Kidney Stone Part 2

The day of the kidney stone removal procedure I woke up really nervous. I had never been put under general anesthesia before and was unsure how Theodore and I would do with bottle feeding and 'pumping and dumping' for 24 hours. From what the doctor said, I knew that some pain would intensify after the surgery and that the stint he would put in would also be 'uncomfortable' until it was removed on Sept 4th.  I sorta felt like a lamb going to the slaughter and saw a small glimpse into what Chris may have felt each time he had a biopsy or chemo or some other procedure. He knew it was going to make him sick and feel terrible and yet he walked into the hospital and patiently let them hook him up.  The farther into the procedure I got, the more nervous I became... wearing a hospital gown, hair net, laying on the bed hearing them tell me about what was going to happen, getting wheeled away from Chris and down the hall to an operating room.  The IV went in first try and after feeling dizzy for a few seconds I fell asleep.   Meanwhile the doctor used a scope to enter my bladder through my urethra, found the stone just inside the ureter, and blasted it into tiny particles with a laser. Then he slide a stint in(a long tiny plastic straw that would connect my kidney all the way into the bladder) to help the particles pass, protect the sensitive ureter and help it to heal without problems. 

I woke up feeling so relaxed and sleepy. I just wanted to lay there longer and enjoy being so comfortable but they made me get up and go to the bathroom, shoved a cracker in my face to eat and told me to get dressed! It probably wasn't that mean, but it kind felt that way.  Then I double checked with the nurse which medications were OK to take while breastfeeding.  She wasn't positive and got the doctor to come talk to me. He looked up stuff on his tablet and then told me that everything he normally prescribed he couldn't because it wasn't safe while breastfeeding: neither the oxybutine (or something like that) for general pain, nor the pyridian (or something like that) for numbing the urinary tract. But he said I could just take ibuprofen and oxycodone I'd gotten from the ER the previous Saturday to help with pain.  Also I should drink lots of water to help with the UTI pain. 

I wanted to cry that I couldn't take the numbing stuff because I HATE UTI symptoms.  Anyway, I get home and am so relieved to find out that Theodore takes a bottle just fine! yay! But as the day progresses the pain gets worse and worse. I drank SO. MUCH. WATER. which made me have to use the bathroom all the time and it stung so bad every time I urinated... like I was getting stitches there or something (and that sensation was all too familiar having just given birth and endured about 30 minutes of getting stitched up 2 weeks before). I just sobbed every time and pretty much cried in bed between trying to follow doctors orders to get up and walk around to prevent blood clots... which is more of a concern since I was postpartum.   I was so uncomfortable I couldn't sleep and by midnight I started vomiting and couldn't keep liquids or medication down so Chris and I headed to the E.R. again, leaving Theodore and the rest of the kids sleeping with James and Dixie at home.  

They got an IV in first try and blessed pain relief came. They did an EKG (not sure why) and basically just gave me pain and nausea medication. The pharmacist came by to talk to me about what was safe to take while breastfeeding and she said the numbing stuff, pyridian, WAS ok to take while breastfeeding.  Yay!  After being discharged we stopped by the pharmacy to pick up some more medicine and got home around 5:00am. I had almost been awake for 24 hours. I was so tired.  The urologist doctor called the next day to apologize for not being able to get in contact with the ER doctors the night before and was surprised to hear that the ER pharmacist told me pyridian was safe because all of his research showed that it wasn't. 

Chris and I weren't sure who to believe and so Chris did some research and came to the same conclusion as our doctor.. that it wasn't safe while breastfeeding infants younger than 1 month.  But by now, the numbing medicine was doing a decent job of masking the pain and I needed to keep taking it so I just continued to pump and dump to keep up my milk supply and we bottle fed Theodore. 

The days passed not very fast and I was still quite uncomfortable with the stint which was causing all the UTI itchy/burning/painful and very frequent urination. Plus I had to strain my urine to catch the stone particles so we could get them tested and determine what KIND of stone it was so we can hopefully figure out how to avoid creating them in the first place.  So anytime I left the house or used a different bathroom I'd have to grab my strainer and glass bottle.  Plus Chris had to go to work and so did Dixie so I was on my own during the day with Theo, Max and Freddy.  Both Sarah and Tiffany come down for a morning to help distract and help me. They're angels. 

I wanted to try and wean myself off the oxycodone and pyridian as soon as possible since the oxycodone is addictive and can cause constipation and the pyridian because I wanted to be able to breastfeed Theodore again.  I hadn't had a bowel movement since before the surgery and even then there weren't too many before that since giving birth. I wonder if some of the pain and cramping was caused by that too! Within a week of the procedure I was finally off all those meds and could breastfeed again. The pain was more manageable and only really happened to smallish degree when I urinated with occasional bladder spasms.

The day of getting the stint removed I was happy but also nervous again, since I was told the symptoms would increase again and be a little painful for a little while. I was totally unprepared for the pain following the original procedure and worried it would be worse then I thought again.  Removing the stint was quick and mildly painful (thanks to the laughing gas!) and within 2 days I was completely pain free. WHEW! What a journey.  As I researched a little about what causes kidney stones it seems to be a combination of stress (putting a house on the market? being pregnant with #6? gestational diabetes? moving across the country? changing jobs? living with my large, loud, messy family with the inlaws? new baby? MAX?) lack of water (nursing always depletes me of water), and high protein diets (which protein is one of the things I COULD eat without messing up my carbs with the gestational diabetes)... etc. Sometimes it just seems I can't win. To avoid being devoured by one hungry lion, I jump in front of another hungry lion...or however the phrase goes.  I meet with the urologist again in a month to see about what the stones were made up of and how I can avoid this in the future. 

All along the way, in the toughest moments when I cried to my Heavenly Father with being at the end of what I thought I could endure, I was blessed and my situation changed/progressed within a short period of time to something more manageable. Although I felt like I didn't deserve any peace or comfort because I'd been lacking in good scripture study with all the craziness of summer and moving and having a baby, He still comforted me.  His mercy covers the undeserved.

Labor Day hike and BBQ

Chris is loving all the access to beautiful hikes! He has taken the older kids a few times to hike the Y on the Tuesday Morning Late Starts. For Labor Day, he wanted to do a bigger hike, like Y Mount, or 'Pride Rock' - as we sometimes call Squaw Peak.  I wasn't looking forward to the holiday feeling like a normal day where Chris gets up and leaves with the big kids and I stay home with Freddy, Max and Theodore, so I suggested we find a hike that we can all do. Chris thought of Stuart Falls and invited Thom and some of his kids to join us. We thought we were getting out early but the parking lots and surrounding roads by the trailhead were PACKED. We had to park at Aspen Grove.  

I hadn't really done much, physically, since Theodore was born, but I just figured that I would just be walking and it was only a couple of miles, and I could just take it slow if I wanted. Most of that was true, except the milage was a little longer than I thought... more like 5 miles total, and hiking and walking are NOT the same thing. I did just fine on the way up to the falls, and we enjoyed a nice break at the falls, ate some snacks played in the water a bit, but I lost steam about halfway down and was pretty tired as we walked into the parking lot. But it was super nice to get out of the house and do an adventure as a family! Freddy did amazing and walked the whole way and never asked to be held. Max just hung out in the backpack the whole time except at the falls where he enjoyed throwing rocks into the water (narrowly missing people sometimes - it was pretty crowded!). Gwen, Charlie and Alec practically ran up and down. They're all really great hikers! As we got passed by people, they'd often comment about the cute little baby in my wrap, "Oh, look a really little one!" etc.. And if someone asked me Theo's age, I'd smile and say "4 weeks!" and the return comment was always some variation of, "Good for you, Mama!"  Chris made a funny comment after one of these exchanges imagining them saying to him, "And how old is your baby?" (meaning our 30 lb Max on his back" "20 months" "Good for you, Daddy!" haha.

Later in the afternoon we had a BBQ with Chris's parents and siblings and their kids, some Woodward family members and I invited some of my unmarred cousins and freshman friends at BYU.  The food was delicious... (homemade ice cream.... yum) and we had a fun game of soccer going. Gorgeous day with lots of family time.

1 month for Theodore

 Theodore is one month old! I can hardly believe how fast that goes.  He is a pretty good baby and is content most of the time. He prefers to be held, but can last for a few stretches a day awake in the bouncer or swing. He likes to be swaddled and loves to nurse. He's pretty efficient and is done with both sides after 15 minutes. He doesn't sleep through the night and likes to nurse often at night. Most of the time he wakes up, I think its probably just gas, but the quickest way to soothe him is to feed him so I usually resort to that, unless I've already fed him less than an hour and a half ago. When I'm desperate I'll wake up Chris and he'll rock/hold Theo in the recliner in our room until they both fall asleep.  All the of kids love him and he's adored wherever he goes. He has such a cute face. I put him in one of my favorite outfits. Chris' grandma, Woodward gave us this outfit when Alec was born. All of my boys have worn it.

I'd love to try and find pictures of them all in it to compare but all I can find on this computer is Max and Freddy. 

This one is Freddy: 

This one is Max:

Drainage problems and Renters!

So.... our beloved Mississippi house didn't sell. We were just about to take it off the market and have our friends house-sit for cheap and just try again in the spring when we got a text from our Realtor, Jay, that some friends of our neighbors would be interested in renting.  This was a heart-wrenching decision: do we lose money but have people we know and trust rent our house short term but hopefully sell in 8 months so we can buy/settle permanently here in Utah soonish... or do we make money, have things temporarily settled for a year and a half to "precious, responsible, trustworthy" friends of friends but not be able to buy/settle permanently here in Utah for almost 2 years.  We needed to decide fast because it sounded like the friends of friends wanted someplace ASAP.  I felt incapable of making big decisions with my exhausted new baby brain and my stunted, I'm-dealing-with-a-constant-pain-from-a-Kidney-Stone brain.  Finding someway to get our own space has been more and more of a priority as I've struggled to figure out how to Max-proof someone else' house/things, and how to minimize our audio footprint during the beginning of a school year chaos.  Poor James and Dixie! They have been so so great and accommodating and kind but I don't want to drive them mad or strain relationships.  (Including, Chris and my relationship... he's been able to get involved with a lot of fun things at BYU/Provo/his family like basketball during lunch, a singing group, Men's Golf association, sport/show watching with his dad, piano playing, local hikes, a calling at church etc. Its contributed to me feeling even more isolated and uninvolved with fun things in life and I feel like we rarely get an hour together, just the two of us, awake.)

ANYWAY... we prayed about it and I feel like the Lord was merciful in giving me inspiration despite my ability to really work/sacrifice a lot for it. I woke up one morning just feeling really good about renting to the Gibsons... the friends of our neighbors.  

Going from hopefully being 'done' with our house to landlords has made us more sure we want to fix to drainage slopes out front.  This will be both pricey and difficult to do living states away. We asked/hired our friends, the Pages who WERE going to house-sit for us, to sort of act as property managers for anything that required someone to actually be on the premises.  They've been really great and on top of things.  But its been hard to get landscape people to get back to us about pricing for our drainage problem.  One company quoted us almost $15,000!!! Theres no NO way we can afford that. Every penny we put into this house goes down the drain as we won't get anything back when we sell it.  We're already probably going to lose a little money with all the renovations we did when we first bought it thinking we'd live there forever.  We've still got to figure everything out about that. 

Kidney Stone Part 1

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...

Distracting Max

Max loves to wait for the kids to come home on the front porch.  Having him home all day has proven quite challenging.  He loves on Theodore, but interprets any attempt to dissuade him from showering his affection on him as a challenge and goes about it twice as forcefully.  He loves to pull stools and chairs around the house to enable him to climb up on things and get into things that he really shouldn't.   Case in point: he loves to look into Theodore's bassinet while he is sleeping.

Which is fine by itself, but it invariably leads to something like this: an attempt to climb into the bassinet on top of the unsuspecting Theodore. 

In an effort to keep Max better entertained at home we purchased a bunch of fun inside toys: a small trampoline, a plastic slide, and Grandma Heather got him with a doll and stroller, and a fun car track building set.  Freddy and Max had a fun time playing with it the first day that it was here!

In addition to distracting toys, we have about 6 baby gates to block off various doors and hallways...and thats just for the downstairs.

Utah Drive-In

Tiff and Ashley and their families almost yearly do a "drive-in" movie at the end of summer. The kids make 'cars' out of cardboard boxes and they rent a movie from Red Box. The kids are given monopoly money and the adults run a concession stand.  I remember them telling me about this idea and I sort of copied it once when we lived in Canada. (just the cardboard box cars part).  This year we could join them!!  Its moments like these that we LOVE living here in Utah.  My kids had already started school so they didn't have tons of time to create their cars, Alec only had about 20 minutes. But it was still so fun. Max sat in his little box for a few seconds every now and then but his favorite thing was the concessions. So many treats all at his level. He loved stealing Freddy's treats for some reason. He wouldn't really steal anyone else’s. 

Charlie spent a lot of time on his car... it was an old-fashioned style car with a long hood. Gwen helped Freddy make his car. 

Tiffany holding both babies: Tessa and Theo. It makes me wonder again how Kayla and Eddie managed with their twins!