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!

Prayer Needed

Hey everyone, I just wanted to ask if you could pray for my husband and me. Alex wasn't even able to work his two days this week because of migraines, and even when he didn't have a migraine, he would have a full day of nausea/vomiting. As for me, I am having a huge crohn's disease flare up, and I'm having too much pain and bleeding to be able to manage at home. So I'll most likely be going to the hospital today. Please pray for peace & comfort (I hate the hospital and get lots of anxiety there from past experiences) and pray that my dr.'s will have the right treatments and also have understanding of my unique array of health issues.

My pain has gone down a tiny bit but it usually waxes & wanes, and when it gets bad, it's the worst pain I've ever felt all over my intestines. Like burning fire. And none of my pain meds help. I'm trying to be hopeful and I do trust in God, but I need lots of prayer and support right now.


Thank you all!

~Melissa

P.S. - unfortunately the hospital that I'll most likely be going to does not have internet access available to the patients (sooooo lame) but hopefully I'll be back on here soon.

It's Thursday, and I'm Alive...

At least, I think I am. It's 5:38 a.m. and I already got ready for bed, got IN bed, tried to sleep, read the bible a little, prayed, and here I am wide awake. I had to take some more sleeping medicine so hopefully it'll help soon... please? I need to get to sleep earlier than this! It's really been frustrating lately. Oh, and the 2nd part of the Daycation? Haven't had time for that in between all of this can't-sleep-until-7am business, the hubby-and-I-have-a-million-Dr.'s appointments combined, and not to mention I'm having some rectal bleeding issues again. And If I just grossed you out there, hey, it's a part of my daily life right now and it's really not pleasant, but this is my blog and I'll share about my butt if I want to! :-P haha. Man, it hurts though. If any of you moms out there have had hemorrhoids after giving birth, or just anyone has had them before, put your hands in the air, and wave 'em like you just don't care! Better yet, get a sitz bath and soak those suckers. Cuz that might actually help. Anyway,  this is kinda like hemorrhoids but about 80 times worse at the moment.

(This is from one of the amazing stores we went into on our "Daycation" in Old Town Sacramento.)



 Enough about my bum. I refuse to give it anymore attention tonight. I just need prayer that I can sleep better, at better times, and have more energy. A LOT more energy. Cuz right now I have about a 0.5 on a scale of 1-10! And I need to at least get up and do my chores! I need to exercise to maintain/lose the weight I've gained from my medicines and the side effects from them. Side note-We have been going on beautiful walks around the bike path right by our house that follows the creek, so next time we walk, I will bring my camera and maybe post some pictures!

Prayer for my hubby would be great too. He'll be getting Botox (yes, Botox!) injections for his Migraines next week and we're praying that it will give him significant relief, as he is barely able to work even 2 days a week right now. He also has a lot of different tests (blood test, sleep test, MRI, etc.) coming up, so pray that those would all go well and give accurate results. It's tough around here, but God is with us, and we do have eachother, and the laughter we can still have together carries us through day by day (and, of course, our family and friends...and our kitties. :-)