So, how did it go?

First, I want to let you know how much I appreciate your support and good wishes, because I do.

So now you're wondering how I'm doing, right? Well let me tell you the story.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far, away there was a man who lived in a castle with his two children.....

Oops, wrong story. Sorry. (I hate it when that happens.)

We, my mom and I, got to the hospital a little bit before noon and went to the surgical waiting room, as we were supposed to. I checked in and then we waited for an hour. I went up to the desk and they told me that the procedure had been moved to two o'clock instead of the 1:30 they had told me. Shortly after I was called in to the inside waiting room where I wore one of those well ventilated hospital jonnies. The nurse started talking to me and soon after another nurse came by to tell me that the doc was called to an emergency procedure at another local hospital and the wait could be from 1-3 extra hours. She also told me that I could reschedule if I didn't want to wait. I figured that since I was there and had arranged things at work and since my mom did as well that we would wait as long as we needed to. She agreed.

Earlier than expected, about 3:00 pm or so, the doc comes in and tells me that the hospital called him en-route to the emergency and told him that he didn't need to go. But he said that he would still be about an hour as there was someone in front of me who needed the same procedure. So we waited.

Somewhere around 4:00 pm the nurse comes in to hook me up to the IV. Then an anesthesiologist came by to see if I had any questions. Since it was near end of shift, a new nurse came on and wheeled me to an area closer to the O.R., since the room we were waiting in was now empty except for the nurse and us.

4:15 pm ish another anesthesiologist came by and introduced himself as the one who would hook me up. So he introduced a sedative into the IV (at 4:44 pm, according to my mom) and I was off into nothingness....

I woke up maybe 2 1/2 hours later, still in somewhat painful condition.

The doc had told my mom that he started the procedure but was unable to finish because the pathway leading from my kidney to the bladder got real narrow and he couldn't easily insert the tools he needed to finish the job, rather than force them up into me and risk causing unnecessary injury. What he did do was insert a stent into that pathway, which over the next week will open up the path needed to complete the procedure. He said this is not a totally uncommon problem. He did tell my mom that the previous procedure he did went without incident... (great!)

Either tomorrow or Wednesday the hospital will call me to a) see how I'm doing and b) reschedule the procedure for next week (hopefully next Monday or as earliest as they can).

So once I was fully awake I had the overwhelming urge to pee, but could not. How annoying is that??? (VERY)

After I felt better (a little bit) they released me to go home, at about 7:30 or so.

The pain that the stent is causing is no worse than the pain I've experienced so far, so medication should be able to lessen it. Though I have been able to pee since, it still feels like I need to go, badly. Right now, peeing causes a burning sensation and is rather red twinged.

Not fun.

So I'll be taking tomorrow off and should be able to go to work on limited duty for Wednesday.

I can't tell you what a pain in the side this whole thing is...

BTW Happy Halloween!