My Journey through Breast Cancer

On October 11, 2013, I was diagnosed with Stage II Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) ... or as we like to call it, extreme measures for a nap (EMFN). For a while, this blog will be my cancer journal. Enter at your own risk.

22 May 2009

insult to injury

OK, so pregnancy isn't really an "injury," per se. But, it comes with its own list of discomforts, like not sleeping well, super swollen feet and hands (which go numb every time I blow dry my hair or try to knit), a sore back and a crushed bladder. This week, I added to these discomforts the good fun of dealing with a kidney stone. Though I'm becoming a reluctant expert on the subject, kidney stones still scare the heck out of me. They're the most painful medical condition I've experienced so far in my life. When not pregnant, one gets to take narcotic painkillers like Percocet and Vicadin. The first one I had, at age 17, I ended up in the hospital for 3 days, being poked and prodded and X-rayed like a biology experiment (which I didn't mind as long as they kept the drugs coming).

This time, fortunately, the pain wasn't as bad as I've experienced in the past (for which I am truly grateful ... b/c pregnant women can't take anything stronger than Tylenol ... which would be kind of like spitting at a wildfire). However, I still spent the last week enduring twinges of pain in my kidneys, and then was up half the night last night with more pain. I watched TV while I drank more water in an hour than any pregnant woman should (see "crushed bladder" in previous paragraph) ... but it still wasn't until nearly lunch time today that the stupid thing finally passed. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have it gone!

Now if only Josephine would take the hint and start making her move out of my tired and overworked body and toward the real world as well. (Just two weeks until due date.)

3 comments:

Gretchen said...

Oh Heidi! I'm so sorry that you had to deal with a kidney stone at this late pregnancy hour! Blechhh. Glad you're o.k. now!

Jean Kaiser said...

Oh my dear! This is from your kidney stone sister (Aunt Jean..so does that make me your Aunster?!) So sorry you had that when you can't take the big stuff! Here's the good news. I've done kidney stones and I've delivered babies...I'll deliver a baby ANY DAY over having a kidney stone!! Come on Josie your mamma is ready! =)

km said...

Oh...you really didn't need to go through that right now. Although, I guess you could be grateful that it came now instead of the first weeks after Josie's arrival.