What a week

Wow. I can't believe it's been a week since my last post! I'm having a hard time staying awake for any length of time, being on morphine and muscle relaxers all the time- even though I still don't sleep at night. I escaped from the hospital on Wednesday after almost having a throw-down with the hospitalist and the nurse manager for the floor. That doctor pissed me off.  When he wasn't being condescending to me he was raising his voice to talk over me. You wanna see me go ballistic? Treat me like I'm an asshole who doesn't know what I'm talking about and see what happens.

That "doctor" is apparently new to the hospital group. My nurse told me that the doc hadn't even gotten a report on me before he busted into my room and told me he was sending me home right after my ureterocsopy. Um, excuse me but I just got a whopping shot of morphine 2 minutes ago, so of course my pain is minimal. The urologist has other plans for me. He also couldn't or wouldn't give me an answer on why my pelvic CT scan didn't show the gigantic tumor. He scoffed at the picture I showed him of my tumor on my previous PET scan. "When was that scan done- a year ago?" he sneered at me.  I said "NO, motherfucker- it was a MONTH ago. What is your problem? Why can't you give me a straight answer? And why has it taken 3 fucking days to get the radiologist to look at it?" By this time, my son was sitting very close to me and kind of rubbing my shoulders (actually to grab me when I went to lunge for the stupid shit doctor), and several nurses were seen huddling in the door. I guess they're not used to patients ripping into the doctor like that.  This is where the nurse manager got involved to diffuse the situation.

Anyway, suffice it to say that I survived this episode, and so did the doc. I have a follow up with the urologist tomorrow to take the stents out of my ureters. Then I see the oncologist on Wednesday to discuss my "absent" tumor, get some blood work done and maybe another scan. I also want this port out of my chest. I now have 5 new meds: morphine, muscle relaxers, ditropan-which stops my bladder from spasming, senna to keep the mail moving (which it hasn't in a week, God help me) and Flomax- which they give to old guys for prostate problems. It also relaxes my ureters or something like that, so if any more stones wanna make a break for it, hopefully they will just fall out. Ya think?

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We actually had 2, since my new sis-in-law had to work on Thursday. There was a delicious dinner here at mom's house, then a big bash at my brother's place with SIL's family included.

 My "babies"

THE baby

On a sad note- one of my support group buddies passed away last week. She wasn't very far into treatment and had only recently had surgery, but went downhill quickly from there. Complications took the life of a very beautiful, very young, and very much loved daughter and friend.  We attended a memorial service for her on Saturday. 

R.I.P. Amy. You were loved.

What the hell?

Who would believe that something the size of a raisin could fell an Amazon Girl like me?

I woke up in excruciating pain at about 2am this morning. It felt like a very large hand got ahold of my kidney and was squeezing it like a sponge. I waited a bit to see if it would go away, but 5 minutes later I was waking my mom up to take me to the hospital.

Once at the hospital it was determined that I had a rogue kidney stone trying to make it's escape. Remember how at the very beginning of my cancer journey it all started with kidney stones? The very ones that nobody ever mentioned again after discovering the pelvic masses during the CT scan. Well, hallelujah, my kidney stones are finally on the front page again.

I'm still at the hospital. I've spent all day trying to pass the fucker. I'm sloshing with morphine, toradol, flomax, IV fluids and water, and I'm gonna get some flexeril soon for my aching shoulder muscles (from being hunched in pain for hours). The urologist said if I don't pass it by morning they will perform a ureteroscopy where they stick a scope up where one ain't never been stuck before that goes all the way up the ureters, where they will blast the little bastard with a laser. Who knew they did such things? Apparently I missed the lithotripsy wagon, which is only here every two weeks. Lithotripsy is where they use ultrasonic waves (on the OUTSIDE of your body) to pulverize kidney stones into dust, making it easy to pass them. Just my luck they were here YESTERDAY. Fuck. Are they like gypsies, I wonder? The lithotripsy team? Just passing through town putting that magic wand on sufferers of ureterolithiasis? Why wasn't I notified? 

Ah, Miguel is here again. Beloved, devoted Miguel, my nurse for the day. He is very generous with the pain meds, my Miguel. Will let y'all know how the stealth scope goes tomorrow.