Of Sisters and Stones

A little over a month ago, I mentioned feeling under the weather and suffering from a mild UTI (urinary tract infection). I’d had them before, and antibiotics would normally knock them out within a few days. I mentioned what was going on to my sister, and she said something to the effect of, “Just as long as it isn’t kidney stones!”

Famous last words.

Now, I know that my little sister loves me and wouldn’t purposefully jinx me. The reason she made the comment was because she’d recently gone through an episode of kidney stones that was extremely painful. And I would never hold it against my sister if in fact I did have kidney stones, because I love her to death and know she only has good intentions for me. Still…

After taking the round of antibiotics, I still wasn’t feeling 100%. I came home from church one evening with an excruciating pain on my left side. The pain was so intense it made me puke. A short while afterwards the pain went away, and I attributed it to a stomach virus (I’d just thrown up, the pain went away, it all made sense). About a week later I went through the same thing, only I didn’t throw up, just had the pain which was scary. The next day I went to see my doctor. After explaining all that had happened, she determined it may be a kidney stone. She immediately ordered blood work, urine tests, and an x-ray to see if the stone was large enough to be visible. I went in to have the x-ray done, but by the time the results were in (just 3 days later) the pain had subsided. There was nothing visible in the x-ray, and the doctor said more than likely it had been a kidney stone and I’d passed it. She did warn me that if it happened again I should come in immediately or go to the emergency room where a scan would determine what in fact was causing the pain.

Since then I’ve had a few episodes of minor pain. I say a few episodes, but really it was happening about once a week. I didn’t go back to the doctor because after being laid off we were getting the paperwork together to get health insurance through my husband’s job and it hadn’t been finalized yet. I just prayed the pain would go away, and if it was something serious that at least we’d have insurance before I had to go to the hospital. Pain relievers were doing the trick for the most part, and I put up with the issue as best as I could.

Monday the insurance cards came in the mail (Hallelujah!). Yesterday, the pain started again. I couldn’t find the ibuprophen so I took a couple of acetaminophen instead. As I was cooking I kept having to sit down because the pain was getting worse. I finished preparing lunch and lay down. When my hubby got home I was already in intense pain. He asked if I’d taken pain meds. I told him I had but the pain was getting worse. There were moments I’d get up, and he’d tell me, “just lay down”, but I couldn’t. There was no position that was comfortable, and I was in tears from the pain. He was on and off the phone with his sales people, and watching me squirm with pain. He asked me if I needed to go to the doctor or if I wanted to go to the hospital. At that point I just screamed, “Doctor, hospital, anywhere, I can’t take this anymore!” My oldest son R rushed me to the emergency room as hubby stayed behind (he was still working and someone had to stay and wait for E to come home from school. Hubby was on the phone with me every few minutes). The great thing is that the hospital is close by, and they took care of me right away. After explaining to the doctor what was going on, they ran a CT scan. Sure enough, there was the kidney stone, 4mm in diameter and getting ready to descend into my bladder. Okay, doc, what next? A young doctor, he smiled politely and said, “You’re going to have to pee it out.” Gee, thanks doc.

So, let’s talk about my blessings (at a time like this?!? Absolutely). Had the stone been 5mm in diameter, they would have kept me in the hospital. Not the most pleasant thought in my mind. Instead they sent me home with some coffee-like filters so as to try and capture the stone once in leaves my body. The thought of it made me gag, but the doctor explained that if they have the stone it can be analyzed and they can figure out why my kidney is forming stones in the first place. I was also prescribed more pain meds, and warned that there are more kidney stones, just a lot smaller. I think of all the terrible diseases I could be facing, deadly or even terminal diseases. In that context, kidney stones aren’t so bad. And most important, I know what it is that’s causing the pain, rather than having to stay in the hospital undergoing massive amounts of tests and not knowing the outcome. I think for me that would have been much worse. So I’m home, praise the Lord, though to my knowledge I haven’t passed the stone yet. I’ll make an appointment today to see a urologist and hopefully get to the bottom of this. Or maybe this will be a “thorn in the flesh”, as the apostle Paul calls it. I’m just thankful to the Lord that I’m alive and, for the most part, healthy. I’m also thankful for my sister; though I hope next time she’ll keep her funny little "prophetic" comments to herself ;-) (love ya sis!).