Break up 4 kidney stones on our 6-year plan, get the 5th one free!
I should put this up here, since I posted about all his other lithotripsies in the past.
So Lou had his 4th lithotripsy yesterday. The doctor thinks this was a fragment from his original 2cm stone, and that the medications have actually been successful at keeping stones from reforming. This one was fine, but then it moved into a bad spot, so had to be beaten into submission.
We got up at 5:00 a.m., after neither of us sleeping very well the night before. I was a bit delayed, but we got to the hospital just a few minutes past 6:00. Down to radiology, and then up to the Day Surgery area. A bit more waiting, then it was into the area for prep.
Lou asked them to not put the IV in until later, as he has issues. Needles of course, but he also said he has anxiety issues if the IV is in. So when they went to put it in, the nurse had a problem with it on the back of his right hand. The needle fell out.
Nicely, rather than just try again, she asked for help. Another nurse came by and tried to find a good vein, but couldn't. And wisely said she wasn't going to go digging.
So some time later, the nurse anesthetist, a very nice man by the way, came in and after some time, found a nice vein on the inside of his wrist, and got that all set up. And then it wasn't much longer before he was going to be wheeled away, so I took my leave.
Sitting out in the waiting area, I read Twitter and LJ on my iPad. Thank God they have excellent wifi, because the AT&T reception in the area sucked much ass. I couldn't get a call out after to his mother so I had to text her to let her know it went well.
So yes, anyway, an hour or so later we got a call and the doctor talked to me and said it went well, and I'd be able to see him in an hour. About a half-hour later tho, I got called in to go see him. He had to stay a bit longer, but they let me sit with him. Apparently his oxygen was low, and the nurse was concerned, so she was making him stay longer and take really deep breaths.
We left like 20 minutes after that, and I helped him upstairs and then went out to fill his percoset prescription, get him some popsicles (they intubated him because of his weight and beard, so his throat was really sore), and to get me some lunch. I came back and found him up, not able to get back to sleep.
After I ate, I went to take a nap, and woke up at like 3:30. He'd been up all that time, and had eaten (thankfully! Though I didn't find this out until later). But he was kinda zoning out, so he went back to bed not long after I got up. He woke up again at about 5:30 (which is when he told me he had eaten) so I made myself some dinner and he just sat in the comfy chair in the living room.
Now, this is the part where I got a bit freaked out, but I handled it pretty well. See, Lou's one of those people who always has to have something else going on. TV on, radio on, iTunes playing, even while he reads a book or plays a video game. I had been reading my eBook all day and so I just kept reading. He just sat in the chair, kinda staring into space.
I realize this may have been the percoset, but for someone who is used to their husband being a certain way, this was very disconcerting. I don't recall him doing this on any of his previous ones. He went back to bed about 6:30-7:00, and slept through the night.
We did both wake up a bit around 2:30, to see our clocks flashing 2:40. Yeah, the power must have gone out/flickered at about 10 to midnight, so I had to reset my clock at least so my alarm would go off at the right time. Which it didn't, but it's hard to set the clock in the dark and I probably set Alarm 2 instead of Alarm 1 or something. I hopefully fixed it for tonight. Anyway, Lou woke up then and fixed his clock a bit and went to the bathroom and came back to bed.
I woke up about 10 to 6 and stayed in bed and when my alarm did not go off at the appointed time, I got up anyway and went out to the living room. I was still concerned about Lou, so I decided to hang about until he woke up and see what he was like.
He came out at about 7:00, and seemed to be okay. I talked with him and he seemed more coherent (yay for sleep), but took a long time on the toilet, so I had to ask him if I could wash up since I had decided to go to work anyway. He had me leave so he could pass a few more stones (poor guy) and then I got washed up and dressed and went off to work.
He's had some more incidences today of "passing a quarry" as he called it. I'm not sure if he'll go into work tomorrow or stay home. He got a doctor's note to stay through Thursday and go back on Friday, so I am thinking he might take another day.
I am hopefully going to be getting a mini grocery list from him today, with things he wants on it (like ginger ale, which we didn't have at home), and I am thinking of ditching out a bit early to get that taken care of. He's probably not going to his game tonight, which I think is a good thing.
Hopefully, the medication and the passing of this stone's bits will be the last we have to deal with lithotripsies in a LONG time.