There's no place like home..

Before I even begin this post, I have to admit, if it's hard to follow it's because it's full of high emotions, a week of little sleep, and lots of pain killers..

Our plan was to go see The Wizard of Oz this past weekend. My brother was in it and I was really looking forward to watching him. I heard it was quite the cast and they all did an amazing job. Not to mention I was looking forward to a date night out with good friends. Needless to say, this didn't happen.

It started early Wednesday morning, when I woke up in the middle of the night in quite a bit of pain. It was an all too familiar pain I had recognized from just a few months before. I knew it had to either be an infection or a kidney stone, both which had been reoccurring ever since I first had a stone in the middle of my pregnancy with Lillian.

I made a call in to the doctor first thing Wednesday morning and found that my normal family doctor was out for the week, so I would have to see someone else. The pain didn't seem to be as bad, so I made an appointment for later that afternoon. The doctor thought it was definitely a kidney stone causing my pain, so he scheduled me for a ct-scan Thursday morning and to see the urologist Thursday afternoon. Sure enough, the ct-scan done Thursday morning showed an 8mm stone-- A rather large stone in the scheme of kidney stones. The urologist wasn't sure if I'd be able to pass it own my own, but sent me home on some percocet and another prescription he thought would maybe help to relax my muscles. I was then to come back in 7 days and see if the stone had moved.

But again, Thursday and Friday I was having a tremendous amount of pain. It would come and go in waves, but once it hit me it would be excruciating--a kind of pain I hadn't felt since I had been in labor with Adelynn. I struggled through the night Friday and woke up Saturday morning to my temperature creeping up. The doctor I had saw on Thursday had said to call him immediately if I started running a fever, so I knew it was something that needed attention. But Saturday morning he was out. Lucky for me, my mother-in-law works at the medical group and was still able to get ahold of him even though he wasn't in the office. He referred me a doctor in Waueson for surgery.

By the time I was admitted, my fever was still high so the doctor decided to postpone the surgery until Sunday. The plan was to go in and remove the stone and then put a stent in that he would later remove at a follow up appointment. But first he wanted to have a full 24 hours of antibiotics in me before he performed the surgery.  I was a mix of emotions. I cried at the thought of not being with my girls. I hadn't left either of them since Lillian was in the hospital in February

I continued to run a very high fever through Saturday evening and into Sunday morning. When it came time for surgery early Sunday afternoon, I was still running a fever. During surgery, the doctor said my fever was at 102.3 so he was unable to remove the stone. Since he knew an infection was present, he was afraid if he tried to remove it then bacteria would stir up and it could cause sepsis. So he instead put a stent in, leaving the stone for another time. He later told us it was likely that the stone that was causing me problems was the same stone that had caused me problems months earlier. It was so lodged in there, he knew there was no way I would ever pass it on my own. He said I would have to stay another night in the hospital for more antibiotics until they could get my fever down. I was devestated. The time away from my girls was enough, and it broke my heart knowing I would have to spend another night away.

I was so uncomfortable with the stent in on Monday when I came home, but I'm just glad to be home. I have had an amazing support from my husband, my friends, my parents, and Brian's parents. They have watched the girls, brought us meals, and prayed.  And though I am still in quite a bit of pain, there is so much truth to the saying "there's no place like home"..

There is another surgery to come.

More on that later...