The Summer of the Kidney Stone

Image - dinodaloo.blogspot.com

Kidney stones kind of took over my summer, and admittedly the 2nd part of the saga was partly my own fault.

I've already written the beginning of the story in a couple of other post. The pain started when I was at Camp Thanks a Lot with Emily and then I ended up in the ER right before our Michigan trip.

When I was in the ER, they told me there was another stone just hanging out. I kind of forgot about it after the whirlwind Michigan trip, though I did go off soda and started drinking a lot of water and lemonade. I had read that sometimes lemonade can cause stones to reduce in size.

I made it about a month and a half before stone number #2 started its' journey. I had been working and all of a sudden, I had intense pain in my side again. I still had medicine from the ER, so I got logged out of work and took the medicine.

It didn't stay down, so I tried again, and again, I was unable to keep it down. It was a Saturday and Todd and Emily had been out shopping. Once they got home, we were off to the ER again. And it was the 2nd stone - they gave me medicine and another prescription and sent me home to call a urologist on Monday.

This stone was different and the pain didn't go away. I started a cycle of pain, take medicine, go to sleep once the pain was a little less, then wake up and start it again. It was wretched. I got an appointment for Tuesday, and the urologist gave me some options. The main option was to have a procedure done that would break up the stone so I could pass it, but the machine that did that was only available on Mondays.

So home I went again to go through the pain cycle. And it was only a day or two after that I got a call from the office that the break up procedure wasn't an option and I would have to have surgery to get the mega awful stone out. And I'd have to have a stent in for a couple of days.

While I was pretty upset by this news, I was also really ready to not be in horrible pain anymore. Thankfully, as the week went on, the stone moved some so the pain was much more bearable. Todd took the day off and he and Emily went with me to the hospital to have surgery. Surgery went fine, though I really hated the stent. Totally annoying and by the end, it was painful.

Also surgery took place a week and a half before Dragon Con. We still went to the con, and I'll get into how this effected my con when I write my recap posts.

Todd and Emily were great while I was dying of kidney stones. And they even got me a bear - they gave it to me after I woke up from surgery.

As of now, I'm trying to be as proactive as possible. My urologist is having me do some tests to figure out how to avoid the formation of stones in the future. My stone was strangely formed and chances are I'll have to go on medicine and cut down on my salt intake.

I'll do it, even though I love salt. I don't want to go through that again. Kidney stones are more painful than childbirth!

On Memory Loss

Image: blog.foodnetwork.com

So the worst part of this whole aftermath of the seizures is the memory loss. To simplify, I say it's short term but it's not exactly that. Things a year ago and before - I can remember with the same clarity I did before. After that, it gets fuzzy in bits.

The day before I had the seizures. I don't really remember. I know, thanks to Facebook, that I took Emily to a Christmas festival thing. The day I had the seizures until the day before Thanksgiving, I don't remember at all.

I have vague memories of waking up in the ICU. I don't think I'll every forgot the feeling of discomfort and horror at the catheter. I also vaguely remember that the TV was huge in the ICU.

Once I woke up and they recognized that I was lucid, the catheter was taken out and I was moved to a regular room. I have dribs and drabs over the next few days. I slept a lot and watched a lot of movies. I do remember Thanksgiving and watching the parade with Todd and Emily and then the Lions. And I did have turkey for dinner. My aunt Sue and uncle Gary came to visit me and I remember that too - but all the days all kind of ran together as they do when you are in the hospital.

Since getting out of the hospital, it seems like every day I've forgotten some major. They come back to me, here and there, but there are still a lot of gaps. And I forget the strangest things.

If I'm standing up, I'll just turn our TV off in the living room off at the TV. I could not remember how to do that. I started up a movie that I love, Divergent, that I saw in the theater four or five times, and it was like a whole new movie.

And then there are the passwords. I've had to start a word file of all the passwords I keep forgetting, mostly for work, so I'll have them when I forget them again. Even outside of word, I think I've had to change my password on everything at least once. Passwords are not sticking at all.

Finally I have teeny tiny memory gaps. Todd always comes in my office before he goes to work to get his shoes. I'm still working to I hear him. Today I didn't so I took my break and had to go ask Emily if Todd had actually gone to work - he had.

I'll be doing something or standing somewhere, and I'll completely lose my train of thought or where I am. And it always takes me a minute to get my bearings again.

Todd doesn't think this should be a big deal but I HATE it. I'd rather have a level 8 migraine instead of dealing with the swiss cheese brain.

I know it's temporary but I do not look forward to several more months of this. I totally understand why I'm not allowed to drive though.