Levi has been sleeping through the night for about the last week and a half. It’s been so awesome to get a full night’s rest! So, I was surprised when he woke at 4:00 on Sunday morning wanting to eat! I actually like our middle-of-the-night feedings. He started waking up just once at 5 weeks old and only eats for about 30 minutes then goes right back to sleep so I’ve definitely had it super easy. After feeding him I stopped by the bathroom and went back to bed. Sadly I was pretty wide awake, and at about 5:00 I realized my hip was hurting. My left hip has hurt a bit off and on since Levi was born, but it’s really only if I bend the wrong way, so I thought maybe I strained it. By 5:45 I realized it wasn’t my hip, but it was inside my hip. My first thought was kidney stones. Not because I’ve experienced them, but because I always think every little pain in my abdominal area is kidney stones. And I’m usually wrong!
At 6:00 I woke Jon to tell him I had a problem. By this time the pain was very intense and I was in tears. A few minutes later I was vomiting. I got in the bath to try and soothe the pain, but by 6:30 we knew it was time to get ready to go to the ER. It was as painful as labor! Jon called his parents to let them know what was going on and called Amy to see if she could come with us to help us with Levi. This was very scary for me, because Levi has been refusing a bottle (even with the freshest possible breast milk) for the last month, yet I knew that I would not be able to nurse him.
So at about 7:00 we loaded up the baby and my sister and rushed to Duke. I was in so much pain by that time I couldn’t walk myself into the ER and I could barely sit up in the wheelchair. I remember telling the admissions nurses that I have a baby and that he needed to nurse. I was quickly brought in to triage and was in a room by around 7:45 (super fast in my opinion)! While they took my vitals and got me ready for the docs I vomited again and was shaking from pain. Finally a doctor stopped by to see me (he was an interesting character… he was trying to make jokes and I told him straight up that he was NOT funny and to get me some pain medicine and after he left I told Amy that I was going to kill him) and then they pumped me full of pain meds in my IV. Oh glorious relief! Within minutes I felt amazing.
After testing my urine they saw that there was a lot of blood in it, so they sent me out for a renal CT scan which proved that low and behold I have kidney stones!! Several in fact that have moved down and are responsible for the pain and unfortunately several in each of my kidneys. Bad news bears! So I rested for a few hours while they pushed IV fluids and then got discharged around 2:00.
Thankfully, Levi was a champ through the whole thing. Amy and Jon took turns taking care of him and Jon’s parents came by for awhile and brought formula which he actually drank! I was so relieved. I am just so thankful that we have family here to help in emergencies. I was thankful that it turned out to be kidney stones! Initially the doctors all thought it was an ovary cyst or something similar and I’m glad I don’t have that to worry about! And I am really thankful that Levi decided to wake up at 4:00 to eat otherwise I would have been in some serious pain at 8:00 from having not fed him in 10 hours. All in all it is NOT how I wanted to spend my first Mother’s Day, but God worked it all out!
thethomthoms 