Between a stone and a hard place

It has been at least two weeks since i've been on the computer. No it's not intentional. About two weeks ago i started suffering severe stabbing pains in my back, and on a pain scale of 1-10 i rated this pain somewhere around a 9 and a half. To give you some perspective the worst pain i've known prior to this, having had two c-sections, was about an 8. I couldn't sit or stand, or lay down or move anyway that made it more comfortable. AWFUL! after only an hour of this, i was shaking and in tears, so my husand took me to the ER. They were concerned because being 20 weeks pregnant, there's only so much they can do for this kind of pain. Well after a quick urine sample it was diagnosed as a kidney stone. Now i had gall stones during my last pregnancy, that lasted a few days then eventually disipated and wasn't too bad at all, pain level of around a 7. This was completely different. They sent me home with HEAVY pain medication, which they assured my was safe during pregnancy. then other medication was prescribed for the side effects of the medication. So all told i was taking three or four different pills every four hours or so and if i missed a dose by even a half hour, the pain was horrendous. So we went back for a follow up appointment with an OB doctor. My doctor wasn't available but the dr who saw me said i needed to have more tests done so that i could go see a Urologyst who would decide what if anything could be done for the stone.

The problem was that the tests the dr ordered were x-rays. During the second trimester of pregnancy it is NEVER advised to have an x-ray if at all avoidable. So the tech refused to do the x-ray and sent me back to the OB with a note for him to call them. So here i am, in pain and pregnant and tired, and my medication is wearing off and now i've got to go back up to the third floor to give the note to the dr and wait to see what he wanted me to do. So i did that. But i had to wait and wait while the dr fought on the phone with the radiology department, now i think that if the OB says it's ok, he probably knows a little more about what is ok for the baby and what isn't, the fact of the matter is, to be able to help this stone get figured out....they needed to see where it was and how big it was. So he conceded to doing a CT scan instead, i don't know if that's less radiation or not but he said to go back down to the first floor and get a CT scan done. So i again marched down to the first floor, and waited for a CT scan. Well because it was the day after thanksgiving at this point, the building was not fully staffed so they had to send me over to the hospital portion of the building to get the CT scan. Now this is not a small building here, the is the Kaiser Medical Center in Modesto, half medical offices, half Hospital, and now i had to walk all the way over to the other side of the building to get the CT scan, i'm hurting a lot by now because the medication has long since worn off and my husband had taken the kids to get them food becasue we'd been here so long by this point that they were starving for lunch.

When i get to the CT room, the tech tells me that because i'm pregnant he can't do the scan. I broke down and started crying at this point... I tried to explain everything to him and finally he said "ok if you sign this paper i can do it" Well the paper says i know all the risks i'm putting my unborn child in and in short says, i'm a bad mom, and i know it and i want to get the scan anyway. I'm crying as i sign this because i know i can't see the urologyst if they can't see the stone. (the OB did tell me this was all not going to harm the baby but i was quite worked up at this point and was thinking more about the pain and hassel i'd been through than anything else) So i get the scan then eventually meet back up with the husband man and kids.

when i finally saw the urologyst after all of this i had stopped taking pain medication because on the days my husband works i simply cannot be comatosed on the couch all day which is what the pain medication does. So by the next friday (the day of the appointment) i was hurting more than i'd hurt in SEVERAL days, somewhere between an 8 and 9 on the pain scale. So i was already i a little cranky and weepy from hurting, but i had to drive myself to the appt, because Adam was working and my mom was watching the kids, nobody left for driving, so i get there and i'm starting to feel positive that maybe there's something this dr can do to fix this and it'll all be over soon.....BOY I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG!!!!

The dr shows me the CT scan (kinda cool to see i must say - saw the baby in there too) The stone looked rather big to me so i asked her how it compared to the average stone.... it's 7mm (millimeters) which sounds like a relatively small measurement, but people rarely pass anything over 4-5mm. Which then of course means the only option left for removing it is surgery. Because of where it's located they can't do shock wave therapy and becasue of what it's made of there's no medicine that will dissolve it. ok so surgery. the catch is, they won't do the surgery until after i have the baby, because it requires at least 2 hours under anesthesia and they WILL NOT consider doing it while i'm pregnant. However, if the pain is unmangeable they will consider putting in a stint (i'm hoping this is an alternative that will fix it) this is a straw they put in to allow better urine flow around the stone and that would stay in until after i have the baby also, it might relieve some of the pain associated with the stone....however it causes pain all it's own. You see the stint, although it is a straw, it's rigid, and it's like having a stick in your back, and movement can cause it to push on the muscles around it, causing back spasms. Oh joy.

Well the dr called today, (monday), and at this point i've pretty much been laying around doing nothing because that's the only way to not hurt without taking heavy medication. She says since laying around keeps the pain at bay, they won't put the stint in unless i show signs of loss of kidney function. So at this point i'm on couch rest till either the stone passes, or till the baby comes. Either way it appears to be a long road of laying around. You have no idea how boring this is!!!!!!!!!! I can't even lay or sleep in my bed, laying flat causes more pain, i lay on our new couch (which i love thankfully) in a semi sitting up position which seems to be the most comfortable...i even have to sleep out here. I've tried a couple times to go sleep in bed and it just doesn't work....i end up needing pain meds, where as if i sleep sitting up on the couch...i can make it without pain meds. I know that not using pain meds is the safest thing for the baby, and not getting a stint is also safer because even that procedure requires some short sedation. I know this is all for the good of the baby, and maybe i won't be the mom who guilts my kid with the story of the 15 hour labor....but i can be the mom who gives the guilt trip about the 4 or 5 months of bed (couch) rest and kidney pain!!! hey a mom's gotta have something.