and needed

to be hospitalized until they figured out what was wrong. He sent us

directly to the hospital from his office. They ran J-tube tests all

afternoon but did not see any leaks. Tuesday morning a CT scan located the

stone lodged in the ureter near the bladder. It was too large to get any

further, and how it got that far is a mystery. We spent Tuesday afternoon

and all of Wednesday working through the anesthesia and feeding problems

inherent in surgery--which finally took place Thursday via spinal

anesthesia. A second stone was also removed from the right kidney. A stent

was placed to prevent swelling and will be removed in two weeks. I am home

but quite weak, walking short distances with my walker on wheels, eating and

sleeping in my office downstairs on my daybed. I finally got my hair washed

this afternoon after two weeks. The next goal is to read my own email. For

now Le reads it to me every evening. After that I hope to get back to using

my voice-activated software. This will take time, as I had not recovered

from the gamma knife when the kidney saga began. We had wonderful help from

seven different doctors who all talked to each other and worked like a team.

We are profoundly grateful for their help. As always, we appreciate all the

support and concern. We are positive and hopeful. Clearly God is at work in

our lives and that makes all the difference.

Le (scribe) and Barbara