Side quest: Pass a kidney stone

The main game for me this year is “Defeat Pancreatic Cancer.” Apparently my body thought it would be fun to send me on a side quest: “Pass a Kidney Stone.” I played this side quest once before during pregnancy, but this time the onset felt different and we didn’t know what it was at first.

It started with a rough night

Wednesday evenings after an infusion are usually filled with a fair amount of nausea. But this particular Wednesday had a bonus of pain in my left side. The pain increased, feeling like there was a battle going on in my side, and I started vomiting.

I called my doctor’s office and, thinking it was due to my intestines possibly being jacked because of surgery and chemo, I was told to take anti-nausea meds and a laxative and call in the morning if things were still bad.

That night I barely kept down sips of water. Fortunately, the anti-nausea meds I was able to take increased the times between running to the toilet to hurl. I also took a muscle relaxer because my insides felt like they were clenched. It didn’t help other than making me sleepy.

When morning rolled around and I puked yet again, I dutifully called my doc and they said to come in at 1 p.m. to be checked. Thankfully, the puking stopped after that and the pain let up.

First trip to the hospital

My doc checked me and said he was not hearing any bowel sounds, which made him think there might be an obstruction. Completely logical because my chemo meds are known to slow down the gut. The doc set up a direct admit for me at a hospital. The hospital closer to us was full, so we had to go to the one a little farther away.

I arrived and was X-rayed. By the time the results arrived, I had already farted meaning there was some movement in my gut. Woohoo! The doctor on duty said no obstruction was found on the X-ray. She also said if I farted more and pooped overnight there was no need for a CT scan and I could go home.

Well, I farted and pooped and was no longer in pain, so we thought I was good to go. I went home and everything was cool. Until Sunday.

The return of the pain

As I tried to take a nap on Sunday afternoon, I just could not get comfortable. I realized it was due to the pain sneaking back into my side. I decided I was not dicking around with it and called my doc again. The nurse asked if I wanted to wait for an appointment the next day. I explained what had already happened a few days earlier and we agreed going to the ER was the best plan.

Knowing the closer hospital had been full a couple of days ago, we opted to just go to the ER at the south hospital. It was an extra 10 minutes which felt like 10 hours on the bumpiest road possible. Each bump in the road sent more pain into my side.

We finally made it and I managed to walk in on my own to check in.

At least it was a nice ER

I’ve only been in a few ERs, but this one seemed pretty darn nice. The waiting area, which kinda looked more like a hotel lobby, was completely empty. I was taken back to a room after what felt like an eternity of sitting the waiting area in pain, though it was probably only 10 minutes or so.

The room wasn’t fancy, but then it wasn’t meant to be. It had glass on the front wall with a curtain for privacy. So it was at least relatively quiet when they closed the door. I also had a TV and the patient restroom was right across the hall from me.

We told the super nice staff what was going on and I was quickly taken in for a CT scan. They also gave me some morphine which was awesome at removing the pain. With the pain gone, my mind was free to wander through all of the possibilities of what might be found on the scan: a bowel obstruction, diverticulitis, a tumor in my intestines, or, because my hip hurt so badly, the cancer had spread into my hip bone.

When the doctor came back and said I had a kidney stone, I was actually excited.

Compared to the other possibilities, I felt like I could deal with this one the best. And it was only a temporary condition.

Turns out the stone was 7mm and I would not be able to pass it on my own. So I had to be transported up to the hospital closer to home in order to have a procedure to remove it. However, an ambulance wouldn’t be available until after 11 p.m. I took advantage of the TV in my room and napped to The Hunt for Red October while I waited.

I got to ride in an ambulance!

In my 50 years of existence, I had yet to ride in an ambulance. So I was kinda excited that I would finally have a chance to do so.

It wasn’t that exciting.

But now I can say I have ridden in an ambulance. I arrived at the hospital at about 12:30 a.m. and got situated in my room. Even managed to get a few naps in between visits from various doctors and nurses.

Blasting the kidney stone

Around noon on Monday, I was wheeled down to the pre-op area to prepare for lithotripsy to break up the stone. Turns out I would be put under general anesthesia rather than twilight for the procedure. They don’t want the patient to move at all while they are blasting the stones and sticking things into kidneys, hence the general anesthesia. I was cool with that and super thankful it was not conscious sedation.

While I was out cold, they blasted the stone and placed a stent from my left kidney to my bladder to let the ureter heal from having the stone in it.

When I came to, I was not the usual happy drunk I am after being put under. I was just groggy. And hella cold. Like I couldn’t stop shivering even with a pile of heated blankets on me. I did finally warm up after a nice nap.

The aftermath wasn’t bad

A couple of small pieces of stones came out in my pee the evening of the procedure. This is normal and was only slightly uncomfortable. Nothing like the pain of the full stone.

The doc said I could go home the next day as long as I didn’t run a fever overnight. My temperature stayed normal so I was sent home and told I could return to work the following Monday. At first I thought about arguing that I was fine to go back to work the next day. Then I realized just how exhausted I was. Taking the extra days to rest was definitely the right choice.

I should have seen this coming all along

The clues that I had a kidney stone were all there for the past several months. It’s like watching The Usual Suspects a second time and realizing how obvious the cluse were about who Keyser Söze really was.

There had been blood in my urine for several months and in June my urine had high amounts of calcium oxalate crystals, which make up the most common type of kidney stone. On top of that, I had been dehydrated a few times since February which can lead to kidney stones.

Wrapping up this side quest

With the stone gone, I now need to finish taking the prescribed antibiotics and get the stent removed. How will they remove the stent you ask? Oh, it will be loads of fun.

I get to go to the urologist’s office for them to use a cystoscope to go in through my urethra into my bladder where they will then use a claw (yes, there will be a claw in my bladder) to grab the stent and pull it out. I will be fully awake for this, God help me.

At least I just had a cystoscopy last month during my first side quest of “Find Out if You Have Bladder Cancer.” There is numbing gel involved and it wasn’t horrible. Helped that I quickly found out I do not have bladder cancer on top of all of this.

I’m mostly not looking forward to the sensation of the stent being pulled out. But it’s just one more bump in the road to get over this year.

More pancreatic cancer posts:

• Getting a lung biopsy
• Cancer Possibly Has Returned
• Scanxiety
• My first Whippleversary
• One-year survivor
• Ring the bell!
• Coping with cancer
• Side quest: Pass a kidney stone
• Chemotherapy is weird
• The Whipple procedure recovery