Still Alive

I lived through the Lithotripsy.  The doctor used around 3000 sonic pulses to successfully break up the kidney stone.  That means that I now have many small stones that should pass easier than a 5mm stone would have passed.  Hopefully, that will all clean out soon and I'll soon be feeling back to normal.

I'm sore from being pounded 3000 times.  I'm loopy from Lortab.  I'm having quite a bit of regular kidney stone pain, and I'll still need to push a gallon or more of fluids a day so I can flush the pieces out of my system.  But finally I feel that this is the beginning of the end of kidney stone #7.

So... for those of you that want to know what I went through today, keep reading.  I'll rate the rest of this post PG for medical grossness involving the urinary tract and its functions.

It really started yesterday afternoon.  I was feeling like crap at work, so I decided to head to the hospital and get my x-ray and lab work done.  They poked me and took 3 vials of blood and also asked me for a urine sample.   The poke wasn't bad, and with all of the fluid I've been drinking, a urine sample is not a problem.  They took another KUB x-ray and printed a copy for me to take with me to the surgical center the next day.

I, of course, peeked at the x-ray when I got home.  I was a little worried that it had moved close enough to my bladder that I shouldn't go through with the procedure, because it looked different to me than the previous x-ray.  However, as I've stated before, I'm not a doctor, so I decided to just go through with the surgery.

I arrived at the surgical center at 8am, as was requested.  My Litho was scheduled for 9am.  After checking in, answering a whole bunch of medical questions, and signing all of the requisite forms, I was taken back to prepare me for surgery.

I got to wear one of those fanch-schmancy hospital gowns.  You know, the ones that never quite close in the back.  I also had surgical socks and a hair net.  As I was getting into the gown, they had me mark "yes" on my left side, since that was the side that they were going to Litho.

The pre-op nurse asked me a million more medical questions, then started an IV in my arm.  Once the IV had been started, the Nurse Anesthetist (NA) came to talk to me about the anesthesia I would underg.  My doctor recommends and uses general anesthesia for Lithotripsy.  The NA told me that it's a much better experience that way.  He said that they could do an epidural, but that general anesthesia is a lot better.  Who am I to argue?  I was worried about how painful Lithotripsy would be.  This got rid of that worry completely.

My urologist showed up a few minutes later and discussed a couple more things with me, and he also looked at the new x-ray.  His first comments:  "Hmm.  It looks bigger.  Are you growing that thing?"  The kidney stone hadn't budged a bit though, and the size difference was due to a different x-ray machine.  The decision to go through with the procedure was a smart one.

They rolled me into the operating room and I saw the Lithotriptor.  Here's an idea of what it looks like:

The big cylinder on the arm above the table is an x-ray machine that is used to pinpoint the stone and to guide the sonic waves generated by the lithotriptor.  They then proceed to pound the stone over and over until it appears to have been broken up.

They raised my hospital bed level with the lithotriptor table, had me undo my gown, and had me slide over onto the litho table, putting my naked rear end on the open part of the table.  It was a latex piece that looks like a drum head.  The sonic pulse generator is below that section.  They then had me roll to the side and they filled the open section with warm water.  They placed a blanket over me, removed the gown completely, and the anesthetist pushed the anesthesia.  I started feeling funny, and then the next thing I remember was waking up in recovery with a sore throat (fromt the endotracheal tube) and an oxygen mask.

After drifting in and out of consciousness for a few minutes, my wife came in to recovery.  She said that the doctor was happy with the surgery.  She helped me drink two or three glasses of water and a juice box while I was waiting to be discharged.

For discharge, I had to 1)  be pain free with oral medication, 2) eat something (so I wouldn't get nauseated with the oral pain medication) and 3) urinate.

My wife helped me eat some chocolate pudding and by that time, I really had to go.  They warned me that there would be some blood in my urine.  They weren't kidding.  They were surprised at the volume of the output.  I was surprised at the cherry red color.

From now until my follow-up visit with the urologist, I have to strain all of my urine.  They want to make sure that the shattered stone fragments will add up to a 5mm stone.  It's a big pain, but they gave me a kit that will make it not too difficult.

I got back in the hospital bed and they pushed some more fluids (via IV) and gave me a Lortab.  As they were removing the IV, I needed to go again.  Again, a lot of output, but this time, they were surprised at the size of the fragment that we strained out of it.  It wasn't red any more, though there were a couple of blood clots.

My wife drove me home, and I spent the rest of the day hanging out, watching TV, drinking a ton, and straining, straining, straining.

And that's the excruciatingly long verson of my Lithotripsy.  Here's hoping that they found something in my 24-hour urine study and my blood work that points to a simple way to keep from getting another 5mm stone.  Or a 1mm stone.  Or ANY stone.