Stephen is in recovery now. His mom and I are waiting to go back and see him. The surgery went well. Dr. Bullock said the kidney stones were lodged so he wasn't able to just take them out (as he expected) so he used the laser to break them up into very small fragments. He did have to put a stent in, so now Stephen will have to pass the "granules" through the stent. He will have some discomfort from the stent but will be given pain medicine to use as needed. Dr. Bullock assured us he will not be in the same pain he was when the stones were moving, but he won't feel "all better" until he has the stent taken out, sometime late next week.
Thank you for your prayers! I have some video footage of Stephen with his gown and cap on before he went back so I'll post them on the blog later.
The urology office called Stephen and they decided to schedule his surgery for Friday, June 11th at 12 noon. The procedure is a cystoscopy right ureteroscopy holmium laser lithotripsy with a possible ureteric stent. As Stephen put it, "The name is longer than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious so I won't remember it."
He will be under general anesthesia and they will go in with a fancy laser, blast the two stones into tiny granules so he can easily pass them. This may cause inflammation in his urinary tract, and if so they will put a stent in to allow his kidneys to drain. He will have a 3 day recovery and will have the stent removed on the 5th day. It is a very routine outpatient procedure.
Of course, he'll have another x-ray right before the procedure to locate the stones, so we'd still prefer him to pass them before the surgery, but at least we know there is an end date for the stones.
Stephen went to the urologist and found out his doctor was in the Simpsonville office, even though he was told to go to the Greenville office. But they were able to work him in to see another urologist in the practice.
The stones are still there. They are unusual in that there are two large ones and they are stacked. But they are not blocking his urinary tract any longer and his urine tested fine (no blood, etc.). So the urologist gave him the option of waiting.
The surgery would be outpatient, but will require him to be out of work for about 3 days or so. And, as with any surgery, there is the risk of infection or problems with the anesthesia.
Stephen can choose to leave them in for a while, but over time they can cause damage to his kidneys and/or urinary tract so eventually they have to come out.
So now we have to decide what to do - wait and see if he is in the 20% of people that pass stones this large, OR schedule an unpleasant surgery. June is not a good month for him to be out of the office so it may be July before he has the surgery, anyway.
Please pray for Stephen and me as we try to decide what is best. Thanks!
Stephen's vendor showed up at Scansource unexpectedly today so he was not able to get away to see the urologist this afternoon. The appointment has been rescheduled for next Tuesday, June 1st at 2:30 pm.
Stephen described the IVP as one of the strangest feelings he's ever had. The dye shooting through his veins made him feel like his insides were melting and he almost threw up at one point. Thankfully, it wasn't painful for him, just weird.
Tomorrow is his appointment with the urologist (at 2:10 pm) to review the results. If he still needs the procedure, they'll schedule it tomorrow.
Stephen commented that he has not been having as much discomfort lately, so maybe he's already passed the stones. And the CD they gave him doesn't appear to have visible "spots" anywhere, but we're not radiologists, so we'll wait and see what the doctor says.
Stephen had his very first kidney stone attack on Sydney's birthday, Sunday, April 11th. We were eating lunch at Boston Pizzeria and he went to the bathroom and never came out. We weren't sure what was happening at first but ended up at an emergency clinic and the doctor said, based on the symptoms Stephen was describing, that Stephen may have a large stone that was not able to pass. He recommended a CT Scan, but we chose not to do that, thinking we'd give it time to pass before we paid for an expensive test. We left the emergency clinic armed with a nausea and pain medication, which Stephen carried in his pocket at all times.
Several days later, Stephen had his second attack but the medicine seemed to kick in after about an hour. Two-and-a-half weeks passed with no pain or discomfort, so we assumed he'd passed it.
The next attack hit on his flight home from a business trip. The pain meds were locked in the overhead bins. He suffered terrible pain and when he got home he was out-for-the-count. He had another attack from about midnight until about 6 am, and this time the pain medicine was not cutting it.
We called our primary care doctor and she recommended a CT scan. The scan revealed he has large stones that are lodged in his urinary tract. He was given a prescription for Flomax, a medication that would open up his ureter and make the stones more likely to pass. He was also given another pain medication that is apparently very potent and can only be taken for about 5 days before it causes internal bleeding. We hoped, of course, the stones would pass during that time period, but they have not.
Stephen saw a urologist last week and had another x-ray. Stephen's stones are large and stones this size only pass 20% of the time. The urologist ordered an Intravenous Pyleogram (IVP), which is an X-ray they'll do after injecting a dye into Stephen's kidney. Once they have verified the exact location of the stones then they will schedule him for a stone-removal procedure.
The procedure will require general anesthesia because they will go through his urinary tract to blast the stones with a laser. The kidney may swell so they will then put in a urinary stent to help urine drain from the kidney to the bladder. Five days later he will have the stent removed.
Stephen's IVP is at 9:00 tomorrow morning. He will then see the urologist again to schedule the procedure. I'll keep you updated as we learn more. We are praying that the stones would pass before then but are trusting God to do whatever is best. Your prayers are coveted.
We studied the story of Esther for school and had a Purim party with the Fuller girls. We read the story to them then told the girls' to use their noisemakers every time we read the name, "Haman". The girls made Hamentashen cookies that are supposed to look like Haman's 3-cornered hat, or some say, his ears.
