My brother, Jordan and his wife, Estefi were celebrating their son's 3 birthday at a splash pad on Saturday night. It was so fun to get out of the house and enjoy some family time. My mom was still here and would be over the weekend, although she had planned to stay at her sister, Tara's house in Orem since Chris' parents were coming home the next day and she had already washed their bed sheets. I felt great at the beginning but during the evening I felt some cramping-like pain. I figured it was more after-labor uterine cramping which I had felt occasionally, it was easy to ignore since I was having so much fun talking with my family and watching our kids play. Towards the end of the party, the pain was getting harder and harder to ignore and as I noticed how pinpointed it was in my lower back and front left side it reminded me of the kidney stone pain I felt with my first and only diagnosed stone right after Freddy was born. I also wondered if the very mild UTI symptoms of feeling like I never could totally empty my bladder that I'd experienced over the past week or so was more evidence of a kidney stone. I got up from the camping chair I'd been sitting in to find Chris and tell him I wasn't feeling great. On my walk across the splash pad I suddenly felt nauseous. Chris expressed concern and helped me gather up the kids and our things to head home. The pain was very uncomfortable at this point and I'm sure it was starting to show on my face and my breathing and posture but I didn't want to make a fuss so I tried to hide it and just whispered to my mom that I wasn't feeling very good and may need to go to the hospital since it felt like a kidney stone and asked her if she would be able to stay with us for the night again so she could watch the kids while we were gone... which she happily agreed to do.
I threw up over and over into the bushes at the front of our car while we got the kids loaded and moaned and groaned all the way home. Chris asked if I wanted to go to the hospital right then, but I thought that we should get the kids settled at home first and I guess I sorta just hoped the pain would stop on its own. It was getting even more intense and also I couldn't find ANY position that relieved the pain, even for a second, and I feel like I practically crawled into the ER with Chris and Theo around 9:30 pm. They tried to get an IV in 5 different times (and I had big bruises for a few weeks after all over my arms!) When the pain meds and nausea med finally got in me, the pain lessoned to a manageable level and it offered such relief. Why did I wait so long to go to the hospital?! They did a CT scan and found a LARGE (6 x 8 x 9mm) stone right at the valve before entering the bladder. They said a stone that big usually won't pass on its own and they recommended meeting with a urologist to see about having it removed. They gave me some more pain meds and sent me home around 1:00am. Even though I took all the meds, the pain continued to increase slightly after leaving the hospital. I woke up around 5 am with strong pain and couldn't really sleep and I sadly wondered if I'd need to go to the ER again. But by 6:00am the pain stopped.
I called the Urologist on Monday hoping to maybe get in to see him and have it removed that day or the next. Turns out, He doesn't work on Monday's so the soonest appointment to see him was Tuesday and that would just be to talk about options. Brittany watched Max and Freddy was at Kindergarten so just Chris, Theo and I went to the Urologist on Tuesday. He looked at the CT scan from the hospital and said the stone was big and probably stuck right at the junction to the bladder and said it was up to me on what I wanted to do about it. I could just leave it and see if it would pass on its own (which he again said he doubted would happen) or just hope it never presents a problem and just leave it there. Neither of those sounded good, I just wanted this OVER so I could focus on recovering from after Theodore and the move etc. We scheduled a removal procedure for that Saturday, and the stint removal for a week and a half after that.
All week long, I had random pains, and UTI symptoms of painful and frequent urination...but it wasn't the constant, crazy pain like the previous Saturday. I was also trying to find time between normal nursing and taking care of Max to pump extra and get a supply ready for the 24 hours when I couldn't breastfeed.
To be continued...
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