Excuse Me, Little Buggers

Because there was not just one stone, there were three! And over the course of the night, Mom passed each and every one of them into a little strainer, even the 3mm big boy they saw on the CT scan. Amazing.

Her creatinine is trending down now that the obstruction is being relieved, and they've decided not to undergo stent placement since all the stones are out.

Anyone with a history of a stone should really drink between 2 to 3 litres of water daily, which will be one of the hardest lifestyle modifications for Mom to get on board with. And once we get the pathology reports of the kidney stones, we might be able to better combat them.

Coco finally left at 11:15pm, but wrote me an email telling me all about their visit with the urology resident in the ER. She told my mom to remember three key phrases. These are the phrases that will get her through ER triage fast:

I only have one kidney

I have a history of stones

I am in pain

A fourth phrase can be added if/when necessary

I have no/reduced urine

Every time Mom has left-sided flank pain, she'll most likely have to head to St. Frannie because there is no way of knowing what is causing the pain until a CT scan is done.

She sounded great this morning, psyched to go home considering her creatinine continues to trend downwards, and willing to let us all badger her to drink drink drink!