But I am glad it's over. The last week and a half has not been fun, and no one lives to get sick and have surgery, we have surgery so we can enjoy all the other elements of life that make everything worth living. However, I hope that by sharing this experience I can help others make their own experiences a little less negative.
So the op to remove my kidney stone went really well. My surgeon was really pleased with how everything progressed and he was fairly sure that he got all the stone. I woke up from the anaesthetic pretty well too, aside from the expected pain (That went away with the morphine) I felt quite good.
The hiccup came the next day. After the op the surgeon leaves a urinary stent in the ureter (tube from kidney to bladder) to prevent a blockage from swelling. Sometimes the stent can cause nothing more than mild discomfort. Other times, such as this, it can be a pain in the a@#$.
The stent kept rubbing on the bottom of my bladder, so it constantly irritated me every time I moved and made me feel like I constantly needed to go to the toilet. Also every time I did go to the toilet urine would back up into my kidney and that would be agony.
So, how did I deal with it? First, movement would irritate the stent, so I became a couch potato for a week (I watched a lot of DVD's). Second, I tried not to think about it by distracting myself, which is hard to do when you are restricting movement, but books, video games and DVD's helped. Last, although I believe strongly in the power of the mind, sometimes you have to rely on the doctor prescribed narcotic analgesia. Used correctly they can be a powerful tool in assisting with recovery.
Well on Tuesday, I had the stent out, and what a relief, it was pretty much back to normal straight away. Well, until next time anyway. I will talk about GP's in my next blog. Until then, stay well:)
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