Miserable 24 Hours

After getting home from the ESWL on Thursday, outside of my kidney feeling like it went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson, I was just generally sore, but relieved that the surgery was over with.

But nothing prepares you for what comes after. ESWL takes 1 big stone, and creates children if you will. Much smaller versions of hellspawn that have only one exit point. As I woke up Friday, fragments started to pass. Not too bad. When you leave, they hand you a few strainers, and a collection cup to catch the fragments to be sent in for testing. I already know the big stone was calcium oxalate, it’s the same stone type every time.

The last go-around last year, I did a test where you catch urine for 24 hours, and gets sent into a lab for analysis. Results were calcium oxalate, as well as other pH things that indicated the same thing. I was prescribed potassium citrate to help balance my body, and prevent new stones from forming.

Keep in mind this stone was already there, just wasn’t enough to do anything with it yet.

As Friday progressed, the unwanted feelings of kidney stones returned around the afternoon. It starts with your lower back just being sore, just a dull ache. As it progresses, the pain started to ramp up. I was passing more and more fragments. Luckily I was prepared for pain and have been staying on top of the Dilaudid, Flomax, and Azo so that things wouldn’t get bad.

But no matter how much you prepare, stone pain will eventually punch through. What started as a dull ache, began to spread to my left butt cheek and tailbone. The pain evolved into spikey throbbing numbing pain. Then that’s when I realized, I’ve got to be passing a big part. That’s when the waves of pain took me to the couch. Heating pads definitely help.

But around 6pm, the pain had won. When stones take their final painful journey, they wreak havock the entire way out of they are big enough. I contacted my home IV place that was coming out during the Lyme treatments. I definitely needed help. I made the request online, and was called pretty quickly. However all their paramedics were busy and they wouldn’t be able to get out until 9pm. I told the lady that they need to come ASAP.

After I hung up, Bryan (new guy) texted me introducing himself, and started to ask me a few questions and the standard treatment forms to be filled out. Usually I’m pretty fast at filling out forms, but with the pain nearing 10/10 it was pretty difficult to focus.

I told him that I just had ESWL done and have been actively passing fragments, but believed I was passing a bigger chunk. I told him I definitely needed 1L of fluids, maximum magnesium (helps with spasms/muscles), Vitamin D, and the most important, Torodol. This is the magic IV bag if you ever need help passing stones.

He replied “I’ll be there as soon as I can”. I gave him where the jeeps were parked and to just look for the yellow jeep, it’s an easy landmark. At this point I swallowed 8mg of dilaudid because I had a feeling this was going to get out of control fast.

The pain finally hit 10/10 around 7:30. The usual try to find a comfortable position dance began. Standing, sitting, laying. Of course the minute the stone moves you have to move. As the writing agony continued, I had Aggie pick me up from the couch. I gotta keep trying to pee this out. As I came back from the bathroom, I looked out the window to see emergency lights. I said to the wife “uh oh, someone’s in trouble.”. As the SUV sped down Warren, I said “it’s gotta be serious”. As I watched them turn down our street, I thought to myself geez must be one of those nights. The SUV stopped at the jeeps and a shadowy figure jumped out of the SUV and started grabbing things from the back.

Then that’s when it dawned on me, that’s Bryan. Anyone that’s worked for this group is either Fire, Rescue, Search and Rescue, or a paramedic. I was surprised that they came so quickly, but as I turned to tell Anies they are here, pain went to 11. I was frozen up against a wall, clutching my left side. Stone made it to the part where the ureter crosses over your legs. Lamas breathing helps, but Jesus the pain at this point was through the roof.

Bryan rushed in and started immediately pulling out everything. Asked me a few questions and said to sit on the couch. As I sat down, I was done. He had a friend with that was helping, and put the blood pressure cuff on, 150/110, Bryan went into triage mode. I started to think that maybe I’ll have to go to the ER. He immediately pulled out the torodol and hit me with the max dose after getting an IV in, typically you get 15mg, I got 60. “I know exactly what you are going through” he said. As he pushed it in, my body just went from 11 to a 3 pretty quickly. It was a huge relief.

He then got the IV bag loaded up with magnesium, and hooked it up. I asked him for a Vit D shot too, it helps with inflammation. After 5 minutes of the saline running full blast, they took my blood pressure again, and thankfully, it dropped to 123/85. I felt fucking amazing at this point. To speed things up, they put a cuff around the sealing bag, to fast push the fluids in. All in all start to finish it was only 20 minutes. For everything.

I’m super grateful that people like Bryan exist. They just know what to do, how to react. The pain was gone. I tipped him $100 because they came so fast and took care of me right away, I even got the cool lights service. But it was worth it, and I’m glad I called.

Right after they left, I passed 3 2mm fragments. I felt even better.

Fuck kidney stones.