My Story of Kidney Stones to Kidney Failure.

Yes, it's almost five in the morning and i am blogging. . . i wish i weren't. I wish i were sleeping. That's what i get after having surgery i guess.

I thought i would document what happened to me last week. So here you go everyone. I know you have probably all heard bits and pieces of this ordeal, now you can be totally filled in.

***

It all started Monday July 12th. . . .

Jake and i were driving home from Centerville, when out of no where, i had this debilitating pain in my right kidney. (Jake knew i was really hurting because i had been eating an A&W root beer ice cream cone and only had the best part of it left, the cone! i threw it out the window. not like me. This was serious) The pain made it impossible for me to hold still and even hard for me to breathe. Of course i started to really worry, especially about the baby.

Once home, i finally got a hold of a family friend who is a mid-wife. Sweet Nancy, i think i scared her to death. She was probably wondering who the crazy, sobbing, chick was calling her at 11 o'clock at night. She concluded i could have pinched a sciatic nerve in my back and that i would just have to wait to get pain killers from my doctor. Ugh!! NO!! I did not know how i was going to last till tomorrow.

Needless to say, that was one of the longest nights of my life. I was in excruciating pain all night and to make matters worse, i threw up every 1/2 hour starting at 3 am. (i absolutely HATE throwing up)

The next morning (July 13th) Jake and my Mom loaded me into the car and got me to the doctor, don't worry, i was still throwing up every half hour. Just by looking at me, my doctor diagnosed kidney stones. Great.

He set me up to two hours worth of IV's (threw up the whole time) and sent me home with a lot of lortab, nausea medicine, an antibiotic, and wished me a quick passing of my stones. Well all of that medicine would have been helpful, if i could keep it down.

After 5 days of feeling like i was going to die, seeing a urologist, getting an ultrasound, and still having all of my same symptoms, i got worse.

Saturday (the 17th) i woke up and felt even more sick. Now my left kidney was hurting as well. i was lying on the bed and my body had had enough. I went into shock. i was moaning and rolling around from the pain, feeling really nauseous, my eyes were rolling back in my head, and my jaw was shaking uncontrollably. (Other than thinking i was going to die, the only thing i thought while i was going through this was, "this is what they mean when they say 'gnashing of teeth' in the scriptures. i never want to feel that again.) That's when Jake took me to the hospital.

Once i arrived at the hospital the nurses and doctors were very kind and worked very quickly to get me comfortable. Comfortable= 2 morphine shots in my bum, another two steroid shots in my bum, iv, oxygen, catheter, and then a morphine drip. They did all of this because i had a bladder infection, kidney stones, i was dehydrated, and having contractions every minute from all of the stress and pain my body was experiencing. Thank heaven for modern medicine, you better believe when that morphine button went off every six minutes, i was pushing it!

The doctors would come in an out of my room practically scratching their heads because i had stumped them. They had never seen anything like it, or so they said. Even with all of the medicine and fluids they were putting in me, i was not producing urine. ( i gained 25 lbs in two days from all of the fluids. i also lost 25 + lbs after the surgery from going peepee so much ha.) The average person is supposed to urinate 23 cc's every hour. I did 6 cc's in 24 hours. That's when they knew my kidneys had stopped functioning and i had gone into kidney failure. Luckily for me, there was something they could do about it. So two days after arriving in the hospital (monday night the 19th) i was rushed to surgery to have two stints put in from my kidneys to my bladder.

There was and is blockage still, but the stints allow my kidneys to function properly.

I remember waking up after surgery and saying, " I just had a dream that i was eating really yummy jello and then my husband gave me a new purse because i was being so good at the hospital!" haha! i'm sure the nurse just shook her head. Jake said i was the nicest drugged person ever and that i would not stop talking.

The surgery was a success. I will have the stints until the baby comes, then they will take them out and do some test and x-rays and see if they can determine what was going on with me.

***

Even though this was a trial in my life, i am so grateful and feel very blessed.

First, i have to say thank you to Jake. I am so lucky to have him in my life. He was so loving, helpful, strong, supportive, and understanding through this whole thing. I know it killed him to see me suffer the way i did, but he had so much faith and never left my side. I was so excited to leave the hospital because i was going to be able to lay next to him and drift off to sleep while holding hands again. I love you Babe.

Second, this whole thing confirmed the fact that i have the MOST AMAZING family and friends a girl could ask for! My mom was at the hospital every second she could be. She was shaving my legs, fixing pillows, bringing treats, and being the great mom that she is. The same goes for my other family members! Thank you so much for everything i love you so much!! I loved all of my visitors and my warm wishes from everybody. All of you helped me to get better :)

Lastly, i feel like i was blessed and being watched over by my Heavenly Father through all of this. A woman in my ward said it the best, "Heavenly Father doesn't help us around our trials, he helps us through them." I know that to be true. He blessed Jake and i with strength and peace. Even when situations became pretty scary, we were blessed to never worry and know that everything would be okay. And an even bigger blessing, our baby was never under any stress or put in harms way. He was healthy and happy the whole time. I would lay in the hospital bed at night with tears streaming down my cheeks while i listened to his healthy heart beating away, working perfectly.

I know that was long but i hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you again, Jake and i love you all!!!

("831..." to all of you who know what i mean by that)