Saturday, October 03, 2009
I'm home from surgery!
Well, I made it through my kidney stone surgery and I"m back at home. I got home last night around 7 PM.
The surgery on Thursday went far better than expected (in large part I'm sure due to the prayers everyone has sent out)! The surgeon made the incision into my back, stuck the nephrostomy tube in and went in to laser and pull out the first large kidney stone. She had reserved the O.R. for 4 hours, expecting my case to be a bit complicated. Miraculously, the kidney stone just crumbled to bits before she even started attempting to laser it! She was in and out in a bit less than an hour!
My surgeon told me later that she had to laugh because she was standing next to the Recovery Room nurse when I woke up from surgery and the first question I asked was, "Do I still have my kidney?!" And the next question I asked was, "Is it still working?" Thank goodness the answer was, "Yes" to both of those questions.
Yesterday morning I was sent back to the Cath Lab so that radiology could do a dye injection test of my kidney to see what stone fragments were left from the first kidney stone and to see how big the 2nd stone still was (the surgeon didn't have access to that stone through her first point of entry and warned me she'd in all likelihood have to do a second surgical procedure at a later date). The radiology nurse called Oronzo while I was still asleep from the procedure and told him that it appears the 1st stone was broken into small enough bits to be passed naturally and that the 2nd stone was broken up too!! So, there's a good chance I may not need the second surgery! Time will tell.
I was released to go home last night and sent home with some pretty powerful pain medication. I'm walking quite slowly and certainly can't bend or lift anything but I am walking under my own steam at the moment. Snuggle Bug and Boo were excited to see me come home last night and were very good about heeding Oronzo's warning that I couldn't hold them and they had to be very careful around me. Snuggle Bug wanted to see my "owie" on my back (where the incision was made to get to my kidney) and he seems to accept my news that I'm okay and that the doctor got rid of the owie inside of my kidney.
I found myself exhausted by 8 PM and went to slowly head in to bed. Snuggle Bug and Boo each took one of my hands and said, "We'll help you get to bed" and they walked very slowly with me to put me in to bed and give me "goodnight" kisses. They were very sweet!
Speaking of sweet, thank you so much for your prayers! I know they made a difference. God's hands were clearly all over this surgery for it to have turned out as well as it did!
I'll try to keep you all posted of my progress as I can. For now, although I won't be out running any marathons anytime soon, I'm doing as well as can be expected and I'm thankful that I'm at home and that my recovery appears to be going well so far.
The surgery on Thursday went far better than expected (in large part I'm sure due to the prayers everyone has sent out)! The surgeon made the incision into my back, stuck the nephrostomy tube in and went in to laser and pull out the first large kidney stone. She had reserved the O.R. for 4 hours, expecting my case to be a bit complicated. Miraculously, the kidney stone just crumbled to bits before she even started attempting to laser it! She was in and out in a bit less than an hour!
My surgeon told me later that she had to laugh because she was standing next to the Recovery Room nurse when I woke up from surgery and the first question I asked was, "Do I still have my kidney?!" And the next question I asked was, "Is it still working?" Thank goodness the answer was, "Yes" to both of those questions.
Yesterday morning I was sent back to the Cath Lab so that radiology could do a dye injection test of my kidney to see what stone fragments were left from the first kidney stone and to see how big the 2nd stone still was (the surgeon didn't have access to that stone through her first point of entry and warned me she'd in all likelihood have to do a second surgical procedure at a later date). The radiology nurse called Oronzo while I was still asleep from the procedure and told him that it appears the 1st stone was broken into small enough bits to be passed naturally and that the 2nd stone was broken up too!! So, there's a good chance I may not need the second surgery! Time will tell.
I was released to go home last night and sent home with some pretty powerful pain medication. I'm walking quite slowly and certainly can't bend or lift anything but I am walking under my own steam at the moment. Snuggle Bug and Boo were excited to see me come home last night and were very good about heeding Oronzo's warning that I couldn't hold them and they had to be very careful around me. Snuggle Bug wanted to see my "owie" on my back (where the incision was made to get to my kidney) and he seems to accept my news that I'm okay and that the doctor got rid of the owie inside of my kidney.
I found myself exhausted by 8 PM and went to slowly head in to bed. Snuggle Bug and Boo each took one of my hands and said, "We'll help you get to bed" and they walked very slowly with me to put me in to bed and give me "goodnight" kisses. They were very sweet!
Speaking of sweet, thank you so much for your prayers! I know they made a difference. God's hands were clearly all over this surgery for it to have turned out as well as it did!
I'll try to keep you all posted of my progress as I can. For now, although I won't be out running any marathons anytime soon, I'm doing as well as can be expected and I'm thankful that I'm at home and that my recovery appears to be going well so far.
I am feeling very blessed!
