Hi all,
I want to ask for prayers for my dad. He's suffering with a real bad case of kidney stones. Friday night he was throwing up and sweating buckets. He couldn't even keep water down. The local ER doc gave him some pain and anti-nausea meds and said to go to the VA Hospital Monday morning. Well, yesterday, he was real bad again so they loaded up and headed to Houston.
Thank God for the ER doc who realized he hadn't eaten or drank anything for almost 48 hours and admitted him instead of sending him to the hotel and scheduling him with the urology dept. Monday like they had planned on. They did a CAT scan, and know that there are 2 stones in the left kidney. When the docs came in today, it turns out that he also has stones in his right kidney. The left kidney is inflamed but not infected. But they are going to do a MRI w/ contrast to get a better picture, and to also get a look at his right kidney. There is talk about a 'mass' with the right kidney. Now whether this mass is a stone or what we don't know. He is allergic to iodine, so they can't do a CAT scan with contrast, so lets hope the MRI shows a good picture.
They already have him in the que for surgery before the end of the week. They are going to go in with a scope and try to get the stones with the 'claw basket', and if not, put a stint in and use a laser to try to break it up. They will also use lithotripsy after the attempted stone removal.
He's had problems with kidney stones before, but this round, he has them in both kidneys and he is in bad shape. He hasn't been feeling good for several months, and being a man, he wouldn't go to the doctor. When we did get him to go, apparently he wasn't totally truthful with the doc, so he never checked his kidney's!! But the fact that he has been on antibiotics has probably saved his kidney. He has gotten worse since he finished the antibiotic 2 weeks ago.
Please pray that they will do the surgery SOON and be able to successfully remove the stones, and that his kidneys haven't been damaged! They've got him on morphine, but he's in a lot of pain. My mom is going to have to come home tomorrow because of the incredibly high price of hotel rooms. She's worried about him and having to leave him down there by himself is so hard on her. I know all he is doing is sleeping, but still. It is hard on me and my brother as well that we can't be down there with them. We'll go down for the surgery, but we hate not being able to be there to help him, and hear from the docs ourselves.
Your prayers and good thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Amy