Update on Nathan

I'll try to post updates on Nathan to keep you informed as to how things are going.

Tuesday night we had our usual date and all was well. Somewhere around 1, Nathan got up in quite a bit of pain. I didn't actually hear him until nearly an hour later when he called me and I couldn't figure out why he wasn't in bed. He was in excruciating pain, couldn't get up and wanted me to push on his back. After a few minutes where he could barely explain to me what was wrong because he was moaning so dreadfully, I decided to call the Nurse's Hotline, but quickly decided to call 9-1-1 for an ambulance. The ambulance came and thankfully told me it was probably a kidney stone--at that moment, I was imagining life as a single Mom to 5 kids! Nathan rarely complains about pain and has a fair amount of chronic pain, so when he does complain, I'm pretty sure it much be terrible.

They took him in to Saan Pen, did a scan, found that it was a kidney stone and kept him in overnight. They called and told me to come and get him in the morning because it was apparently 'mostly passed'. Nathan came home for the day Wednesday but was still fairly uncomfortable and hardly ate anything. Then I gave him a healthy, nonflavourful dinner, which he ate little of and has wished he ate more of ever since!

Thursday morning he was back to a very high level of pain-not quite as bad as Tues night. He couldn't wait for me to take the kids to his Mom's and then go to the hospital, so George, our wonderful tenant, drove him back to the hospital. They did bloodwork, and the Doctor sheepishly told him that it looked like his kidney was distressed and inflamed. (This Dr told him the night before that it wasn't that big of a stone and he needed to keep it down because he was moaning so badly--and Nathan has an extremely high pain tolerance, and then that morning said "oh-why are you back?" so he did seem a little embarrassed to admit there might be a bigger problem)

Thursday-he was to have the stone removed via surgery within 24 hours, so no food or water-he did have an IV. He had a second ambulance ride to Helmecken Rd hospital where I hoped he would get right in since they called him over when they were ready for him. Not even ice chips at this point. Waited all day, no surgery, no food. Finally at 9:30, the Dr came in and told him it wouldn't be today, so he could eat, but sorry, the kitchen was closed! I wish he called me-I would have driven over some food for him! He is in a lot of pain, but on pretty constant morphine and some other stuff that has a side effect of people stopping breathing, but is pretty helpful for the pain.

Friday-came and taped up his jewellry that doesn't come off at 11:30 am, so it looked promising. Still in a lot of pain, experiencing nausea. We went for a walk to the end of the hall and he nearly passed out and took a good 2 hours to recover from the walk. Somewhere in the afternoon, I started smuggling a couple of small drinks of water for him because I didn't think he'd get in anyway. All the emergency C-sections, etc, are getting in ahead of him, so they can't tell when he'll get in. I went to get a subway sandwich for him before I left the hospital, which he is looking forward to eating after they give him the "well I guess it won't be tonight, so you can eat until Midnight" speech somewhere in the evening.

The latest news is that he'll have the surgery Saturday afternoon, but they cut down the O.R. to one room + it's a full moon coming up and a lot of babies are born then-so I'm praying for healthy deliveries without C-sections!

We're very thankful that the kids have been with Nana overnight so I can go help him & keep him company. Jim came home from camp a day early to help Mickie with them today.

Thanks for praying for him! Poor guy! Coming from a Woman Doctor who has had 2 children & 3 kidney stones, she said the kidney stones dwarfed the labour pain! I'm reminded of my very unfortunate friend who had a kidney stone just days away from delivering her baby!