Shockwave Therapy

The Lithotripsy procedure was performed this afternoon on the stone in Satomi’s left kidney.  Our Urologist said the stones only required 1000 shock wave pulses to disintegrate into sand-sized particles.  They limit the “dose” to 3000 pulses so using the crudest measure, things went very well.  They had to place a stent in her left Ureter to help pass the debris. 

The procedure was done at an Out-Patient surgery center so the formality was relaxed and post-Op was amazingly short compared to say, City of Hope.  I know we’re talking extremes here but I was surprised how quickly she was discharged.  She was still very sleepy.  In any case, the whole procedure  took only a few hours door-to-door.

We’re home now and she needs help to walk.  She’s very dizzy and tired from the remnants of the general anesthesia.  Her throat hurts from the intubation.  The stent is very uncomfortable; It makes her feel like pee-ing every 5 minutes.

We bumped up her water intake and pain-killers.  She can eat normal food as soon as she wants to.  After the pain-killers wear-off tomorrow, she may feel like she’s been beaten up so we planned for the kids to stay over at Baachan’s.  I’m just going to keep an eye on her for the weekend.

The stent should come out in a couple of weeks.  It’s going to be a long couple of weeks.  At least its only an office visit.  

In a month or two, we get to do it all over again.  Oh boy…

Update 4/11/2010 11:00pm

Satomi is still uncomfortable and going to the bathroom every 30 minutes.  She’s passed just a small amount of debris.  It’s going to take while to pass the entire stone.

Update 4/18/2010 11:00pm

“Blocked…”  That’s the story of the last week.  Lot’s of water and lot’s of peeing.  We scheduled the stent removal for Tuesday.  It’s the earliest the doctor recommended.  Only a small bit of very fine debris has passed but that doesn’t seem to concern anyone.