We have a saying here amongst the Senior Missionaries..... NQR (Not Quite Right). That is slang for only in Mexico. Don't try to understand it, change it, or explain it to others. You see something that just makes you shake your head, or scratch it, face-palm it.... save the energy and just admit NQR.
It all began two weeks ago on Monday. The familiar twinge of a Kidney stone in my left flank. I had been having the feeling that I had something moving because of the "need to pee" feeling and the ache in the lower abdomen. "I got this", I say to myself. Familiar territory. This would be stones # ????? that I have had. I also knew I had a few in there when I left the states. I had brought medicine for the eventual occurance.
Leave the office at noon, so no one is the wiser... leave for lunch. Start medications. Lie down. Start the fluids. Check, check, check. All is as should be until I get the shakes in the middle of the night from pain and fever. That is no bueno. Mission doc checks on us in morning. He knows a good urologist. Decision made, we are to go to his clinic which is attached to a hospital.
Now enter first NQR - Mexico roads and traffic to get to said Doctor. We arrive after muchos bumpos and no parking. You must get out of your car and let the valet park as you have to walk to get there. Good thing I brought a barf bag. Fortunately they knew we were coming, only a minimal amount of wait to be seen. But El Doctor wants a CT scan so we know where the stones are.
NQR Segundo - The said attached hospital's CT is down. We must get in the car and drive to another hospital to have that done. (please refer to NQR numero uno). But I no longer have my barf bag. It was filled and tossed. NQR numero tres - doctor's office had nothing.... sent me with a little store bag that may or may not have holes in it. No pain meds given for the journey.
We arrive at the other hospital and they don't accept or recognize the insurance. No importante that I want to die or leave the remnants of my stomach on their floor. John finally pays pesos to get it done (Dr. Stevens had to return to the area offices due to transportation problem) We finally get the CT done before he gets back. Take said scans back to Dr. Torres Saunders at his clinic. Si!, tiene stones usted! Dos in the bladder and then one blocking ureter. We have tres options for you... but best you go to the hospital and be admitted. They "should" take you right up.... NQR NO. Go to admitting. We are now on hour 5 or 6 or 7, dilerium set in, without pain meds.
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| yes, that is the grocery sack from the doctor's office..... no emisis trays and still no pain meds as the IV pole is naked. |
10:30 is the magical hour to finally get in a room and get some meds on board, after being sent to the ER and back to admitting because ER didn't want me. (yes still having the "Past Pain Threshold" shakes). No food or water, we may go in the next day and get stone, or we may wait a day.
Okay I understand the need to monitor volume in, volume out, but here is a little quiz for your entertainment value at my expense..... Can you find the NQR in this photo:
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| we will start our quizzes easy for you |
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| yes this is what they were using to measure output, pouring from the bed pan. |
So Wednesday they just load me with water, Thursday the doctor takes me to the OR and went in with the basket and laser to get the stone. Apparantly, the stone that was in the ureter was too big to pass and it had backed the Kidney up. Tuesday night I had a very high fever and the kidney was so backed up that is was infected. I was out of it..... so here is a conscious version from John:
It is about 2 pm on Thursday. It is raining outside the hospital and we have the windows open. Sounds like rain and smells mostly like rain. I do miss the Arizona summer rain-on-the-desert smell, but this keeps the dust out of the air. I even hear a little thunder out in the distance.
Dalene went down to surgery at about 0730, after getting a KUB in Xray at 0700. The Dr. came to the room about 0800 and told me he was going down to begin. He said the surgery would take about an hour and a half to two hours. They call it surgery here, we would call it a procedure. At any rate, he was back about 1000 and reported that all was fine. That the surgery went well, but that the stone was stuck in the ureter and probably wouldn't move. He said that he had to break it up and even when he had it in the basked, he had to zap it again to get it loose. He had the stone in a test tube in his pocket and had a DVD of the surgery. He explained that they “never let you see this stuff in the States”, but let me have the video to watch or to copy. We just have to give it back at some point for the hospital records. He also had to put in a stent because the edema in the ureter, which will have to be removed in about 4 weeks. The system is pretty different here. For example, we have all of her CT and Xray films in our room. We are in charge of keeping them. But, I digress…
Dalene was brought back to the room here at about 1100 hours. She was pretty wiped from the anesthesia and has been sleeping mostly since coming back in. I hope this helps her feel human again. The stone was pretty big and she passed a little more on the last trip to the toilet. There is another stone in the same left kidney and we will have to decide if we are going to go get it when he removes the stent. He did say that we will probably be here through Saturday, unless she is skipping by tomorrow.
We have had several calls and emails from people wanting to come visit, but I have discouraged them so she can sleep as much as she can. They have her on a clear liquid diet, but she hasn't felt like eating much. I on the other hand had a lovely lunch with arrachera and papas fritas. Perhaps not the healthiest choice, but I was hungry. Cost me $198Mx.
The doctors just came around on their afternoon visit and checking up on Dalene. He says that he will order blood work tomorrow to make sure that the infection is clearing up. He says the plan for the moment is to let her go home Saturday morning if all continues well. I am sure if we can get her back to eating and drinking, it will improve significantly. I have her sitting up in her chair, starting on her delicious liquid diet. She is “jonesing” for chippy ice. I asked our nurse, Lupita, if she could get her something that is smaller than the cubed ice. She said, “oh, like frapee?” Something like that. We are interested to see what this turns out to be. Not sure you can mess up chopping ice, but NQR!
Well, they wanted me to stay longer than Friday but since my IV had been in for more than 72 hours, in the morning hours they came in to change the IV. Yes it was a they, two people. Due to my bad veins they worked for over 2 hours to get a new fresh IV going. They never got it done..... the Urologist said since they couldn't get it going we should just go home. Okay with me!
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