Tuesday, July 10, 2007

What You Didn't Want to Know About Stents

Seems life is interesting after getting a kidney stone removed. Mine was stuck in the ureter. The piece between the kidney and the bladder. Sucker wasn't going to move. Lodged in nice and tight. What a pain. Literally.

My decision was to have surgery and have it removed. I cannot express the kind of pain I have been in off and on for the last 2 months. And I wanted to do anything to get rid of it. If you have a queezy stomach, read no further.

The rest is after the 'More Pawprints'




Then I found out that I had a stent put in to help with any 'pieces' that might come out. I had no idea what a stent was... and it took everything in my power not to take a picture of the string coming out of my urethra and taped to my belly.

Being overweight, with a stretched out belly... did not help anything. You really, really don't want to pull that string. And the first day... My body actually decided it didn't want to pee. Yaa, my bladder was full, it was begging to be relieved and I wasn't able to go. No joke. It hurt that bad. Only for the first day, Friday. And I did go. And I drank even MORE water. Really. I knew it was going to help in the long run. Also, all pain will end eventually.

Didn't think much more of it. It got less painful each day. Only when that darn string got pulled did I notice it on the last day.

Time to have the stent removed. I'm a chicken. A big chicken. I went in and asked about it. The nurse said they just yank it out. Gulp. Ok. And she did. It hurt but not as bad as the kidney stone. Hmmm. She showed it to me. I almost fainted. Sucker was about 9 inches long. I found a picture of one... forgot to bring my camera to get a picture of it...



See those curled ends? One is stuck in your kidney, the other is stuck in your bladder. Those little holes help with the urination getting through. Yaa... I can't help but ask questions. The string is attached on the curled side in your bladder.

Not something I wish to do anytime soon. Actually I n.e.v.e.r want to go through that process again. At least childbirth gave me a child.

Enough... I'm alive. Still not quite up to speed... seems I don't react well to stents and surgery. Silly thing like a fever that won't go away and some pain left. Sigh. Just a little longer and all should be healed... or I get to have better antibiotics! Luckily, most of the blood in the urine is gone. Nothing like it has been for the last couple of days. See, things are getting better already.

Thanks again to everyone for their prayers and wonderful good thoughts... it certainly helped.

14 comments:

Ogre said...

You're right ... I really didn't want to know that. But of course, I read it anyway. Yuck.

But it's good to hear things are getting better for you!!!

pam said...

OHMY. You poor girl. I hate when nasty things happen to good people. :(

The Gray Monk said...

Go girl - it can only get better from here on in. The fever is probably related to the anesthetic and the body's reaction to having the "foreign body" removed.

Stilll keeping up the prayers.

Bobby said...

This to shall pass..Sorry..Get well soon....Someone has to kep my brother in line!

oddybobo said...

Feel better soon. Tell those handsome boys to sing you a get well song . . . no wait, they will sing something involving farts and you will have the giggles, and that will hurt . . . ok, well, I will sing you the song The Boy sang me last night . . . *best boy song voice*

"I love you, you love me and I also love spongebob but maybe I should kick his butt instead . . ."

*smile*

Jody said...

I didn't read any further. But I'm glad you got it taken care of.:)

armywifetoddlermom said...

YOUCH

Dazd said...

Ummm OUCH! **Crosses his legs**

Glad to hear you are recovering. Get well soon!

Marie said...

Goodness... here's to lots o' good healing...

Mrs. Who said...

*passes LOTS of chocolate*

physics geek said...

I'm glad to hear that you're on the mend.

Your story about the stint has unfortunately revived memories of my kidney stone adventure, along with a related story that made my event more cringeworthy. To me, anyway.

Take care of yourself. And drink lots of water. Or beer; whatever works.

GUYK said...

Damn! Makes me hurt just to think about it. Glad you are healing up okay. I never had any problems like that except a dose of clap one time..and that makes it hard to go pee...

Teresa said...

Give yourself time. It takes a LONG time for anesthesia to leave the body. For that matter, once the reason for the pain is gone (aka the kidney stone) even pain medication can keep you groggy feeling for weeks. Not to mention the kidney itself having to heal up after all the trauma.

I'm glad the stone is gone and yes I know what a stent is and why they use it (even though they didn't use such things back in "the day" when I was a nurse - at least not for kidney stones).

Did they say anything about a special diet now that they got the stone out? If so, do follow the advice.

Hope you're more up to speed now!

Bou said...

Every time I think of your surgery, and read it about it, I cross my legs hard and cringe. Ugh!