When It Rains, It Pours....

... or Should I Say.... When I Pee, it Hurts!

It turns out I have a kidney stone in motion (that almost sounds like a song title).... And based on the ultrasound and CT scan both my kidneys are riddled with them... The urologist actually referred to my kidneys as gravelly! Supposedly this is a genetic condition, one I may have had since birth. Ugh. Not only did I inherit a questionable nose, but now I have faulty kidneys. Thanks, dad.

All week, I've been doctoring with this lower left side pain that started last Saturday night after a my friend Tara's bachelorette party. I was afraid I'd done some damage by drinking more than usual... but that doesn't seem to be the explanation. Both docs I saw first thought I had a strained muscle and maybe a touch of the flu... but after my second urine analysis they decided to do an ultrasound. That was on Wednesday.

Thursday was my worst day of all. I woke to pain... constant, barely-able-to-walk pain that lasted 3 hours until I took an ill-advised pain medication... Lorset also known as Vicodin. This drug is completely and utterly evil. I was WORSE off from the pain medicine than I was from the back pain. Eventually my mom brought me to ER where I hung out with an IV and four more kinds of medications (none which made nauseated, thank goodness). I was there for several hours before my appointment with the urologist. And following that appointment I had a procedure in out patient surgery in which my doctor went in and tried to retrieve the stone and implanted a stint between my bladder and kidney... too much information? Sorry.

I'm feeling much better now... trying to sleep off the anesthesia from last night and enjoying the fun process of straining my urine, mining for "gold" you might say! The good news is my back isn't hurting right now. They say it can take between 2 days and 4 weeks for a stone to pass, but my doc isn't willing to wait that long and so in a week if it's still there they'll try one of three procedures... something involving an instrument that looks like an apple picker, or a laser, or some kind of litho machine if all else fails.

Keep your fingers crossed that this will all be over soon, and maybe without another procedure. Stay hydrated, kids!