{"id":867,"date":"2024-08-12T11:33:41","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T15:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=867"},"modified":"2024-08-12T11:33:41","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T15:33:41","slug":"kidney-stones-shingles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=867","title":{"rendered":"Kidney Stones & Shingles!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Summer has been a medical nightmare. Our budget will definitely shift this Fall when we start receiving bills!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 6th, the husband thought he may have gotten bit by a spider on the back of his head. This wasn’t brought to my attention until 2-3 days later, when he asked me to take a look. It was a swollen looking bite in the center back of his head. Honestly it looked like my mosquito bites, since I swell up and puss a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 10th, he woke up with a rash starting down the right side of his neck. Bam, I knew it was shingles. He went to urgent care, got antivirals and steroids, and dealt with nerve pain and itchiness. Thankfully it went no further than his collarbone, and didn’t reach his eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately a week later, on July 18th, we ended up in the ER. He had dealt with a kidney stone back on 2018, and we knew it had to be another. I was up for over 24 hours since we were there overnight, but after pain management and a CT, we were finally sent home with antibiotics and pain meds, and to follow up with a urologist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the stone (6mm) seemed to be stuck in the ureter, so 3 weeks after our ER visit, he was in same day surgery for a uteroscopy and lithotripsy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a ride. The surgery itself was all of 10 minutes. The doc busted the stone into 100’s of pieces with a laser, ran a scope clear up the right side to make sure everything looked good, then placed a stent that will come out in 2 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was home the same day, and we are 3 days post-op now, but even though it seems minimal, it was an invasive surgery that certainly takes time to recover from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Google search image of the stent in place and where the stone was<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
  • \"\"
    One last x-ray to see if there was any change<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    The bed awaits<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    Scary door in the pre-op staging area<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    Waiting for transport to bring him back from recovery<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    On the move<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    It was the first time in our relationship that he has gone under general anesthesia, and I was definitely nervous. The hospital had a text sign up though so I received a text when surgery started and when he was in recovery, so that was nice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While he is recovering, we are discussing lifestyle changes to minimize the chance that we ever need to do this again! Lessening the Dr. Pepper consumption is a tough one, but we certainly need to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This Summer has been a medical nightmare. Our budget will definitely shift this Fall when we start receiving bills! On July 6th, the husband thought he may have gotten bit by a spider on the back of his head. This wasn’t brought to my attention until 2-3 days later, when he asked me to take…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[225,280,277,17,278,279],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medical-stuff","tag-225","tag-hospital","tag-kidney-stones","tag-medical-stuff","tag-shingles","tag-surgery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/png_20211229_100926_00008925482664343825079.png?fit=3000%2C1500&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":164,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=164","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":0},"title":"Another One Bites The Dust","date":"July 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I was supposed to go back to work. It's been six days since the last positive test, and the CDC recommends testing 5 days after. Well today, daughter #2 says she might have caught covid, because her head hurts. One test later, and she's positive. One test later, I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to Day Happenings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":720,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=720","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":1},"title":"The End of an Era","date":"February 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Every year for at least the past 5 years we've been the country folk that head to the big city so kiddo #3 can get an annual x-ray of her legs with the Orthopedic Pediatric Surgeon. She is an anomaly, with her left tibia being bowed, causing knock-knee and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Medical Stuff"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/png_20211229_100926_00008925482664343825079.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":161,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=161","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":2},"title":"Not A Very Happy 4th…on the 3rd","date":"July 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Our town's fireworks were this evening. We live outside of town, but thankfully we can see the display from our yard. Unfortunately, daughter's #1 and #4 tested positive today. That leaves me with symptoms but a negative test, and daughter #2 with no symptoms so I haven't tested her yet.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to Day Happenings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/png_20220112_081854_0000388127475224613092.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":158,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=158","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":3},"title":"It Finally Caught Us!","date":"June 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"We had our theater show over the weekend, so we were around a lot of people. I figure that's where we finally picked it up. COVID-19 has finally found our house. The husband has had a tickle in his throat, I've felt a bit fatigued, and daughter #3 spiked a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Medical Stuff"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=28","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":4},"title":"Budget Talk – Medical Debt 2022","date":"December 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"One thing my family has been actively working on this past year is getting out of debt. I actually started a debt payoff journey on YouTube early last year, but ended up not keeping up with it after a couple of months because life got extremely busy between work, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Budget Talk"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211227_103602_00003723365761435641241.png?fit=1200%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":861,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=861","url_meta":{"origin":867,"position":5},"title":"Metal Mouth","date":"August 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As a family with 4 kids, it was inevitable that someone would need braces. Unfortunately for our budget, 4 out of 4 need them. And on top of braces, they all 4 need upper frenum clippings. Kid #1 had \"junior braces\" on the top before a full set, because she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Budget Talk"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/png_20211229_100926_00008925482664343825079.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}