In January of 2017, I was once again experiencing some nasty left flank pain. Given my history with something called renal tubular acidosis, I just figured another kidney stone which I’ll eventually pass. But when March came along and I still hadn’t passed it, my doctor ordered a CT Scan.
We found out I did, in fact, have a kidney stone, but it was the size of a marble and stuck in the kidney! So in July I had a percutaneous nephrolithotomy. If you’re not up on your Greek and Latin, percutaneous is Greek for through the skin, nephro is Latin referring to kidney, litho means stone and -otomy means remove by cutting.
I was sent home with a hole in my back with a tube to drain my kidney for 4 days! Officially, this is called a nephrostomy, as far as I was concerned a major source of misery for which I was grateful for a nice supply of Norco and Valium.
As you can see from the photo, one guy at work referred to it as “OH MY GOSH! WHAT ARE YOU, CRAZY? WHY WOULD YOU EVER LET SOMEONE TO THAT TO YOU!? I’M SORRY, BUT THAT’S JUST NOT RIGHT!!!!”