How does it feel? How does it feel, to be on your own...with no direction home, like a complete unknown... like a rolling stone?

Well, it happened again- the never ending saga of Steph and her kidney stones continues. <sigh>

On Sept. 1, I woke up at 2am with some pretty severe flank pain on the left side. I knew instantly what it was because as most of you know- I've had more than my fair share of kidney stones. I tried in vain to self medicate at home until the pain got completely out of control and I had to go to the ED.

I show up to the ED (my ED mind you, and I've only worked there 3 months), panting and nearly in tears from the pain. My staff took excellent care of me, popped an IV right and gave me the good drugs. They sent me to CT Scan at which point I was diagnosed with an 8 mm kidney stone. I could've done without the CT Scan, but I guess it was good to know location and size.

My sweet brother Jim and his lovely girlfriend Beth came to visit the next day after my kidney stone debacle. I wasn't feeling great, but we had a really nice visit. We went to the International Spy Museum which was pretty cool, had some 'Hill Country Barbecue'- nowhere near as my authentic Salt Lick BBQ out in Austin, but still a decent substitute. Saw some sights- including the Washington Monument (see below), ate some cupcakes and played Dominion... I'm not sure they loved Dominion as much as I do, but they were good sports and humored me at least.

Jim and Beth went up to visit Gammy, and after they left I just kind of laid around because I felt so crappy. Labor Day, Jas and I ventured out of the house and went up to Glen Burnie, MD to meet the family for crabs- which were delicious! We had a really nice visit and then Jas and I came back to DC.

The day after I went to see my new Urologist (who I am totally not a fan of, by the way), who scheduled me for surgery to take care of the stone the following day. That next day I went in, they did my procedure and I thought I was on the road to recovery... Not quite.

The whole course of this stone has been worse than any other experience I've ever had... and we're talking close to 15 kidney stones since I was 17. I had terrible pain post-operatively and it wasn't well controlled. I missed several days of work and then last Friday, in the middle of the night the pain got completely out of control and I landed back in the ED again. This time I was admitted for pain control. Ugh! The doctor that did my surgery said that the stone was really impacted in the ureter, with a lot of inflammation around it. He said he wasn't surprised I was hurting so badly... well that's a relief. Or not.

So, here I am, it's been 17 days, I still have the stent in place.

X-Ray of a stent

Diagram of a stent (for those that are curious)

I am due to go to the doctor on Tuesday to get this thing removed. I cannot wait. It's so irritating. I'm ready to get back to running and just overall being normal. I feel like a little old lady, on all kinds of medication, peeing all the time, working my schedule around my bladder. Annoying. And I just don't have time for that crap!

The end is near... one more day of work, I'm taking Tuesday off- getting the stent out and then getting back to normal. Come on Tuesday!!!!