Giving birth...

...to a kidney stone is nothing like giving birth to a child. It's worse! Ask me, I know. Passing a kidney stone is like trying to shove a bowling ball through a straw. It's pure hell, and it's something Bernie experienced this weekend, poor guy.

We'd gone to church on Sunday, then headed up the coast to drop Megan off at Girl Scout Camp (about 1.5 hours from home). About 30 minutes into the drive, he's feeling nauseous. We've got to get Megan to camp, so we push on. Before we get to our destination, he's lost whatever was in his stomach. We think he's got the flu. Fast forward to the drive home and he's miserable all the way home. Can't get comfortable. Feels nauseous and thinks he hurt his back at work. It should've clicked then, but it didn't. Both of us were focused on getting him home and into bed. By the time he got home, he was purely miserable but we still didn't put two & two together. No temp, but definitely sick to his stomach. It wasn't until early evening that he really started complaining about his back hurting. That's when it clicked. I described what it felt like when I passed my kidney stone. He didn't think it was that. I disagreed and called the doctor. Doctor said "get him to the ER." We got him there by 8pm, and after a CAT scan, chest Xray, blood & urine test, they confirmed kidney stones. An 8mm stone. EXTRA large by stone standards. The ER doctor was using his scan as a show & tell opportunity for all the ER staff. Great.

So, the urologist was called in. We could tell he wasn't thrilled about being called in so late on a Sunday night, but he agreed the best course of action was surgery to remove the stone as it was blocking (something - I don't know what), and everything inside and around his kidney was enflamed. They got him into surgery about midnight and out by about 1am. I stayed until he was resting comfortably in his room and then drove home for a little snooze. He was able to come home early Monday morning, and thankfully now feels 100% better. The CAT scan shows that he has more stones, but they're smaller in size. I guess that's the good news. The bad news, is that someday they'll try to pass and that means "here we go again." Hopefully because they're smaller in size, he won't be in as much pain and won't have to have surgery again. He'll see the urologist in a couple of weeks to determine if there are any treatment options.

Now, what shall we name this cute little prickly stone?