andipantz

No, I’m not an alcoholic.

Yes, I do like the band, Lush.

But this isn’t about either.

I am, however, hooked on the Lush store with homemade soaps and bath stuff.  It’s my new favorite place.  It rocks.  You should visit it sometime if you haven’t already. There’s one in Philly.

Feel free to send any sweet gifts my way so that I don’t smell.  Just sayin’.

The upcoming days in Philadelphia are supposedly going to suck. Think 90 degree weather with balmy humidity. This is what I hate about summer on the east coast. I hate it a lot. Doing anything outside automatically becomes brutal and unpleasant. Instead, I resort to staying indoors in the air conditioning. I wish I were escaping to a nice cool place for a little while. Like Antarctica…? What is everyone else doing to escape the summer heat?

Well, I had thought that I was on the mends after having my stents removed last week, but ended up in enough pain that made me think I had another kidney stone (hopefully I don’t).  The pain finally went away on Sunday and I’ve been off of all medication and in no pain since then.  So I’m finally starting to get into the swing of things again and get caught up on the last month’s worth of backlog.  I’ve been really tired and weak from not doing much for the last couple of weeks, but since I’m not in pain, I have no complaints!  I go back to have an ultrasound and doctor’s visit in a month to find out if there are anymore stones or if any further steps need to be taken.  *Crossing fingers*

But I wanted to give a huge thanks to everyone who has been there for me in the last few weeks…bringing me food, sending me gifts to help with my recovery, driving me to the hospital, picking up my medication, calling to check in on me, sending me texts and emails with your thoughts, and so much more.  I appreciate everything that you have done for me and I wouldn’t have gotten through this without you.  THANK YOU!

For the first time since my surgery, I feel somewhat coherent. I knew that recovery from this surgery was not going to be easy, but I had no idea that it would be this bad. In the past, I was able to quickly bounce back, but this has been a different story. The recovery just downright sucks. I can’t even begin to imagine what this must have been like in times when there were no anesthetics, no antibiotics. Thank God for modern medicine is all I have to say. But whomever invented uretal stents needs to have their head examined.

Because my internal organs were poked and prodded, I needed to have bilateral J stents inserted on both sides of my body. What are these so-called wonders? Spaghettis of pain is what I would prefer to call them. Well, they look like a really long piece of spaghetti with two curly pigtails on each end. One end in the kidney, one in the bladder and the really long straight piece goes through my ureters (the long tube that connects the two in your body). In the past, I’ve only had one, but this time I have two. They supposedly keep me from being in a lot of pain that I could experience from swelling and if a stone fragment should cause another blockage, all the while allowing things to flow properly. So I guess it’s a good thing, but it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it.

On Tuesday I was ok, Wednesday I was ok, Thursday…not so ok. I took a nap in the afternoon and woke up in so much pain (from the stents) that I could not move. I’m pretty tolerant of pain, but I sat on my couch for what seemed like days (but was really a couple of hours), staring at the walls, and not quite sure what to do. When I finally moved, I got sick and couldn’t keep anything down. And then I got dehydrated and felt even worse. I’ve never felt as bad as I did on Thursday night and I seriously thought that I was going to die. I wasn’t even coherent. I probably should have called an ambulance, but decided to call nearby friends to take me to the ER. I finally reached a friend who was still awake. He came to pick me up and off we went to the hospital. It took every muscle in my body to even get down the stairs to his car. He sat and waited with me for the whole 3.5 hours that I waited to get into the ER. After threatening to remove my name from the list and going to another hospital, we were told that I would be next and it would only be about 15 minutes and I would have a room in a treatment area. After I was taken, I realized that what they really meant was a cot in the middle of the hallway. Then I get to go through the whole IV thing again (only twice this time). Fortunately, the nurses were nice and seemed to feel bad that no one else realized the severity of my case (but it didn’t change the fact that I was still on a cot in the hallway). I had some tests and then they gave me 2 or 3 doses of morphine, which took the edge off, but I was still in pain. I had an x-ray. Then they gave me another pain med called Toredol, which seemed to do the trick. They also loaded me up with three bags of IV fluids because I was dehydrated. I finally slept for a little while and would have stayed there longer if I could have.

So I got home yesterday morning and have really been doing nothing but moving between my bed, the couch, and the toilet. I can’t really do much. I’ve watched more movies in the last 5 days than I have in the last 3 months (just 4 today). I’ve also found out that my body does not do well with narcotic pain killers because they make me incredibly sick (though it was the actual pain that made me sick this time). I’d make a horrible drug addict. I’ve finally been able to eat some real food for a change today. But who knows what tomorrow will be like. The stents come out on Thursday so won’t be doing much between now and then. All I know is that Thursday can’t get here fast enough.

You really realize what’s most important in life when you don’t have your health. My friends and family have been so great to me. I really cannot express how grateful I am.