Two Thursdays ago I had this terrible pain in my stomach. I am thankful for human bodies but knowing how they work is something I don't care to know about. I pointed to the spot on my stomach that killed and asked my coworkers what that part of me was. One co-worker, Brian, just suggested I probably needed to fart (ewww) and Tori suggested it was probably my gallbladder. I wen't with Tori's idea so I called my primary care physician to make an appointment. Option one he could see me the next day at 3:30 or option two he could see me the following week. Option one would have been the optimal one but at that moment in time we had all four of our girls at our house with just me while Tanner worked. So, I decided I could deal with the pain. My little valiant moment didn't last long because an hour later I called my big sister, Alicia, asking her if she could watch them for 45 minutes so I could go to the Dr. (the best thing about being the baby in the family is my two older sisters ALWAYS bail me out when needed). She said she could so I called and called the Dr. office and told them I would be there the next day.
We woke up, Boston had school, we had lunch, the girls played and played and I counted down the seconds until my appointment. My sister came to watch the four and I was off. I explained my symptoms and talked to my Dr. about what was happening and brought up the gallbladder theory to him. He looked at some stuff and told me I needed to go to the ER. Here is the thing my Dr. knows that I'm neurotic about hospitals, I hate them, dad's die there, they put metal plates in your head when you get in car accidents, IV's are the worst, I hate hospitals. So he very firmly made it clear I needed to get my butt to the ER and he would call the ER Dr. to let them know I was on my way. As I begrudgingly drove there I called my sister and asked if they could stay with her longer and called Tanner at work trying to casually tell him I was going to the ER.
I got there. They checked me in. They gave me an IV (and basically held me down for that... sorry ER nurses). They checked my gallbladder. Nothing wrong. They checked my appendix. It looked golden. At this point I'm feeling like maybe I'm a hypochondriac. Lastly they did a MRI to double check my insides. We had to wait a bit for the Dr. to come back with the results but their were two positives; Tanner was there with me and they gave me some really good pain medicine
The pain meds in the IV were that good.
You can tell with my glazed out expression.
.
The Dr came in (the urology specialist) and told me I had a kidney stone... NBD I thought people pass those all of the time, that's an easy fix. Then he went on to say that their were a few problems.... most people come in with a kidney stone that is about 5mm and in pain but they can pass it....mine was 16mm... so, I wasn't passing it but I had to have surgery to remove it (I feel like medically I have turned into a "go big or go home person"). Another sh*tty thing was that it was really infected around it so they were going to have to put a stent in to drain all of the infection.
They gave me antibiotics that I had to start taking, some pain meds and told Tanner (at that point they all knew I didn't want to come back on my own freewill) to bring me back if it went worse before Monday, when we had the surgery scheduled. He also wanted us to call him directly in the morning at let him know how I was.
We gathered our kids, went home and slept. They all slept actually, I cried, all night but tried to do it really quietly so Tanner wouldn't think we needed to go back to the hospital any sooner than I had to. By noon that day I had yet to get out of bed and was asking for more pain meds that I should. So, Tanner told me we were going back right then. I said no. He told me his mom and nana thought I need to. I still said I was fine. So, he text my mom and told her, which then my mom called me... and I went back. Tanner's Nana and Papa came and got the gals, I swallowed my pride because the house was messy right then and I HATE messy houses and I hated them seeing it messy and I apologized profusely.
We went back, checked me in and had surgery shortly after. I had a really humbling moment when I was throwing up so hard in the hospital bed I peed my pants (not really pants I guess because I was in my hospital gown but I peed in my panties), that sweetheart of mine laughed a little but didn't make me feel dumb at all. So off topic but if you pee in your pants and your husband only laughs a little and still thinks you are perfect, you have a good husband. Anways, I cried and told Tanner I really wanted steak and shrimp when I got out of surgery and my sweet husband had that there waiting for me. In my coming out of anesthesia state I also REALLY wanted Tanner's Uncle Pat to make me a sandwich (follow the man on instagram @butterdude70 his cooking is freaking amazing) so I grabbed the phone and in my drugged up state told him I needed his food. Bless his heart I got some later. I stayed in the hospital that night... which surprisingly wasn't terrible, hospital food is great and they were able to help better with my pain magagment. By 1:00 am I made Tanner go home and sleep... seeing my 6'4" husband try to get comfortable enough to fall asleep on a small hospital chair was sad. He did go sleep at home but was back super early in the morning.
I went home that day and lived on whatever food Tanner forced me to eat so I could take pain pills and slept while he played mom taking care of the house, the girls, getting Boston to school and everything else. I am going to say kidney stones are no joke, they hurt so freaking bad, and I had been growing this one for years. I used to think people were a little dramatic when they said they hurt but I completely take it back now. Coming out of surgery I also said I would rather have ten babies, right in a row, without an epidural before having a kidney stone that big again.... In a while from now I'm sure I will eat those words, and I will gladly take the epidural and pray fiercely that ten babies never come out of me in a row. Also, one of the more painful parts was the stent. HOLY %&$%*! that thing hurt. So much uncomfortableness happening. They place it in your uretha to drain the infection. I got it out on Thursday, I asked to keep it because that sucker was long... instead I just got a picture to showoff.
It was that long! Gahhh.
That was a very long story about my kidney stone... I felt guilty all the while knowing I was hardly doing anything for our kids. But we honestly got the jackpot with the families we have... my parents, sisters, Tanner's nana and papa and aunt and uncle (his mom lives far away but checked up on me so many time) made sure life was so much easier for us. I tried imagining how I would have done that ordeal as a single mom and I am so lucky I have someone in my life to lean on now. Boston visited her dad this weekend and he was kind enough to let her stay and extra night so I could just recover. Seriously, it was magical and basically the heavens parted and him and I didn't fight. I truly am giving Michael credit though because I needed the rest time. I'm slowly getting better, which is frustrating because I honestly have no patience and want to feel better quicker. I made it to three hours of work today before I booked it out of there in pain.
The silver lining... I haven't had a soda for two weeks (typically I have like three a day) but not because I don't miss it but because I am terrified of another kidney stone again. My next post I will update on how cute the girls are and how fun they are together, because honestly that is a lot more fun to read about than my dumb surgery but just thought I would share the update.
XO:
Ashlynn Smith
Since I just posted a whole post about my kidney stones
and a stent shoved up inside me I thought I would share
a pretty adorable of our four babies.
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