Ouch vs. Blessed?!

Weird title? Well it's been a weird weekend. It actually started last Wednesday evening when I started have pain on the lower right side of my back. But, I took some tylenol, put on a heating pad, Brian gave me a massage and it went away. I did however call the doctor the next morning because I was supposed to be going down to Utah that day and wanted to make sure it wasn't anything serious before leaving. I met with the nurse practitioner, and she felt pretty sure that it was sciatic nerve pain because I had also woke up that morning with numbness on the bottom of my right heel. She gave me a card of of a chiropractor and sent me on my way. I did however pick up one of those sexy belly braces for maternity to give me more support on the drive down.

Everything had been going fine, I'd been shopping with my mom and sister (who are already spoiling my unborn daughter), and had picked out my cute fabric to make Abrie's bedding. But, by 5:30 on Friday evening, my pain had come back, and none of the things I had done before was making it better. I finally called my doctor and told him what was going on (I also had almost thrown up a couple of times by then), and he said that if I were up in Rexburg he would have me come into the E.R. to get checked out for a kidney stone. So, by 8:30, my mom took me to the E.R., and my dad put Landen to bed (Brian had drill this weekend at Ft. Williams, only about 30 minutes from my parents house). When I got to the E.R., they sent me right upstairs to get Abrie checked out. I peed in a cup and was hooked up to monitors to watch my baby girl. Well apparently my urine came back "clean" meaning no blood (which supposedly would indicate a kidney stone), but I was dehydrated. No one had offered me a glass of water or hooked me up to an IV, so apparently they didn't consider this a big deal...nimrods! Anyway, the OB on call, who I never saw, had the nurse give me a 10 mg shot of Morphine and was gonna send me home only taking tylenol. The morphine hadn't even touched my pain! By this time Brian and his sister Amy had come because his commanding officers had told him to leave and go take care of his family (I love them for this!). Shortly later I threw everything up, grateful I hadn't eaten dinner! They were still going to send me home, so we requested to be sent back down to the E.R. to have and ultrasound of my kidney done since Abrie was looking ok.

When we got to the E.R., even the doctor didn't think there was a kidney stone problem because of my urine test, but when he realized that he was up against 3 nurses and 1 of them worked at the hospital, he went ahead and ordered the ultrasound. Unsurprisingly they found fluid buildup in my kidney, which indicates that my ureters are being blocked, most likely by a stone, so finally someone believed there was a problem. They were finally able to get my pain under control and sent me home with pain meds, nausea meds, and a med to open up my ureters hoping that I would pass the stone. Oh, and I had to strain all my urine.

All was well until about 5:30 am when the pain started to come back. The heating pad helped a little, but then I took my medicine to open me up and boy did the pain increase!!! So, my mom got on the phone with a urologist she works with and he ordered a limited x-ray test to be done in the E.R. So, trip #2 to the E.R. they injected me with some contrast to see if they can see the stone. 15 minutes after the injection my left kidney had cleared the contrast all the way to my bladder. 2 1/2 hours after, my right kidney still hadn't passed any contrast past my kidney...definitely a blockage. So, I was sent to another hospital to have a nephrostomy tube placed into my right kidney to drain the fluid off of it. Well because I'm in my 3rd trimester, I cannot have any major sedation or anesthesia because it will put me into labor, so they only used numbing shots to place this garden hose of a tube. In the process they supposedly moved the stone into my bladder...one of the most painful experiences of my life!!! I was sent back to the first hospital to stay the night with my new tube and bag in place.

The next day when I finally met the urologist that was sending me home, he originally told me that I would have to have the tube in the rest of the pregnancy...until I told him that the stone had been pushed into my bladder. So, hopefully I only need to keep this sucker in until next Monday or Tuesday, totally crossing my fingers! Oh, and Landen has been throwing up all weekend, (every 24 hours), my dad's shingle's came back and my great uncle passed away! We have been so blessed though! I don't know what I would have done if I would have been back in Rexburg all by myself with all this going on while Brian was down here in Utah! So, I missed my baby shower that my sister had planned for me on Saturday, but a lot of them have been stopping by to see me and give me a gift anyway...I have the best friends and family! It's amazing the tender mercies our Heavenly Father gives us in the most unexpected ways!