Kidney stone

Well, this doesn't really fit into our "look at our cute baby and we're a family now" theme, but I think I can tie it in.

Shortly before Christmas of 2008, I had a kidney stone dislodge and begin the excruciating journey from the kidney to the bladder (far more painful than from the bladder to the outside world). Unlike a couple smaller stones that I had had before, this one moved slowly and lasted for a couple weeks before the pain really let up. I never found the stone, but assumed it had at least made it to the bladder because the pain was not nearly as bad.

Fast forward eight months.

Sarah is in labor, and not loving life. We've just arrived at the hospital after waiting as long as she could at home. I'm very much wanting to be a support for Sarah in that crazy process of labor and delivery, when I begin to feel the familiar sensations of a moving kidney stone. I tried to ignore it, then tried to just focus on Sarah and hide it, all the while desperately praying for it to go away so I could focus on being there for Sarah. After perhaps an hour of discomfort, it went away. Elliott's birth was an amazing process, and I was able to be present and involved the whole time, for which I am very thankful. This was enough motivation for me to go in and get it checked out. It turned out that I didn't actually have a new kidney stone. Rather, the one from December had lodged itself in the base of my right ureter and had never quite made it to my bladder. My kidney was huge and stressed from the partly blocked flow, and the stone was 1 cm across (I don't use "diameter" because it isn't really spherical). This meant I would probably never pass it on my own, so I had to get it blasted. I opted for the less invasive sonic blast option instead of having someone put a scope up there, lasering it, and manually pulling the pieces out. Either option required general anesthesia.


Here is a photo of the X-ray that shows my kidney stone. It's the light spot indicated by the huge black arrow.



Here's a photo Sarah's mom took of me a couple minutes after I woke up after the procedure. As an aside, I found out from the anesthesiologist that they don't really understand how or why the anesthesia works. They just know that it does work, and they're pretty good at using non-lethal doses. I thought that was interesting.

I feel much better now. I've heard people refer to kidney stones as the closest thing a man can experience to childbirth. After seeing child birth first-hand, and coincidentally experiencing kidney stone pain at the same time, my impression is that when it's all said and done, childbirth seems more intense and I'm glad I don't have to do it.