Well, as a few of you knew, I’ve been waiting for a kidney infection of mine to clear up, so I could have a kidney stone removed. My body didn’t want to wait until the infection cleared. I finished my second course of antibiotics a week ago. I was scheduled to be re-tested on Monday to see if I was clear for surgery. But. . .about 1:30 Sunday morning, I woke up with that undeniable kidney stone pain. The normal pain meds didn’t help at all. A second dose barely helped. Then the puking started. The anti-nausea meds wouldn’t even stay down. After about 5 hours of puking, I decided it was time for the hospital. They kept me. Turns out, the infection was in the stone itself, and some of the bacteria was hiding inside the stone, which is why two courses of antibiotics didn’t cure it. So, I spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday on intramuscular antibiotics, then on Wednesday, I had the stone removed. Unfortunately, it’s really, really hard to get an IV into me. They ended up putting one in my right foot :eek: Good news: the procedure went well, and I’m home, safe and sound. Bad news: the CAT scan I had the night before the procedure showed another large stone, close to the kidney wall. The problem with this is that it could break through the kidney wall, and I’d have a ruptured kidney :eek: :eek: . The doctor’s gonna look at that one in about two weeks, and then I’ll be back in the hospital to have that one removed!
Thank you very much, but no. Geez, what is it with the frelling right kidneys? I just had mine out in January. I fought the stones in that sucker for almost six years, with it gradually losing more function, until the urologist said all it was doing was putting out bacteria and more stones.
I never had cutting surgery for my stones, I had lithotripsies. Is this procedure a possibility for you norinew?
I don’t feel a whole lot different than I did before, but I do have less, ahem, burning and urgency caused by infections. My goal now is to keep the left kidney healthy.
**FCM **was right, it hurt to read your post.
Maybe we are long lost siblings. Many of your symptoms/reactions are the same as mine, especially about being had to stick with a needle.
I was lucky I never had a problem with painkillers. Even got Demerol once. Ah, lovely, lovely Demerol. Pain? What pain?
I feel your pain. I wouldn’t wish kidney stones on my very worst enemies.
I was there 2 years ago with a couple of big stones and a raging kidney infection. I’d never had pain intense enough to make me vomit before, and I pray that I never do again. I was lucky, my infection cleared up after 2 weeks of hardcore antibiotics, and they ended up using sound waves (lithotripsy) to smash the stone instead of removing it surgically.
I’d offer you MY right kidney, but that’s my bad one as well. Must be an epidemic starting.
Damn, kidneys can really be a bitch.
I’ll be thinking about you and wishing you well. Drink a lot of water (unless your doc told you not to, after the surgery or something). Drink till your eyeballs are floating. And keep them floating! Refill after every pee. I pretty much walk around now with a water bottle superglued to my lips in a desperate attempt to avoid another stoning.
Baker, I’ve never had lithotripsy. Last fall, I had four stones in my right kidney at the same time. The doctor said that two of them were good candidates for litho, but the other two, he would have to cut to get out. So, it didn’t make sense to do both procedures, so he just did the cutting. Well, it’s not actually cutting. It’s a procedure called a “perc” (and that’s the procedure I’ll be needing in a few weeks). I’ll spoiler the details of this procedure, because it’s kinda gruesome. The doctor puts a needle into the kidney, and then uses a series of larger needles to enlarge the hole until it’s big enough to slide in a wire, bust up the stone (if necessary, and it will be this time cuz the sucker’s almost two inches long), and then fishes it out. The resulting scar looks like you got stabbed with a knife.
As unpleasant as this procedure is, it’s still less invasive than actual cutting would be. If all goes well, it’s an over night stay in the hospital, and then a week until you’re back to full function.
Everyone else, thanks for the kind words, good thoughts and good vibes!
I’ll tell you, there’s a book in this. “The Hospital Food Diet”. The basic premise is to go into the hospital, and only eat the food they serve that actually tastes good. That should add up to about 350 calories a day. The bacon wasn’t bad. Everything else tasted like it came out of a can (including the eggs ). Sunday thru Tuesday, when the infection was in full swing, I wasn’t hungry at all. All I wanted was diet ginger ale and ice water, which they were very gracious about providing me. But, by Thursday, my appetite was back in full swing. I made hubby bring me fried chicken and onion rings from home one night.
One good thing about when I was in the hospital for having my kidney removed, the food was fairly decent. I don’t expect haute cuisine in an institutional setting, see. There was a vegetable lasagna I actually asked if there were leftovers for. We circled our choice of three entrees for next days dinner, and I wrote in I’d like the veggie lasagna if any was left over from the day before. Not only did they send me that, I also got the main entree I’d circled in case they were out of lasagna!
Most of it was well cooked and warm, if not exactly exciting. Surprisingly, the breakfast eggs tasted fresh.
But the first day I got a clear diet, with green and yellow jello. As I hadn’t eaten in a while it didn’t taste bad. But I did get sick, as I shouldn’t have eaten so soon. As Horseflesh put it( he came to visit) I was doing my best Linda Blair impression. You know someone is a friend when they’ll hold the pan for you!
Yeah, I know. I now know for sure that my husband is truly the love of my life, because not only did he fetch me the bathroom trashcan, but he put a little water and Lysol in the bottom so it wouldn’t smell too bad when I had to put my head in it! And he emptied and washed it frequently, so it would stay as pleasant as possible under the circumstances, and gave me breath strips in between episodes (I’ll tell you, those things are great after you puke!).
You know what I hate about the pans at the hospital, though? They are way too small! When I’m puking, I don’t want to be that concerned about aiming! I always ask them to bring me a bath pan or garbage can instead.
You are so right that the ones in the hospital are too small. And those curved bottoms! My mother visited and I got sick(that wouldn’t phase mom, she’s a retired nurse). Mom held that pan but I, um, was retching so hard it arced out onto her and the bed. Yum!!
ARe you feeling better now? Will you be back at work soon?
Ug. I hate those hospital hurl pans too. I was in the hospital for an eye surgery a few years ago, and I was throwing up after, and because it was so small, my vomit got all over my dad’s and the nurse’s hands. I felt bad, but I couldn’t say sorry, on acount of the vomiting.
Well, I’m feeling a lot better than I was Sunday morning, I’ll tell ya! I feel tired and shaky, and my antibiotics are making me feel a little nauseous, but otherwise, not too bad. I’ve got a little bit of a fever, not sure what that’s from; but I see the doctor on Tuesday, so I’ll check with him then. If it gets much above 102, I’ll go to the ER. As far as “back to work”, well, I’m a SAHM, so, yeah, I’m back to work. But I’m making the kids pitch in more than I normally do. Usually, I do about 90% of the housework myself, but right now, it’s more like 40%. They’ll have to get over it.
flamingbananas, yeah, I’ve puked on people before, too. But you know the classic line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”.
Well, demerol doesn’t react well with me. It makes me shaky, sweaty, nauseous, all the stuff that kidney stones themselves will do! But my doctor is a strong believer in morphine, and is not particularly stingy with it, either. So that helps.
I can sympathize, though I never had it anywhere near that bad. I had one tiny stone (about a quarter the size of a BB) and I had hardly any pain at all untill I passed it. Tiny is a meaningless word when you’re passing a stone that has sharp projections all over it (sort of like a sea urchin). It felt much bigger. But it was over with a trip to the bathroom. I saved it and showed it to my doctor. He agreed that it was a calcium stone and told me to stop taking Tums. That was it.
That was years ago and I’ve never had trouble with my kidneys since.
I got off easy. I hope the worst is over for you and that you recover quickly.
