The Kidney Stone Saga

You know, I would never have guessed that a kidney stone could cause so much trouble.  It's been a rough two days for Jack.  We arrived at the hospital Tuesday morning and Jack was taken to interventional radiology to have a nephrostomy tube placed.  The anesthesiologist immediately clued in to the fact that Jack has no good veins and access was going to be a problem.  Fortunately, they decided to put in a PICC line and I was very happy about that because with as many times as he has to go under anesthesia, I felt so much better knowing that he had good, stable access.  It took them twice as long as expected to get the nephrostomy tube in because of the size of the stone.  The resident told me that a couple of times they were ready to call it quits because they didn't think they were going to be able to do it (the process involves threading a thin wire through the kidney and into the bladder and using it as a guide for the tube).  But, they were able to brainstorm as a team and managed to find a way to get the tube in.  Needless to say, Jack wasn't happy when he woke up and had a tube coming out his back and a two-lumen PICC line coming out the upper part of his arm.

Today was the surgery to get the stone out.  He was in there for over three hours!  They were able to get 80% of the stone out this round.  On Friday, he goes under again and they try to get what's left out.  Jack's now has a tube draining bloody urine coming out of his back along with a foley catheter.  The kid's body has been brutalized all because of a kidney stone.  I feel so bad for Jack.  Granted, he doesn't spend a lot of time in hospitals or have to undergo a lot of procedures, but the fact is, he shouldn't have to deal with any of this.  Isn't it enough that he's trached, vented, g-tube fed and unable to move his body at all?  Enough already!

Anyway, I'm at the hospital with Jack, it's late and I'm falling asleep. I hope this update makes sense.  Tomorrow, Jack gets a CT scan to give the urologist a better idea of what's left and how best to approach the surgery on Friday.  Hopefully, Jack will rest tomorrow.  I don't think he'll be sharing any smiles though.  I don't expect to see one of those until we are wheeling him out of the doors of this place.

Thanks for checking in.