What an experience 2016 threw at us! After lots of pain, an overnight ER stay, ultrasounds, x-rays, blood work, and MRI, an ambulance ride, hours & hours between two different hospitals, and lots of morphine, we found out in September that Jacky boy had a 6 mm kidney stone stuck in his ureter. Over the next few weeks, he went under full anesthesia on 3 different occasions to try to get it out. The first time, they couldn't reach the stone because of all the swelling, so they placed a stent. That stupid stent ended up being even more painful than the kidney stone itself, and it landed us back in the ER for what ended up being a particularly traumatizing night for us. Over the next few weeks he was basically always in pain any time he had to use the bathroom. The 2nd procedure was successful with blasting the stone, but a new stent was placed to aid in the healing of his ureter, which meant a couple more weeks with the dang stent pain. The final procedure was to remove the stent, and Jack felt immediately so much better after that. The whole process was a couple months long, and watching him walk out of Primary Children's after his final follow-up visit was such an overwhelming moment. I was beyond grateful that this was over and that he wasn't in pain anymore, but I was also hurting for the sweet families who don't get to walk out of the hospital with their child like I did. We saw so many children at the hospital during this process who were going through much worse.
For the past two months, Jack pretty much slept on the floor of our bedroom every night in case his pain flared up. Which meant that Sam was sleeping right there on the floor next to him every time :)
Although it's never easy to watch your child cry in pain, we knew all along this was minimal compared to what others go through. This time of year especially, I am grateful for my children's overall health and that Jack is better. And I'm ever mindful of those other sweet families who are dealing with so much more.
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