Is that what it feels like?

Is this what it feels like to be pain-free?  I guess so!  It had been so long that I had forgotten!

For about 5 years now, I have had a kidney stone that has caused me great pain.  Until recently, I did not know that the source of the pain was a kidney stone. When I first started experiencing pain, I chalked it up to the fact that I was getting old, and back pain goes along with that in many instances.  Of course, back then, the pain was not really nearly as bad as it came to be in later years.

So, I did not know that I had a kidney stone, but I found out about 8 months ago. After I had a heart attack in June 2016, my cardiologist ordered a whole lot of medical tests, which included an ultrasound of my heart and abdominal area.  During that ultrasound, they found a large kidney stone in my right kidney, and it was causing a condition called hydronephrosis.  This condition causes the urine to be blocked from easily exiting your kidney and going to the bladder.  It makes it hard to urinate and causes pain as well because of the amount of pressure that builds in your kidney.

Well, at the time they found the stone, they could not really do anything about it, because we had to focus on my heart.  Because my heart was not in good condition, I could have died if they attempted to remove the stone.  So, I had to keep suffering through the pain, which kept getting worse and worse.  By the past few weeks, I have been in pain 24/7 and applying heat to the area almost constantly.

A few weeks ago, I started seeing a Urologist get the stone taken care of because my Cardiologist told me that the time was right and my heart was very strong.  The Urologist happens to be one of my best friend’s brother.  He was very nice and very competent.  We went through some steps to prepare, and yesterday I had ESWL (Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy).  ESWL is a treatment where they use ultrasonic waves (sound waves) to blast the kidney stone and pulverize it.  It takes about an hour of this blasting in most cases, and that is how long it took for mine.  I went to the Hospital at about 8 AM and by 11 AM I was at home typing an email to a friend. For the first time in years, I had no pain.

I had not realized that I was in constant pain for all of these years, but once I felt what it was like to have no pain, I realized how great it felt.

I was under general anesthesia during the procedure (which is considered to be a type of surgery).  Sometimes they use general anesthesia, other times they use regional anesthesia for this type of procedure.  The Anesthesiologist was very good.  As it turned out, the Anesthesiologist is the husband of my eye doctor, but I did not realize that until he had already left.  He was very nice and did a great job.  My Urologist was Dr. Manuel Belisario, and he was fantastic.

My work was done at the Mindanao Kidney Stone Center, which is at Brokenshire Hospital here in Davao City.

I have two additional kidney stones (one in each kidney) but they are smaller and are not bothering me.  We will take care of them at a later date.

Wow, I feel good!