Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Your-ology

Ty's urologist is an interesting doctor, but then I suppose you'd have to be if you specialize in pee-ology. By the way, "urine" is a word that ranks right up there with "membrane" and "moist" - blech.

He took a look at Ty's KUB (Kidney, Ureter, Bladder) X-ray and said, "That can't possibly be all stone, it's got to be mostly dye from when they placed his nephrostomy tube."

I suggested that he check out the CT scan that was done prior to that procedure. He did so, and if he were the swearing sort of interesting urologist he'd have said, "Holy Sh!t" because it most certainly was ALL stone. 

Here's a link to a kidney drawing with three stones in it. Ty's right kidney has every conceivable space filled with stones, and the largest one is 22 millimeters (ha-yuge). So, on Thursday he is having the least-invasive procedure performed in hopes that they can break up and flush some of the stones through the tube in his back. If the procedure is unsuccessful, he will require several surgeries going through his back and directly into his kidney in order to remove all of the stones.

Ty is one of the bravest, sweetest guys I know (takes after his dad), and he has been a trouper through all of this. We'd appreciate any prayers, fasting or good thoughts from you in his behalf. Please, let's let this procedure work on Thursday without damaging his kidney.

I may have given a false impression in my last post that I'm handling all of this (my stupid ear pain and poor Ty's unimaginable pain) well. Well, I'm not. 

I mean, I sort of am because what else can you do? But I'm also not because I say bad words, I lose my temper (which I'm sure is not at all related to the 3.5 hours of sleep/night I'm averaging), I'm a zombie some days, and occasionally I forget to shower. So I'm periodically cranky and I smell bad, but at least I remember to brush my teeth. So there's that.

I really want to thank all the neighbors that stepped up and fed my family while I was in hospital with Ty. Every other medical thing in his life (except the tumor) has been pre-scheduled. I was ready for them, and I pre-made meals and put them in the freezer, I had carpools lined up, etc. This time I was caught completely unawares. My aunt Moana made sure everything ran smoothly at home, friends brought me real food to eat at the hospital, Mr. O came and sat with Ty at night so I could go home and see the kids, and Wendy sat with Ty so I could run home and shower in my own bathroom (heaven, I tell you).

We really are blessed to have a great support network, and I just want you all to know how grateful we are.