STONES.

(the orginal stone that started all this mess 4x5mm)


This last month once again has been a struggle for our family, I spent a week in the hospital and had surgery on Jan. 7th. The following week Brian had his finger amputated. Last Thursday, as I sat at a Pack meeting for Boy Scouts with Dawson my horrible back/stomach pain came back. I did all I could to compose myself and not cry in front of 75 boys and 75 parents. I lasted until Dawson said, "mommy are you crying". We left the meeting early, I crawled into bed with my coat on, while Brian found the pain pills that I was given. Than I started the vomiting, ugh. Which is normal with kidney stones. Fast Forward, Friday morning back to the Urologist, he sends me to the hospital for an x-ray and pain control meds. Than orders a CT scan...Laying there waiting for results of my CT scan..I started to cry, like hard crocodile tears - I was in pain, I wanted to get home before the kids got off the bus, as I have been away from them a lot lately...I wanted God to tell me everything was going to be ok. I met with the Urologist again, who said that he saw that I was currently passing 3 stones. Two in the right side and one in the left. According to the CT scan, I have 8 stones in my Left Kidney and 4 in my Right. The positive is that they all appear relatively small enough for me to pass. Because of this, because they all seem small in nature he expects some minor discomfort from them, but not the kind of pain that I'm in. After the Radiologist reviewed all 3 CT scans, he notes that from my first CT scan on Jan 4 until the one last Friday, I have a Cyst on my Ovary that has gone from the size of a plumb to the size of a tennis ball. So Monday I was sent to my OBGYN office for his opinion, he said that he has seen cysts of this size go away on their own, and has also seen them grow. So in 3 weeks I will return to him for an ultrasound of the Ovary, if the cyst has grown at all or not shrunk he said he will schedule surgery to remove that Ovaryat the very least. In the meantime, I go back to the Urologist next week to make sure that these 3 stones have passed on their own, otherwise I will be in surgery to have them removed. Several people have asked why they just don't take them all out at the same time...I agree - sure seems like the logical thing to do. However, no Urologist here in MI will go all the way into the kidney to remove stones. So once they hit your ureter and are traveling to your bladder (this is the painful process, because they scrap and cause excruciating pain) than they can go in and get them if they don't pass on their own. He mentioned sending me to a stone specialist in Chicago, who deals with cases like mine. I suppose we will wait and see. In the meantime, we appreciate all the help, babysitters, prayers, cards, dinners and even flowers from my family :)