A Trial Run at Labor (The Story of a Girl and Her Kidney Stone)

Good News: We got some practice staying in the hospital and I am no longer afraid of giving birth.

Bad News: I had a kidney stone. Ugh.

Well, our weekend in San Antonio that was supposed to be a romantic, relaxing "babymoon" ended at the hospital on Sunday evening.

Before I talk about the crappy part of the story, I have to give Jeremy credit for planning an amazing weekend complete with prenatal massage, facial and mani/pedi. He had everything set up at the JW Marriott and I must say I am the luckiest girl in the world. Get this, my husband didn't play golf. He hung out with me and even took advantage of the spa with me. I love hanging out with my best friend.

Here are a few pics from the trip before the craziness began:

Our view from the room

 I can't believe I am posting this, but my face tells you how I feel about my maternity swimsuit.

Right after dinner (and another potty break for me)

So, Saturday evening after all the pampering and dinner, I started feeling weird. I was a little nauseous and I had to pee a lot. Jeremy and I both laughed and blamed it on Quinn getting bigger, but by bedtime it was out of control and it hurt. Jeremy insisted that I call the after hours number for our doctor, but I felt silly thinking it was just Quinn sitting on my bladder or something. I finally gave in around 3am and called the doctor. The on-call doctor called in some meds to treat a UTI (which is what I told her I felt like I had) and sweet Jeremy went to a random Walgreens in San Antonio to get my meds. I stayed up the rest of the night in pain. I had a weird sharp pain in my lower back, I had to pee every five minutes and I was still nauseous.

We got back to Austin Sunday afternoon and I kept feeling awful. Jeremy made me call the after hours number again and this time they told me to come into labor and delivery and just have someone check me out. They were afraid it had turned into a kidney infection and I might need some IV antibiotics. I remember leaving the house at 8:30pm and thinking "man I hope we are home by 11...I am tired!" HA!

I won't go into detail, but the doctor at the hospital did a bunch of testing and an ultrasound of my kidneys and found something was blocking the ureter (the tube between my kidney and bladder...see diagram below). She said it was most likely a kidney stone, and basically told me I needed to just chill at the hospital until the next day when they could get a urologist to check me out. At that point, they recommended that I get some morphine and anti-nausea medicine so I could sleep and get more info. in the morning. I happily took the meds and slept in a labor and delivery room that night with Jeremy on the couch next to me. I am so glad to be married to a strong, supportive man. He was calm and sweet the whole time.

 An Educational Diagram

The next day the urologist called and my OB came in to check on me. They both decided it would be best to put a stent in my ureter (by going through my urethra, not cutting me open) to open things up and still allow the stone to pass. I was totally fine with that knowing they didn't have to cut me open and it wasn't going to hurt Quinn. I was afraid I was going to have to wait until 4:30 that afternoon to go into surgery which meant no food or even ice chips until then! But, thank the Lord, they snuck me in at 11am.

Oddly enough, I was more nervous about the spinal to numb my lower half than I was the whole surgery! The thought of that huge needle just freaked me out. But, I am so glad I did that rather than general anesthetics because I was awake during the whole thing and I didn't have to get over a "drunk" feeling afterward. The surgery was interesting. I kept hearing the Dr. say things like "oh, there it is" or "look at all that crap." I laughed out loud. When he was finished he told me that when he got in there, the kidney stone was crowning sort of like a baby and that it was soft enough for him to break up a bit. He said once he unblocked things, the kidney was so happy and released a lot of crap. Doctors are funny...he was so excited. He still put the stent in and told me to schedule a followup the next week. That was it. The whole thing took about an hour from pre-op to recovery and back to my room.

It took the rest of the afternoon for the spinal to wear off and for me to be able to pee on my own, but I was so thankful that we were home by about 7:30 that night. The effects of the surgery are still there including urgency to pee and soreness, but I am so glad to be done with that awful pain. I am also so glad Quinn is perfectly fine and didn't even know what was going on. They monitored her throughout the whole process and she was still moving around like crazy.

I go in on Friday to have a follow-up with the urologist so hopefully he will tell me we can take the stent out soon. Apparently this sense of urgency lasts the whole time you have a stent, and from what I understand they don't want to take it out until after I deliver. AH! I can't live like this for two + months. Especially as Quinn starts putting more pressure on my bladder! I guess I should look into wearing Depends if that's the case. I am praying I hear good news Friday!

So, I guess you can say I had a practice run at labor. I had intense pain, I stayed in labor and delivery and I had a spinal (which is similar to an epidural). So my friends, that is the good news.