Kidney

[UPDATE 15th February] Another week, another procedure. This time I am pretty sure they removed the stone, but I can’t get my hands on an actual report of what was done to my body…sigh…

It is time to draw a line under the kidney stone saga. Let’s move on to the prostatectomy.

[UPDATE 9th February] Following the failed stone and stent removal I am now booked in for February 14th. At least I might get some flowers from my lover.

Read the latest prostate update to see why this is an important procedure (the stone removal, not the flowers)

[UPDATE 3rd February] Well, that didn’t go as planned. The idea was that I would have the stent and at least the major stone removed. Turns out when they got in there with a camera they couldn’t even get near the stone.

So they took the stent out. And put a bigger diameter one in. This will (hopefully) stretch my uereter and they will then go for the stone.

There are some knock ons from this:

I am in excruciating pain every time I pee, though oxycodone is helping. But they can zonk me a bit…not that it is entirely unpleasant.
the prostate surgery has to be postponed – the good news is that I will now be able to play in an upcoming backgammon tournament

Apart from the tournament, the outcome is really disappointing. I will have to go through the whole thing again in 2 or 3 weeks.

[UPDATE 30th January] I have an appointment on Friday 2nd February to have the stent and the stone removed. It has been pretty uncomfortable since I had the procedure on the 20th, so will be a relief to get this done. There is also some good news on the prostate front.

Saturday the 19th, mid morning I suddenly got really sore in my abdomen and was retching continuously. Without going into all the details I figured it was a kidney stone on the move so we ducked to Robina hospital where I was in so much pain I was admitted immediately. Dagger looks from the 30 or so people sitting in the waiting area.

Pain relief was welcome and a CT scan was done which revealed that a 7mm kidney stone (that I knew was there) had decided to leave my kidney and was stuck. It was just out of my left kidney, up the top and was blocking my ureter.

Obviously this is not a good thing, with urine backing up in my kidney. So we were sent across to the Gold Coast University Hospital. This is always an advantage for me because I am well known there for being a Clown Doctor.

More pain. More pain relief. A discussion with the urology registrar and it looks like some sort of procedure happening that night. But it didn’t, so at least I got to eat. I had been unintentionally fasting all day.

A bloody awful Saturday night, in 8 out of 10 agony until given some endone, and then it would wear off and more pain. Fortunately I had a room to myself or I would have been pretty annoying for someone else with all the moaning and groaning.

Sunday morning and the registrar lets me know I am due in surgery at 0830. The idea is to put in a stent so that urine can get out of my kidney.

And then I came home. If I told you this is really painful in my kidney every time I pee, I hope you believe me. That is on top of the almost continuous nausea.

The exciting news is that it is going to stay there for 2 – 3 weeks, we think it is to let everything settle down. And then something will happen. The alternatives are to shatter the stone with a laser or try to grab it in a “basket” and pull it out. Doesn’t it all sound like fun?

Perhaps this was all a subconscious attempt to get in touch with the urology department about my prostate cancer. It might have actually worked, I just had an appointment bumped forward 3 weeks (spoiler – it worked).