The Storm Before The Storm

This past week was supposed to be our last quiet week before a month of calm.  Then on Sunday night I found myself anxiously driving Phil to the emergency room.  He wasn't feeling the best during the day but we didn't think much of it.  He went for a 3 km swim in the afternoon, and after dinner he started eating a nasty stomach cramp.  At first we thought it might be from the swim, then when he threw up thought it might be the food.  I was feeling fine though.  He laid down for a bit, but when he was on the ground screaming in pain we realised it was time to go get help.

We got to the ER at 9 pm and it was overflowing with people.  Phil went and laid down in the hallway while I checked him in.  He was in such a bad state that security came to check on him, and just a couple minutes after checking in a nurse wheeled him away.  Soon he had four nurses and a doctor anxiously trying to figure out what was wrong.  They gave him an IV for the pain, and the dr decided he had a kidney stone.  He ended up getting four more doses of medicine before the pain started to ease.  

Eventually they took him for a CT scan, revealing that he had a nice collection of 6-7 stones between the two kidneys.  The stone causing the problem passed and we got home around 3 am.

Monday evening he went to the dr for a follow up and he was referred to a specialist.  He had fluid building up in the right kidney, indicating that the stones were blocking the exit.  The following day he called for an appointment, and once he told them about the fluid they made an appointment for the following day.

He went to the specialist and he said the right kidney was completely blocked and he had two large stones in the left kidney.  If the left stones blocked that kidney, he was dead.  They scheduled emergency surgery for the following morning.

He went in on Thursday, and during a quick surgery they were able to remove the stones from the right kidney.  The doctor is going to analyse them to help determine what was causing the stones.  They've scheduled him for a procedure in a couple weeks to take care of the left kidney stones now that the right one is functioning properly.

He was discharged that evening, and had to be up bright and early to pick my parents up from the airport the next morning.  They were here for a day, then went off to visit some friends.  Our friend arrived from Singapore on Sunday morning and is staying with us for a couple weeks, then my parents are staying with us again.  Then my mom and I head off to Bali for a couple weeks.  So much for that week of quiet - but fortunately the problem was caught before it was too late.  I just hope he never has to deal with kidney stones again - it was really scary watching him go through that much pain.  

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