Another Surgery... and a Painful Wait

If anyone who reads this could pray for me, I am having surgery tomorrow for 3 kidney stones that are coming down but stuck on the right side. About 6 weeks ago I started feeling some pain and thought it might be a kidney stone, but it took awhile for me to confirm that it was a stone and not pain from the Crohn's Disease. After I started getting these certain bladder pains that I always get with the stones, I knew. Well, I tried to just let them pass at home, but that didn't work, so a month later I had an appointment with my urologist and we decided to do ESWL (Shockwave Lithotripsy) to break up the stones, and I was pretty surprised to know that I had not one, not two, but THREE stuck and one of them is a large one that is blocking the flow of urine and causing swelling and lowered kidney function.

To make a long story short, my pain started becoming unbearable and there weren't any meds that I could take at home that could help the pain. I had to go the ER, but they sent me home after "doing what they could" with some IV pain meds because they said they don't admit patients just for pain control. What?!?!?! (Later I found out this is not true; if they would've contacted my urologist, he would've admitted me.) So I'm supposed to just sit at home with 10 out of 10 pain and no one can help me? Yes, that's what happened. Too many miscommunications with the ER not contacting my urologist, and my pain management Dr. not helping because his opinion is that taking extra pain meds won't help anyway and that I just need to get the stones out. Well, the hospital only has this special shockwave machine once every TWO WEEKS so I had to wait! I couldn't believe I had no way of getting help except if I went BACK to the emergency room.... but, by God's grace, I got through the last 5 days just barely, and now surgery is tomorrow morning.

If you could pray specifically that I will not only have a perfect surgery, but also that the stones after being blasted will pass cleanly through without them having to place a stent (a thick wire going up from the bladder to the kidney to help the stone particles pass down) because last time they placed a stent, I had so much pain I ended up in the ICU. Some people don't tolerate the stents and I already had so much inflammation in there from being in the hospital and them trying to "flush the stone out" with IV fluids and it just sat there rattling away in my ureter, yeah, that was NOT fun. The worst pain of my life for about 6 hours. I might've written about it previously but I can't remember. Other things to pray for: perfect pain control when I wake up because of my high tolerance of pain meds since I already have to be on a continuous level for my back problems, no anxiety before the procedure, safety throughout the procedure and for everyone treating me to be empathetic, kind, and fantastic at their job! Also, I am in quite a bit of pain right now at home and am praying that God will just take the pain away and let me rest tonight before the procedure.

Thanks so much for anyone who is able to pray, I know God is with me and I am trusting in Him to take care of me!

It's Been Awhile!

I cannot believe that I haven't posted here in almost a year... and I will make sure to update later about this past year and how it has been for my husband and I. One MAJOR change is that within a month after the last post I wrote, my husband found out from my pain dr. that he could have a procedure done (a Radiofrequency ablation) in his neck to help with his migraines. Well, he had it done in May 2012, and I am not kidding you, has only had one or two migraines since then. Praise God, what a MIRACLE this is!!! Not only did his migraines disappear, but he was let go from his very, very stressful job of working for my brother doing granite kitchens/bathrooms/you name it in houses, but after he was on unemployment and searching for a job, he got a NEW JOB that started right after Thanksgiving of last year! He now works nights at Safeway in the bakery department and truly enjoys it.

As for me, I'm pretty sure I had another shockwave treatment for a kidney stone right after that last blog and it went well. I am still battling all of the same issues, and unfortunately some new ones- I am now the one battling chronic migraines along with the crazy fatigue. I will be getting some tests done within the next couple weeks- MRI, x-rays, sleep study- and another back injection for my back problems. I am also trying to get off of the Prednisone STILL, am down to 2.5 mg's and trying to cut down, but it's very hard because my body is so sensitive that the Crohn's starts flaring right up even if I taper down really slowly. Luckily I have lost about 20 lbs. since last year and am continuing to lose weight just by eating less, since I can't exercise much with my severe fatigue. The fatigue makes me feel like I don't have a life.... but that's a whole other post. God is still good and I am thankful for the roof over our heads, my amazing, loving husband, my awesome, supportive family, and my friends who never stop praying for me.

I was going to fill out a survey but it is time for me to go to bed. I am a little better with my sleeping patterns than I was a year ago, but I still go to bed late, especially since I don't like to go to bed before Alex does (and since he works nights he usually comes home at around 3 a.m. and goes to bed at around 5 a.m.) but hey, it's nice that we are on the same schedule now!

I will write more later when I have some time and motivation. I hope to check in with some of my "blogger" friends too. For now, I'll leave you with a dorky picture of me and a bottle of Sparkling Cider on Christmas... gotta love it! ;-)