So, roughly 10 years ago (OK, more like nine) I had a kidney stone, which certainly made my new year all that more special when it happened (2001, the year I get laid off, the year I have a kidney stone, and the year we made contact) At the time the previous stone magically extracted itself from me, the doctor told me that I had one forming on the other side. Well, on Thursday morning, I felt a pain that I could only explain as either being a kidney stone or a wrenched back. I decided to head to the urgent care around 8am, only to find that the urgent care didn't open up until 10am. Fun stuff. JoDee and I went back later on, and they determined that I likely had a stone since I had the signs of a stone from the pee test they did. So, the next course of action was to have some medication, and hope that it would work itself out like the last one.
Friday was pretty quiet, and after JoDee and I got home from a quiet night together, all hell broke loose. I literally had enough pain in my side to make me lose my dinner, so we rushed to the emergency room. After some pain management, X-Rays, and a CAT scan, they found that the stone was 6mm in size. In the grand scale of things, anything under 4mm is generally passable, but 4-6mm starts getting into a gray area, and 6mm and above requires surgery. The staff determined that I needed to talk to a urologist, and they admitted me to a hospital room. I spent most of the night between trying to sleep and having my vital signs tracked. That morning, JoDee showed up with some books, the Eee, and Munchkin. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to really so much with that stuff, because I was a) tired, and b) still getting visits for my vital signs. A urologist showed up a little before 11am, and the decision was made to implant a stent to make sure the stone wouldn't be impeding regular flow. My parents showed up about the same time that I was getting prepped for surgery. At 11:30am, I was in surgery, awaiting the stent to be put into place.
Surgery went well, and before long I was awake, and ready to get the heck out of the hospital. After proving that I could still function (ie: eat solid foods, and "void"), they let me go. I have an appointment on Thursday to have the urologist play asteroids and see if he can break up the stone (which I have nicknamed "peanut") and with luck, I'll be done with this whole episode before long.
On top of this, this is JoDee and my anniversary weekend. Our plans to be out-of-town over the weekend have unfortunately been delayed since I'm dealing with this stone. On the one hand it's a blessing that this happened at a time when we both can be home, but it also kinda sucks that our anniversary plans didn't go off as planned. On the other-hand, it just goes to show me that I have an awesome wife, whom I love very much. She's definitely been through some of my low points. :)
More later when I know more.
UPDATE: It looks like I'm on for Thursday for the next round of treatment.