A quick turn of events this week allowed me to see the urologist this morning. I’ll take a quick moment to tell you about it because it was COOL, then I’ll tell you what the doctor said.
Due to the fact that I’m enrolled in a county health program (Carelink), I am required to go through a myriad of steps in order to see a specialist. So, when my primary care doctor referred me nearly two weeks ago, she also provided me with a few phone numbers to follow-up. I dutifully followed up but was unable to get anywhere. More phone calls, more messages, more dead ends.
Wednesday I finally got ahold of the woman handling the referrals. She informed me that the process of medical review would take a minimum of two weeks. Despite my fuss and fight, there was nothing more she could do. I changed my tone and leaned on her compassion as I told her of my long journey through pain and uncertainty. She suggested I try to get back to my doctor to see if she could help but apologized that she couldn’t do more.
About 4 hours later, she called to tell me she had good news. She’d described my situation to a few colleagues. She explained that while my kidney stone is not obstructing anything at the moment, it could easily do so. They suggested she refer me directly to a urologist. And so she did. She told me they’d be sending me a message in the mail (how archaic..lol) but I could call them directly. I did and they scheduled me for this morning (TWO days later!). That in itself is a miracle because the other office I was working with was showing at least a 4 week wait to see a urologist.
Now… back to my regularly scheduled report… the urologist says that I do indeed have a 6mm stone in my kidney, I even got to see my CT scan films (pretty cool). There was a brief concern about a cyst he saw on my scan but according to the radiologist doctor that reviewed my scan, the cyst is functional and not of concern. I will however keep it in mind when I next see my ob/gyn.
The curious part of this is that the stone in my kidney does not explain the pain I’ve been having. After further discussion, it appears that I most likely already passed a small stone about a week or so ago, right before the CT scan was done. That would explain the intense pain I experienced and the resulting pain and soreness after that but no pain or blood since then.
While the stone in my kidney is not at a threat of moving right now, I’ve decided to have it crushed so I won’t have to worry about it attempting to make an exit at an inopportune moment. So, within the next couple weeks I’ll be schedule for a lythotripsy procedure. For those not acquainted with the process, it is a non-invasive process to break apart kidney stones through the use of shock waves. It’s an outpatient procedure but will require me to be under general anesthesia and an extended dose of pain medications to take while the stone fragments pass through my system.
While I’m nervous about the procedure, I’m certainly glad that some answers are coming about and that I’m getting the care I need. Please continue to keep me in your prayers. I’ll update you as I know more.
Hi Sharon! Yes, I counted you as one of the 6 people I could ever remember visiting my blog
I’m honored that you’re still reading it.
I’m glad you’re writing updates on all the medical stuff. It’ll be so good to meet you in a couple months and know that you made it through all the way to MHGS. We will swap info about student health insurance, I’ll be needing to buy some too!