Well, if nothing else the last couple of weeks have been eventful, to say the least. Our holiday season was AMAZING, and also full of surprises. The biggest surprise of all was finding out that Jordan's dad got married back in August. It was a nice surprise but a surprise none the less. We had a wonderful time both in Charleston for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and in Maine for the New Year.
Our biggest topic of conversation, though, has definitely been my recent health problems. On Monday after Christmas, I had some terrible pain in my left side and ended up going into the ER. They did a CT scan and determined that I had a stricture in my ureter. The ureter is basically the tube connecting the kidney and the bladder, and mine has a narrowing not far from where the ureter leaves the kidney. It caused the top of my ureter to back up and swell, and when I saw the scan, it was terrifying! The swollen section was huge, and so was my kidney. So they admitted me to the hospital and inserted a stint between my kidney and bladder, through my ureter, to open the kink and hopefully alleviate my pain. Unfortunately, although the stint did its job, I've had an unpleasant reaction to the stint.
This coming Tuesday, two weeks after the initial operation, I will go for a scan at Carteret General, where I was admitted last week. The scan will determine the function of my left kidney. My doctor, who I really like, thinks that it's fine, but we're doing the scan just in case. After that I go to Chapel Hill, which is about 2.5 hours away, to meet with another surgeon, who will perform my surgery after a consult. He'll go in laproscopically and cut out the portion of my ureter that is kinked, then reattach the normal portions together. It's pretty terrifying since I've never been admitted to a hospital before this issue, but I just want to get better. Anyway, I can use all the prayers and positive thoughts I can get. We miss our family terribly, and hope to see everyone sooner than later. I'll keep everyone posted on my condition. All our love!
