Where a stone shouldn't be.

I'm sitting outside Group Health's surgical unit waiting for word on moms condition after emergency surgery to put in a stint to help urine pass from her blocked left kidney. The doctors say that her kidney stone is approx. 9mm in diameter, the body can typically pass anything smaller than 6mm. Either way, mom has been in tremendous pain since Friday and will now be in a different kind of pain because of the stint. They can't go in and remove the stone until her kidney infection on the left side clears up, so at some point this week she will be in surgery yet again. Hopefully that surgery will be the end of her torment when the damn stone is removed from her body.

The last few months of this year have been very difficult for us...me with my sinus issues and now her with her chest pain earlier that landed us in the ER and currently a kidney stone that shouldn't be in her body. I mean seriously, the body shouldn't make stones...I get that Oysters make pearls, but it just doesn't seem right that the human body makes stones. It's just messed up.

It's kind of lonely where I'm at, the last of the patients have gone home and the patient rep just asked me to hold the fort down since she gets to go home now. I'm tired and hungry since I haven't eaten all day but at least I'm not in surgery. On the way down to Bellevue mom had stated to me how sorry she was, "I'm supposed to be home taking care of you after your surgery, not you taking care of me." I gave her my typical response when there are issues such as this, "we're all we have, it's our job to take care of each other."

I had my 2nd post-op visit today with my surgeon...he says the sinus tissues are healing nicely but that the pressure, pain and congestion may take me longer to deal with than initially thought. It would appear I am behind the curve regarding some aspects of my recovery. He is still very pleased with the work he did, I guess it's my work that sucks. He sucked out more goop from inside my sinus cavities and of course I cried some more. I'm still dealing with wicked headaches and congestion but am hopeful when I see him again in a month that I will have good news to report. All I know for sure is that I can't handle this pain and the thought of living the rest of my life with it...well, that's just a no go.

Mom and I still haven't had a chance to have Christmas...or Thanksgiving come to think about it. She was sick with Diverticulitis then and for Christmas she and I both ended up having surgery. Looks like New Years may also suck. I really hope and pray that 2012 brings us better health and more happiness. I'm so over this year, it's not even funny.