I am recovering from being hospitalized and having surgery to remove three kidney stones. Running is on hold, which is disappointing because I had been doing really well, but now I am just focusing on getting healthy. The pain from the stones is worse that anything I've felt before, and I guess that's typical of kidney stones. I've heard there's not much out there that's more painful. (I see lots of people online are debating whether trying to pass a kidney stone or hard labor is more painful.) At one point, just the pain was causing vomiting. That's when we headed back to the hospital.
So, after two trips to the ER (once to Sartori and once to Covenant), they admitted me to the hospital at about 11:30 pm last Monday. The urologist took a look at the CAT scan Tuesday morning, saw the stones, and scheduled me for surgery Tuesday night. He easily pulled one stone out but the other two crumbled, and then were tiny enough to pass in the next couple of days. I think the surgery took less than an hour. I'm sure the urologist has done hundreds of them.
I go back to the doc in a few weeks to see what the composition of my stones was. I'm interested in this--what were the stones made of? This will tell me a lot, hopefully, about how to prevent kidney stones in the future. Apparently, there is an 80% chance I will have kidney stones again, and a 50% chance I will have them in the next 5-10 years. If I can prevent this by changing my diet, I will. Many people get kidney stones due to dehydration, but I really am conscious of fluid intake.
The doctor is concerned because for some reason my ureter is very narrow at some point. He mentioned it could be because of scar tissue, but I don't know why I'd have scar tissue. I may be in for another procedure but will know more when I see the urologist again on March 19. I like the urologist, Dr. Mong of Waterloo, Iowa. He's got a good sense of humor. If they do want to do something to correct that narrowing, I hope it doesn't involve a stent (more later on the stent). I didn't ask the doctor a lot of questions about this narrowing deal because I was too concerned about the immediate pain of the stones, but I am anxious to learn more now. My kidney stones were about 2mm each (there were 3 of them) which is small enough for people to typically pass, but mine would not have passed without surgery due to the narrowing.
One of the worst parts of all of this was the stent that was inserted during surgery to hold my ureter open so stuff (including crumbled kidney stone pieces) could drain. I thought the stent was maybe 2-4 inches long, but when they pulled it out a few days later, it was actually over 2 feet long. It made sense that it was so painful and irritating when I saw the damn thing. I also had a little bit of an infection/fever due to the stent, but the doctor expected it to subside when the stent came out, and it did (although not fast enough for me).
I hope to run again in the next few days but I'm not sure how realistic that is. Today I walked from the parking lot to my office because I worked a couple of hours. I was exhausted. I'm still not walking "upright" and I move pretty slowly. Today is a lot better than yesterday though. I am still relying on pain meds but getting by on just a few Motrin. I'm also on antibioitics and some meds to make sure urination doesn't sting/burn too badly. Without getting too gory, there is still blood in my pee, but much less.
So I am on the road to recovery and just trying to be patient. The pain I have now is just an aching in my left kidney--which is where all of this started. The kidney itself has been a little swollen, and I think that should be resolved pretty soon. I've also slept much better the last couple of nights, which helps a lot. That's been with the assistance of Tylenol PM. I barely slept at all in the hospital. Averaged maybe 2 hours a night.
Here are some pics of different types of kidney stones. I found this interesting. Like a rock collection.
http://www.herringlab.com/photos/
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