I went out to water, do yard work, etc and told him to rest and relax. He was hot. He laid under a fan. Then he threw up. And sometimes worry and stress will cause things like that. But that clenched it. He decided to take himself to the ER. Silly man. He came out to the back yard with a barf bowl in his arms and said to me, "I'm going to the Emergency Room." But I made him wait for me to drive him. "One does not drive themselves to the Emergency Room if there are other options, Dear. I will take you." I came in, grabbed my "purse" backpack, threw in my toothbrush and toothpaste since I'd done no morning grooming as yet, got keys and my phone and off we went. And I hit Every Single Red Light along the way!!! It must be him. I can drive down Main Street Cedar City any other day and not hit a single one. He was kind of moaning by that time. (And I also called in to take the day off of work.)
After admitting him to the ER, he was laying on a bed, writhing and moaning in pain! Trying to sit, stand, lie down--something, anything to be comfortable. Nothing worked until they gave him some morphine within the hour. That finally brought some relief, but it didn't last long. We were there for a total of 3 1 /2 hours or so, and he had two doses of morphine and one other pain drug, plus the anti-nausea one. I helped him practice Lamaze-type breathing since that's all I know to do with pain. He had a CT scan, gave them a urine specimen and we visited with the Dr. who looked like he was 15. ha. There was a stone, way at the top of the ureter and another in the kidney. The one that was just barely out of the kidney looked to be about 5 millimeters in diameter. That size may be able to pass, maybe not. 5mm is the cutoff for passing, generally. So the Dr just prescribed some pain killers, Mike was told to drink plenty of fluids, keep moving, and have a follow-up with a urologist ASAP. So I made an appointment with one while we were there. The earliest one was in St. George. Two days away.
Mike came home and napped the afternoon away on Tuesday. He was so drained from that painful experience, plus all the meds made him sleepy. And he was comfortable, so that was good. He was drinking lots and lots of fluids, straining his urine, and moving around a bit as he felt up to it. I got lots done at home! Picked up prescriptions, Laundry, irrigating the garden, etc. As the day wore on, he felt better and better, so we kept to our plans to go with Tandy and kids to go see "Toy Story 4" at the theater that evening. We did not get any snacks for the movie, and Mike sat closest to the aisle in case he needed to go out. He was quite nervous about the intense pain returning. I skipped my watercolor class that evening.
"Toy Story 4" was so dang cute! I can't believe how long those characters have been around. I wonder why those toys don't wear out? ;-) I smiled all the way through, with a tear or two at the end. And had full-on belly laughs during the credit add-ons. I had the serious giggles by then, I'm tellin' ya. Cute stuff. And my cheeks were sore from smiling/laughing so much.
Mike still had no more pain that night or Wednesday. That was good. But he's not supposed to drive while on narcotics, even though he'd only taken a couple of doses of the Tylenol with Codeine. By Wednesday, he felt nervously normal so he had his worker pick him up and took him over to the Beatrice Apartments to try and get some work done, but it was kind of a wash for the day's work. Wednesday evening Tandy brought over Lexi and Braeden to work on their music practice at our house. They need a computer and network access, etc. So I made us some Fish 'n' chips and they ate with us. Later, Tandy came with Ella and we all (except Mike) went to the Greenshow together. Games were played afterward at home, we visited and chatted, it was the little Liebhardt's last night with us. It's been such a fun July, getting to spend so much time with kids and grandkids.
Thursday morning, Mike and I drove down to St. George to see the urologist. We got some good information on options, what to expect, what to watch for, etc. But, since everyone is different, we don't really know. It was a good consultation. Mike doesn't appear to be a good candidate for lithotripsy, where they use sound shock waves to break them up. The location and visibility of the stone is not good, nor is his, er, density and girth. He may have to do the scope removal, so we scheduled that for August 7. But if he passes it before--great! He may want to leave the other one in place...or opt to have it removed. August 6 we'll head to St. George for a pre-op and another CT scan to see if none, one or two stones have passed, to see if the one inside has changed, to see if he wants to do it then or later. All sorts of options.
WE are praying and hoping for both to dissolve and disappear and pass before August 6 and hope that you will pray for that, too. In the mean time, he's off pain meds other than ibuprofen or Tylenol. And back to normal activity with some extra exercise to hopefully move things along, but leery about having another attack of pain as things move along or get stuck or swell or back up.
For my ending note, let us just say that we may be heading to Lagoon. The Dr DID mention that some studies have shown that roller coasters or intercourse may be effective in helping to move kidney stones along. Hmmm. I did ask if they had done any studies on intercourse while riding on Roller Coasters, but he said he's never seen any studies as interesting as that one might be. I know-- Naughty me. But I couldn't resist asking. I am pretty sure there are no minors reading my blog.
And, no. We don't plan to try it. And we probably won't even go to Lagoon because we have a garage sale to plan for in a little over two weeks. GAAAHHHGHHH!!! So much to do!!
No comments:
Post a Comment