Part 2 the Procedures

After the iodine x-ray and more scans it was brought to my attention that I needed to have a procedure done.  If all went well it would have only been one and not two in one day within a matter of hours as it ended up being.  The night they told me this I was scared, I knew this moved into the slightly serious area and I didn't know how to handle it.  Tears were shed, and hugs and tight holding went on with Karlee and Micah and I.  The best part was know that Micah was there. He held and squeezed my hand and tears came down his cheeks as he kissed me on the top of the head, saying how sorry he was that I was going through all this.  Just knowing and feeling how much he was there was all I needed to know that things were tough but he was there.

The next day was an emotional stressful day.  Micah was there all day with me, thankful.  I was prepped and ready for the first procedure (hoping for only this one) So for this one I was asleep and they put a tiny camera and a wire up through the urethra to try to see what was going on and to try to put a stent in the damaged part to reconnect the tube to the bladder.  They couldn't do it.

I was in recovery after that and woke up and then shortly moved on to the next "procedure".  This one was heavily sedated and asked to get on my stomach......not fun and painful.

I actually have paper work on this one so I can get technical with the big words.

Percutaneous nephrostomy is a procedure that drains the urine from the kidney to prevent pain, infection and kidney damage.  You will then lie on your stomach on an x-ray table (a very small skinny hard table I might add).  You then are given medication to help you relax and make you feel sleepy.  The skin on your lower back is numbed with an injection of local anesthetic using ultrasound or x-ray images as a guide, the radiologist inserts a needle through your lower back into your kidney.  Contract medium may be injected through this needle into the kidney.  This fluid makes the kidney easier to see on x-ray images.  The x-ray images can show exactly where the kidney or ureter is blocked.  (in my case not too sure, and tried to put a stent in but wasn't going to work either)  Then a needle is then replaced with a drainage catheter.  The catheter is attached to a drainage bag, which collects the urine that drains from the kidney (it had leaked and left urine in my stomach which isn't good but will be absorbed by my body, they say)

So once that was done I was taken back to my room down in step-down.  The rest is up and down hill, and hard to really say because I was feeling so yucky and in pain.

After 4 nights in the hospital away from my family I was happy to go home on Thursday morning.  I was ready for my own bed, pillow and to get some sleep.

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