Sunday, October 26, 2008

A Child's Interpretation...

A few weeks ago I stayed home from church.
That was the weekend that the kidney stone pain hit.

A friend of mine was looking for me at church and her son stopped and said...

"Oh, Ms. Tammy's not here... she's got rocks."

I love it! So matter of fact...

I got rocks. :D


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Saturday, October 18, 2008

Slap Happy?

I guess this is a combination of lack of sleep, tooooo much Diet Dr. Pepper, and just plain old good times.

Honestly, I love this. I can remember doing silly things with my friends.

You will want to have the sound on to your computer.
At the beginning Brandon yells something for a second and it sounds really loud because you're not expecting it. Don't turn it down though because the music totally fits this.

Caleb (their friend) did the editing. He did a great job, it's a lot of fun and... very silly.






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Friday, October 17, 2008

Sympathy Pains?




Well... we took Pebbles to the vet. It seems she has a raging UTI. Poor thing. She is a mess. He said it could be something else (other than a UTI), but that would be really bad, so we're praying it's just this. She's on some strong antibiotics and I'm supposed to call and give them an update on her Monday.


As for me, I went to the urologist today. He said the stone is probably way to big to pass. He is scheduling me for one of a few procedures on Monday the 27th - the same week as Fall Fest... of course!

I'll know Monday which procedure they will opt for. The outcome depends on the x-rays I took today.
As for any surgery, we have to make it at least a week out to adjust all the blood thinner meds I'm on.

So as the post is titled... I think Pebbles is having sympathy pains for me.



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Saturday, October 11, 2008

Can I share?

The last few weeks have been a bit uncomfortable for me.
To explain, I need to go back a few months... like 12 of them.

About a year ago I had the "little URI that could" - or better yet, wouldn't go away. After some testing we found out I have two stones hiding up in my kidneys - one on each side (hey, at least I'm symmetrical).
Anywho, the diagnosis for that moment was easy, they're there. They may stay there, they may decide to leave at some point, but for now... they're just there.

Since then I've had a some nagging "flank pain" as they call it, but have not been concerned because I knew what it was.
Over the last two - three weeks it got a little more intense, but I've been so busy, that honestly, I haven't thought much of it.

Then about three days ago, other symptoms have come on: bloating, pain as if one of the stones have moved, upset stomach, and a few others I won't go into because it's just gross.
Believe it or not the worst symptom of all... fatigue.
Anytime I get up to do something I just want to go back and lay/sit down. I'm exhausted. I've had stones before, but usually when this part hits I'm on copious amounts of morphine in the hospital and couldn't care less how tired I am.

I went looking for pictures of a kidney stone to show you and I found the one below. On the site they call it a "kidney stone crystal" - sounds so much nicer, doesn't it?




Wanna know why it hurts so much?
Here's a picture of a kidney stone "crystal" under an electron microscope...





Pretty, huh? If it were a flower and not a raging crystal scraping the tissue within you as it tries to birth itself from a teeny tiny tube in your body!

The good news is that I went to the doc yesterday and he said there's no infection... so now,it's just a waiting game - whoopie!

Wanna know the really good news?
This is just the right side, some day I'll get to do this again with the left.


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