This last week has been a doozy. As a result - radio silence from me on all fronts. I even kept up with posting while I was in Disneyland! So what could be going on that would halt everything I had planned for Whitney Beth Photography? A terrible combo of misdiagnosis, being 17 weeks pregnant and kidney stones. We got back from vacation Sunday evening. Monday was spent getting a Christmas tree, unpacking, decorating for Christmas and settling back into real life after having been at the happiest place on earth. Tuesday is where all my trouble started. I woke up for the day and went to the bathroom. As I sat down, I felt a sharp pain in my lower, right side. I figured it was from overdoing it yesterday and dismissed it. It wasn't until I stood up that I noticed my urine was cloudy with blood. I instantly feared the worst and rushed to grab my doppler from my drawer. I found baby and heard the reassuring, quick paced, whoosh of a healthy heartbeat. With that in the clear I just attributed the events to being pregnant and had a self proclaimed, "easy day." Feeling confident that whatever was wrong would right itself with a good night's sleep I drifted off. 

     Wednesday morning we had dentist appointments scheduled. As I got up and started getting ready I was disappointed to discover my pain in my lower right side of my back still remained, if anything it was worse. I cut my shower short as I was now having a hard time standing upright. Everything started hurting and I was doubled over on the bed. Danny called the OBGYN and the nurse who took our call said it was most likely a UTI or Kidney stones. She had us come over to the lab asap to do a urinalysis. I have never wished for a UTI in my life before, but having had one prior and never experiencing kidney stones, I figured I'd take the less painful option. 

     We went to the lab, I gave them my sample with the promise that they would call with the results. Danny still had work, so to give me some reprieve, he took Jones up to his mom's house for the day. I called my mom to let her know what was going on. A few hours passed by and then I got the call. The nurse informed me that I had a UTI, and that it probably didn't surprise me. She phoned my Rx over to Danny at the pharmacy. Thanks to my mom running up to the pharmacy I was able to start my antibiotics around 3. I spent the remainder of the day in agony as it hurt to sit, lay down, stand, you name it. By the time Danny had come home, I had taken my second dose of antibiotics but had gained no relief. The pain felt worse than labor. No relief and always constant. My eyes were puffy and swollen from having drained my tear ducts. Finally about 10:30 pm I was being checked into the ER at Altaview. 

     From check in time it took over an hour to get my IV and some pain meds. But once they hit, my pain scale went from a 10 to a 7. The first relief I had had all day. From there we were learned that my urinalysis from earlier in the day was a failed catch and contaminated by my skin cells. The lab had just assumed it was a UTI - awesome. After learning that we were able to do an ultrasound to check out my kidneys, bladder and baby. Since I was 16 ish weeks pregnant they couldn't do a CT scan to see if I did have kidney stones and how many. They don't show up on the ultrasound, only that my kidney is dilated. Another urinalysis confirmed that it was indeed, kidney stones. 

     I was finally admitted to the hospital around 2 am. It was looking like I was going to need surgery so I wasn't allowed any food or drink until surgery was confirmed. But I was given a sponge I could wet my mouth with, so that was cool. -_- After a terrible night's sleep with my pain level hovering around a 7 (even with the [low] dose of morphine) I eagerly awaited the urologist to stop by in the morning to tell me if we were doing surgery or not. He came by and to my dismay, told me to hold off eating and drinking for a few more hours to see if I could pass them myself. He'd come back and check on me. Apparently "a few hours" translates to the whole freakin' day! I didn't see him again until 5 or 6 that evening. Luckily around 3 I passed my first big stone. Shortly after my second, smaller one followed suit. It was then, after 22 hours since my last meal, that I was finally allowed to eat and drink. 

     When the urologist came by to see me he said I could be discharged. Due to short staff, my nurse was running all over the place. I didn't walk out of the hospital until 7:30 - only after my mom went to have her paged. I was still in a bit of pain, but wanted to go home more than anything. I hadn't seen Jones since the night before when I went in and had left him with my mom at home. 

     Friday was spent mostly sleeping and resting, but still in pain. Saturday had a little more activity but still pain. I was taking Percocet round the clock to stay on top of it. Sometime in the afternoon I passed my third and final stone. From there I began to improve and by Sunday I only took one pain med the entire day. Now I'm totally kidney pain free and trying to gain traction again to keep up with this busy holiday season I'm in the midst of. Thank you to all who checked up on me and sent me sweet messages. I'm so happy to be back and kicking!