Well THAT didn't go as planned
May. 12th, 2018 12:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexNext medical update. This one has some unpleasantness in it so we'll be cutting the whole thing.
tl;dr I'm home, stable, and not sure what my week is going to look like.
As planned I went into surgery on Friday morning, expecting to get lazors shot up my peehole. That was Plan A.
Unfortunately, I woke up a bit later with my preferred new urologist looking concerned and learned that Plan A was abandoned because they encountered resistance - in fact she couldn't even seen the stone. Those of you who are familiar with basic physics will recall that line of sight is something of a prerequisite for lasers.
In order to get sight on the stone they injected some contrast dye, with Plan B being if they could dye the stone it would be visible and they could guide the laser to it. Plan B was immediately abandoned when the dye began leaking into my abdomen. Basically, the stone had torn a hole in the ureter while wedging itself in there. This made getting a stent in place an absolute necessity - remember that the stone itself isn't that dangerous, but an inability to drain urine can cause kidney failure.
Which brings us to plan C, drill a hole in my kidney from the back. I was about as enthusiastic about this plan as you can imagine, but Dr Devon indicated that there really wasn't another option. We discussed lithotripsy but she felt that not having a clear picture of where the stone was made that extra-risky. The preferred procedure is called a nephrostomy and if you click that link or search the word you'll find lots of helpful medical diagrams. And yes, I now have unpleasant external medical hardware.
The good news is that since it was a Friday the people who do this procedure (interventional radiology) aren't busy and they can get me in immediately - like, I don't even have to get out of this bed; they'll just wheel it in, put some sedative in my IV and Bob's yer uncle. You can tell what kind of day I'm having when the good news is that I can have a hole punched in my kidney RIGHT NOW.
Dr Devon explained that one potential benefit of this approach was that even though she couldn't get the stent in place from the bottom it would be possible to try placing a stent from the top. That did occur. Then started the Long Day Of Not What I Expected. First, I expected to go home after the second procedure - they decided they want to hold me overnight. Again I relied on Dr Devon's judgment that this was the right thing to do; in hindsight I think she was correct. I was in considerable pain and having professional supervision was likely the right thing to do.
Remember me singing the praises of Toradol? It's essentially high-dose IV ibuprofen and it knocked out the initial attack pain from the stone. This... was worse than that. I got Toradol and Oxycodone and still hurt like bloody blue blazes.
Hospitals, blah blah, lack of sleep blah blah, mediocre food blah blah. All are better than they used to be; none are good. Pygment was a rock star and I mostly made it through the night. I'll spare you gory details and just say that we had to switch to a bigger bag because the one they initially gave me kept filling up every 25-30 minutes.
Far and away the most frustrating part of this was not knowing what the plan is. See, I'm home now and I still don't know. Remember those lovely not-busy-on-Friday Interventional Radiology people? Yeah, they all go home on weekends. So the earliest I could possibly get the external portion of this apparatus removed would be "first thing Monday"; however, there's nobody around to make an appointment this weekend so going Monday would be like flying standby.
So I went from thinking I'd have the external hardware removed today to "at least I get to go home today" but only after Pygment showed up and was a PITA to the people and I had to go full troll on them. Weekend people are nice enough, but they seem to be more overwhelmed and less clued.
This coming week is already nucking futs and losing a day or two to further medical procedures is just going to make everything worse. I really won't know anything until I get hold of the appointment people on Monday and that just makes me extra-cranky.
So, anyone got a car and not busy on Tuesday? They won't let me drive myself home nor call a cab/Lyft - has to be a "responsible person".
tl;dr I'm home, stable, and not sure what my week is going to look like.
As planned I went into surgery on Friday morning, expecting to get lazors shot up my peehole. That was Plan A.
Unfortunately, I woke up a bit later with my preferred new urologist looking concerned and learned that Plan A was abandoned because they encountered resistance - in fact she couldn't even seen the stone. Those of you who are familiar with basic physics will recall that line of sight is something of a prerequisite for lasers.
In order to get sight on the stone they injected some contrast dye, with Plan B being if they could dye the stone it would be visible and they could guide the laser to it. Plan B was immediately abandoned when the dye began leaking into my abdomen. Basically, the stone had torn a hole in the ureter while wedging itself in there. This made getting a stent in place an absolute necessity - remember that the stone itself isn't that dangerous, but an inability to drain urine can cause kidney failure.
Which brings us to plan C, drill a hole in my kidney from the back. I was about as enthusiastic about this plan as you can imagine, but Dr Devon indicated that there really wasn't another option. We discussed lithotripsy but she felt that not having a clear picture of where the stone was made that extra-risky. The preferred procedure is called a nephrostomy and if you click that link or search the word you'll find lots of helpful medical diagrams. And yes, I now have unpleasant external medical hardware.
The good news is that since it was a Friday the people who do this procedure (interventional radiology) aren't busy and they can get me in immediately - like, I don't even have to get out of this bed; they'll just wheel it in, put some sedative in my IV and Bob's yer uncle. You can tell what kind of day I'm having when the good news is that I can have a hole punched in my kidney RIGHT NOW.
Dr Devon explained that one potential benefit of this approach was that even though she couldn't get the stent in place from the bottom it would be possible to try placing a stent from the top. That did occur. Then started the Long Day Of Not What I Expected. First, I expected to go home after the second procedure - they decided they want to hold me overnight. Again I relied on Dr Devon's judgment that this was the right thing to do; in hindsight I think she was correct. I was in considerable pain and having professional supervision was likely the right thing to do.
Remember me singing the praises of Toradol? It's essentially high-dose IV ibuprofen and it knocked out the initial attack pain from the stone. This... was worse than that. I got Toradol and Oxycodone and still hurt like bloody blue blazes.
Hospitals, blah blah, lack of sleep blah blah, mediocre food blah blah. All are better than they used to be; none are good. Pygment was a rock star and I mostly made it through the night. I'll spare you gory details and just say that we had to switch to a bigger bag because the one they initially gave me kept filling up every 25-30 minutes.
Far and away the most frustrating part of this was not knowing what the plan is. See, I'm home now and I still don't know. Remember those lovely not-busy-on-Friday Interventional Radiology people? Yeah, they all go home on weekends. So the earliest I could possibly get the external portion of this apparatus removed would be "first thing Monday"; however, there's nobody around to make an appointment this weekend so going Monday would be like flying standby.
So I went from thinking I'd have the external hardware removed today to "at least I get to go home today" but only after Pygment showed up and was a PITA to the people and I had to go full troll on them. Weekend people are nice enough, but they seem to be more overwhelmed and less clued.
This coming week is already nucking futs and losing a day or two to further medical procedures is just going to make everything worse. I really won't know anything until I get hold of the appointment people on Monday and that just makes me extra-cranky.
So, anyone got a car and not busy on Tuesday? They won't let me drive myself home nor call a cab/Lyft - has to be a "responsible person".
no subject
Date: 2018-05-12 07:37 pm (UTC)I hope your recovery is swift and as pain-free as possible.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-12 08:07 pm (UTC)This may not make a difference, mentioning it in case it does
Date: 2018-05-12 08:08 pm (UTC)We speculated that the phrasing "responsible adult of your choosing" was deliberately broad, to include coworkers, casual acquaintances, and maybe even neighbors looking for a bit of spare cash. This was when Cattitude was working for Microsoft, and apparently it was fairly common for people to get hired there, have dental insurance for the first time in their lives, and therefore be catching up on dental work that they should have had sooner. A lot of those people were also hundreds or thousands of miles from home and from where they'd gone to school, and hadn't really had time to make friends in the area.
Re: This may not make a difference, mentioning it in case it does
Date: 2018-05-12 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-12 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-12 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-12 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-12 11:41 pm (UTC)Narcotics are really useless against stones. If they'd given you the Toradol (drug of choice) with a benzo, like Valium or Ativan (won't kill the pain outright, but it takes a hell of a lot off the edge, so at least you can sleep through it) you might have a better time. Consider bringing this up with your MD.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 12:03 am (UTC)Oh my god. I'm sorry! Wishing you the best possible outcomes here.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 03:30 am (UTC)When Tuesday do you need to be picked up and what hospital are you at?
no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 11:20 am (UTC)Well, that just sucks...
Date: 2018-05-14 12:35 pm (UTC)I hope that you find an answer, real soon. *gentlehugs*
Gah!
Date: 2018-05-14 01:28 pm (UTC)Re: Gah!
Date: 2018-05-15 03:44 am (UTC)