I can't believe we are already well into the month of April; 2021 is flying by! This year has been going well for me, although, I have been hospitalized twice. In February, I started having pain in my left flank, and I was pretty sure it was due to kidney stones. This isn't my first bout with stones, so I knew the signs. The pain got so bad that I actually had my mom take me to the Emergency Department on Valentine's Day. After doing a CT scan, the doctor discovered that I passed a 6mm stone from my left kidney, through the ureter, and into the bladder. No wonder I'd been in pain! I was admitted to the hospital and I stayed for two days.
A couple of weeks later, I had a telehealth appointment with my urologist. She is a stone specialist at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, and I know I am in capable hands under her care. She told me that I had a lot of other kidney stones in my left kidney, and she needed to do surgery to remove them. (I tend to produce a lot of tiny kidney stones, the size of granules of sugar, which only grow larger if they aren't removed.) My doctor was actually taking a vacation (her first in over five years), but she squeezed me in to her already busy schedule before she left.
My surgery was on March 12, and it was supposed to be outpatient (however, that didn't happen). The good news is that my surgery went very well, and my doctor was able to remove all of the kidney stones in one surgery (she thought she might have to do it in two surgeries). The bad news is that I always produce infectious stones, and I had a bad kidney infection that was resistant to all oral antibiotics. SO, I ended up being hospitalized for an entire week, and I had to get a PICC line in order to come home, since I was on IV antibiotics for 10 days. All's well that end well, though. Even though I never look forward to being in the hospital, and away from all of the comforts of home, there were a lot of blessings, and things could've been a lot worse. I'm very grateful to be stone-free again, but if my past track record is any indication, I'm sure this won't be my last experience with kidney stones.
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I also received my two doses of the Moderna vaccine in March. I prayed and prayed about the vaccine last year, and I asked Heavenly Father to inspire the scientists working on the vaccine, and to help them know just what to do in order to create a safe and effective vaccine to protect people against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. I do believe my prayers were answered, and I truly believe that this vaccine coming about so quickly can only be described as "miraculous." I love how scientists around the world were working together with a common goal for the good of humanity.
I'm grateful that I was able to get the vaccine, and that I didn't have to travel a far distance or have to wait in long lines. And I'm grateful I didn't have a bad reaction, either. My mom and my sister, Chandra, both felt lousy the day after the second dose, but it only lasted about 24 hours, which is a small price to pay for the protection and peace of mind having the vaccine brings.