August 22, 2026 - Kidney Stones Against

Not that it really matters but I wish I had kept track of how many times I've had kidney stones. As best as I can piece it all together, I think this most current episode is #18. How ridiculous is that? I have really been drinking a lot of water with this heat and not drinking so many Dr. Pepper, because I'm trying to lose weight and also, because Dr. Pepper costs have surpassed the price I am willing to pay. But, yet, here we are with another kidney stone story. My parents both had kidney stones ONCE and my sister has had them ONCE so they doctors tell me heredity has as much to do with it as what I eat but honestly . . how can they all have had them once and I have them every time I turn around. The last time I had lithotripsy was January, 2023. Before that, it was 2016. And, here we are, not even four years from the 2023 incident and it has happened again.

Please note I am not feeling sorry for myself, even though this one was a bit different, it was fairly easily solved and more importantly, if this is the worst that ever happens to me, I am very lucky. I was going to say blessed but I don't think I need a qualifier to say I am blessed because this or that happened or didn't happen. Hands down . . I AM very blessed and am thankful every day for my good health . . even with a blip every now and then.

Friday morning my goal was to get the rest of the ground beef that I had defrosted canned. Thursday, I chopped a gallon of bell peppers - really it was giant marconi peppers and roasted about three dozen poblano peppers and they were going in with the new batch of ground beef.

About 4 a.m. Friday morning, I woke up with a stabbing type pain in my lower right side. I sat up in bed and thought . . what was THAT?? It went away so I went back to sleep. Then I woke up about 5:30 and thought . . that might have been a kidney stone. I'd better get busy getting that meat canned in case I have to go to the ER. I got 17 pounds of ground beef browned (not really browned but most of the pink was gone and that's sufficient for canning). It ended up being 26 pints. I put the poblano peppers and some of the giant Marconi peppers in 9 jars, which will be used for chile rellino casseroles or maybe pizza. The rest of the giant Marconi peppers were split between the 17 remaining pint jars. I got those filled with broth and between the All American 930 and 915, they held (barely) all those jars. It was probably about 10:00 a.m. when both canners came up to pressure and I started the timer for 1 hour, 15 minutes. 

I sat down to start stitching and oops . . the pain was back and it was INTENSE. Vince was out cutting grass. I knew I couldn't leave to go to the ER in Carthage until the canners stopped so I waited until they had been going about 45 minutes, then I went outside and told Vince (for the first time) that I thought I had a kidney stone and needed to go to the ER but had to wait until the canner was done and could be turned off. He wasn't happy that I was hurting and wouldn't leave until the canners were done but I was not about to lose 17 pounds of ground beef and so many of my home grown peppers.

Probably TMI but for me, maybe for everyone, when the pain gets to a certain level, I start throwing up. That started when the canner still had about 15 minutes to go. This was probably the worst kidney stone pain I've ever had.

The minute the timer went off, I turned the canners off and we went to the Carthage E.R. People there are always so nice. They did a CT with contrast and the results were an 8 mm kidney stone partially blocking the right kidney, which already was showing Hydronephrosis (swelling) so the doctor wanted to send me by ambulance to the Joplin hospital because Carthage doesn't do that kind of stuff. NO! I was not going by ambulance. We could drive 20 or 25 minutes to the hospital for way less $$ and I doubted anything would happen before Monday anyway. The doctor wasn't happy but said fine . . drive yourselves but then, there were no rooms available in Carthage. He checked Springfield and there were no rooms there. He was going to check Tulsa but Vince said he would rather go to Kansas City.  Why in August are there no rooms available or is it that no one has a urologist or are there certain rooms on certain floors that are used for that and they weren't available. I have no idea but it was after 4 p.m. when a room opened up in Joplin. The Carthage ER doctor called the Joplin cardiologist who lives in Arkansas and was on call and he said he could come to Joplin "tomorrow", which was today and do the "surgery" which was insert a stent. The room was "reserved", we drove straight over there, found our room, put all our stuff in it, went to the nurses' station, introduced ourselves and got all settled into a very nice room. The nurses couldn't believe we drove ourselves. They said "We didn't even know you could do that!? Vince said "You don't know my wife!" I had not eaten anything since Thursday about 3 p.m. and it was now Friday night but they still had NPO on my chart. One of the VERY nice nurses called the hospitalist who called the urologist and he said I could eat but had to stop by midnight. About 10:30 p.m. they brought me a "sandwich tray" - sandwich, baked chips, a container of chopped pear with juice and a Shasta Cola. Delicious!! I was so happy.

This stent installation was scheduled for 9 a.m. Vince got back to the hospital about 8 so we had a chance to visit for a while before they took me back. The urologist looked at the x-rays and said there were four other stones in the right kidney but only the one was causing a problem but he thought he could go in and grab the others with some kind of stone grabber (my term . . not his). He was able to get the big stone and the four smaller stones out so for the first time in a very long time, there are zero stones in the right kidney. Not happy to have the stent to deal with until Wednesday when I get it removed but so happy to be stone free in both kidneys, according to the CT scan.

About 1:30 p.m. today, they let us leave the hospital. Even though I feel like our medical care here isn't great, mostly because I'm not a fan of Mercy and from the rumblings I hear, I am not alone with my feelings, but I am very, very happy with the nurses, doctors and other staff I dealt with there.  More so, I am happy to be home in my comfy chair, with my good lighting, my husband and my dogs!

The funny thing was . . I thought I'd be in Carthage for a couple of hours, they'd give me pain meds, send me home with instructions to call the urologist Monday and go home so I didn't bring a book, or cross stitching or knitting. I had NOTHING to do. I cannot sit still and do nothing but the pain meds helped and I slept through most of it. Lesson learned . . keep a grab and go bag with something to keep the hands occupied. I do keep a grab & go bag with clothes for a couple of days, toiletries, phone charger, etc. so I was good there . . just nothing to do! Won't happen again.