The Hesch Family: April 2011

I wanted to take a few minute to write down some of the things I have wanted to blog about, but just haven't.

KIDNEY STONES
Back in November I got side splitting pain early one morning which ended me in the ER. Luckily, Shelly was in town visiting for Josh's birthday and we were able to leave Ellie with her. After a nice CAT scan the ER doctor came with the news that I had "too many to count" kidney stones in both kidneys. The stone that was causing the pain was 8mm trying to fit down a 4mm tube. He sent me home with some good pain pills and a number for the Urologist. That was a Sunday, (seems we always go to the ER on a Sunday. We went on a Sunday when I was pregnant with Ellie, also.) Tuesday I had my appointment with the Urologist. Emergency surgery, luckily there was an opening for the next day and I didn't have to wait till the next week. Here is when the experience gets really fun. The urologist office told me to NOT eat anything but liquids for the rest of the day and said I could still take my pain medicine. I had already not eaten much in the morning because I was so out of it. Me, not knowing a whole heck of a lot about strong medicine on an empty stomach got sick. Sicker than a dog. I was nauseous, I couldn't stand or walk, or even open my eyes. The room just kept spinning. All. Night. Long. I still didn't know that it was the empty stomach and pain meds that was causing this nightmare, and in the morning Josh called the surgery center and told them what was going on. They said I could come right in and they would get me on an IV and even if I was sick it was emergency surgery I was getting it no matter what. I made it in, with my throw-up bucket. Pale and weak. It took two dosed of nausea meds for the room to stop spinning and the color to return to my face.

The IV hurt, and my hand had to be in a certain position or else the liquid stopped dripping in. As a result of the poor placement I got this beauty.

A few days later I got these. They are only just a few of them.

In December, I had the Lithotripsy done again on my other kidney. This time I wasn't in pain before the surgery so there was no mistakes with the medicine to be made. The IV was placed correctly and so no nasty bruise. After this surgery I did wake up in more pain than the first surgery and I was A LOT more loopy this time around. I don't remember much about recovery, and I wasn't able to dress myself, if I recall right. This whole experience was an adventure for all of us. Poor Ellie wont take a bottle and I couldn't nurse her for 24 hours after each surgery and she had a hard time, but we made it!

PAPA AND ELLIE

..and she fell asleep.

BIG GIRL

I was getting pretty annoyed with letting Ellie sleep in bed with us. But she just wouldn't stay in her bed. When we left the king bed behind in Saint George, I knew this was the time to sleep train her and get her to sleep in her own bed and to go down for naps by herself.

It was hard. She would cry herself to sleep. It took anywhere from 10-45 minutes. The first week I would go in and pick her up and comfort her. Tell her that I knew this was hard and I knew she could do it and that she is doing a good job. When the week went by and that didn't work I ditched the picking her up part and just went in and told her the same things, kissed her forehead and walked back out. Three days later...

She signs nap, we go into the bed room, lay her down in her bed and she goes right to sleep! This was all back in January, early February. She was STILL getting up 1-3 times at night wanting milk. I was going insane with the lack of sleep and worry of waking others up if I let her cry. Josh and I finally had enough of it and we moved her out of the room. In two weeks the numbers of times she would wake up varied. Sometimes once or twice, now she doesn't get up once! Plus she has learned to play in her bed so in the mornings she just sits and plays and talks to herself and it gives me another 20 minutes! I am so proud of her!