Momma is a Rolling Stone...

Well, since my last entry so much has happened. Those two kidney stones mentioned in my previous post? Both reared their ugly heads. One was blasted to kingdom come by way of lithotripsy, the other decided to surprise me. And let me tell you, lithotripsy is an absolute miracle, a blessing! Granted, you have to go through the whole going to the hospital, anesthesia, IVs and all that mess....but compared to passing a stone naturally? Well, trust me there is no comparison.

So Thursday I had my surgery in Omaha, did very well. Yeah I was a little sore, felt like someone had given me a good, hard kidney punch but I was alright. Monday evening as I was getting ready for work I started feeling a slight pain in my right side. And being WAY too experienced in kidney stones I knew exactly what was happening. I knew there was a very small window of time here before the full attack was going to hit. So I calmly told Dale and the kids what was going on, called in sick to work and went to the bedroom, shut the door and "hunkered down" ready for the worst.

The worst came within 30 minutes. Maybe it's a good thing we forget the pain, because it's the WORST pain ever. I mean the WORST pain. There's no comfortable position you can get in, no few moments of relief (like in labor when you are having contractions) just constant excruciating pain...I had taken some pain pills given to me after my surgery but, well, when pain gets really, really bad....you can't keep anything down. Not even pain pills.

Then came the relief. All the violence associated with passing a stone (yes, I said violence and I meant it) moved the stone along and it found a new resting place in a more comfortable spot. And the pain subsided and I passed out. Finally.

Now, the doctor told me a few years ago that if I had ANY more stones, we were going to do surgery (yes ANOTHER surgery). We needed to stop this, I was having way to many of these. Let's see, my first stone was in 1997 (and that was a story in itself!) and I have had 5 since then. So evidently there is a "gland" in my neck called the Parathyroid Gland. Its produces calcium and apparently I produce WAY too much of it, which creates these little gems. So we gotta take it out. We've tried diet change, medication, neither of which works. There's really no dangerous affects from this surgery, so I say do it and save me from having anymore stones! I go back to the doctor in a few weeks and we will go from there.

Yes, I am much better, although my VERY lengthy medical leave has turned into a resignation. In the past 5 months I've had 3 surgeries/procedures and passed 2 kidney stones. It's time to concentrate on getting well and getting my life back in order. As you can imagine, order has not been a number one priority around here for quite some time! The kids love my being at home, the house is cleaner, meals are being cooked and the kids are actually being picked up when and where they are supposed to be!

So there ya have it....hopefully there will be no more kidney stone blogs. Maybe some recovery blogs? Maybe some vacation blogs? Maybe some happy news blogs? Yes, good stuff....it's about time.