The Little Things...

I was on such a good streak there blogging!  But, life happened this past week, so what do you do?

First things, we hired another new sales rep at work.... which is great for our little company, but means a lot more work for me (I take care of shipping all orders, patient tracking, etc).  To say I am busy and overwhelmed is an understatement.  I think other than Wed and Thurs, I pulled 12hr days all week...

Secondly, my great grandpa passed away Monday morning.  He was 85, and he was ready.  He is my last great grandparent, so while I was sad, I was so relived for him to be out of pain.  The funeral was full military, which given my work with the veterans, made me super emotional.  I HATE when they play Taps and the 21 guns... plus watching them fold our flag always gets me. 
Grandpa was amazing though, and I know he is so much happier now that he is with Grandma...

I woke up today wondering why I remembered 1/21 as a big day.  After a few minutes, I remembered that a yr ago, I was being prepped for surgery.  Nothing too major, but enough to scare me, and make me appreciate my health a little more.  In November 2010, I had a super bad back ache, and a fever.  I was vomiting and ended up missing 2 days of work for what we thought was the flu. 
Fast forward to Jan 19, 2011.  Im at work and notice my back on the right side is hurting, same thing as 2 months prior.  I take some aspirin and head home.  When I get there, I can barely stand.  The pain is so bad.  So I try the same trick as November, and draw a hot bath.  This time, it doesn't help.  I had sent J over to a friend's house for boys night, so I txted my bff that works in the lab of our local hospital.  The pain at this time was moving around my side.  She tells me to get in there, NOW.  She was worried it was my appendix.  Well, I call mom, and J.  He gets there first, so mom is going to meet us at the ER.  They hook me up to an IV to get me comfortable, do all the tests, and then come back and want to do a CAT Scan.  Well, this little lady has a Kidney Stone.  I had heard about them, and how they were painful... this was easily the worst pain I have ever been in, and I was told by my nurse it is worse than childbirth. 
They schedule me an appt with a urologist for the next morning, and send me home.  I was taking vicodin, and they gave me another shot of dilaudin in my IV, which made the pain instantly go away,  but made me absolutely sick.
Thursday morning, I see the urologist.  My kidney stone is actually still in my urader, trying to pass, but since it has been there since at least November, it is huge.  Most people can pass a 3-4mm stone, mine was 7-10, and about 7mm long.  Basically, if we didn't do something about it soon, I was going to lose my right kidney, as my urader was ready to rupture.  I was sent home on more prescriptions, and surgery was scheduled for Friday.
The surgery was pretty easy.  The hardest part was that the nurse could not get the IV in at all, she kept poking around my arm, and the Dr. had to finish it.  There was blood all over the floor, and the Dr's shoes from her attempts.  I went in, the anesthesiologist had me count backwards from 10 (I made it to 9) and then I woke up on the table after everything was done.  They moved me back to the room where my mom was, gave me a muffin and sent me home with more drugs.  The surgery took longer, bc there was 2mos worth of infection around the stone, and I had stent in.  WORST part of recovery!  Basically, a coffee stirrer with a loop and string on the end was inserted to help any lingering infection drain from my kidney.  I had to keep this thing in until the following Wednesday... not fun at all.

Anyways, I am now healthy, and I have a kidney, which is a good thing.  I was however, 2 weeks away from my health insurance starting, so that lovely kidney cost me about $20,000.  I will say I have been working my behind off, and a yr later I am done to $3000 still owed, which is a good feeling.

Well, ladies, if you made it all the way through this, I am so proud of you!!!

Have a great Saturday!