Kidney stones and Appendicitis

Some of you know, others have not heard but Monday night I was awake at 4 am with terrible pain in my right side. God has been amazing and working through the whole situation and I could not be more thankful or blessed. 

 I knew something was wrong as soon as I woke up. I walked next door and woke up my friend Courtney who has been an absolute superstar by the way, and told her i was having bad pain in my back. I sat down on the curb outside her room and yelled, cried, and vomited violently for about 30 mins until Courtney decided I need to be taken out of the village. We called everyone we could think of but as per Africa usual, the network was down. My pain escalated a lot more and I felt like someone was stabbing me in the back and the knife was poking out the front.

The vice chancellor of the university is who I work directly under, I told Courtney to call him because a few weeks before I had woke up with a migraine and he told me I should have called him because he could have prayed for me at least. So I told her to call him he later told us he had just happened to go to work early that morning, 4 am, and had put his phone on silent because he wanted to get some work done before the office opened. He just happened to look at his phone and saw the call come through when we called. He got his car and came and got us. 

After he left his house, we got ahold, of our teacher, the President of the University, who takes care of us basically and is the lady who founded our Masters Program. She was in Lilongwe, the capital city two hours away from where we live, because she was having meetings. But the miracle is she wasn’t supposed to be there yet, she was supposed to leave later the next day but on a whim decided to go early. She said it sounded like appendicitis, to come straight to Lilongwe, where her cousin is the surgeon at the Adventist Hospital. 

Here come the other miracle. He is a graduate of WWU, so that is cool, but he has the most sterile and equipped surgery facility in all the country. He is a lifelong missionary doctor so he knows his stuff. 

They threw we in the car where I yelled, vomited, and cried, the whole way there asking if we were almost there yet like every 5 minutes. Guys I am not a good patient when I am in pain. Also, I cannot explain this pain to you. I have never in my life felt anything more painful than this pain. 

We made the 2 hour drive in an hour, praise God. Yes we were speeding, but it was an emergency. I kept praying that God would just let my appendix hold together until we got there. 

When we got there everyone was waiting for us and I am sure I looked like a crazy person. Remember I got up in the middle of the night. T-shirt, no bra, no pants, just a surrong we grabbed on the way out, I had hair everywhere, I was yelling, and grimacing, and probably swearing, and a total mess. It was not my finest moment I admit. 

They took my vitals, poked, prodded, I don’t honestly know I was in so much pain they could have cut my legs off and I probably wouldn’t have known. They gave me 2 shots of pain killers in my butt  because one didn’t do anything and 4 liters of fluid in an IV. 

The doctor quickly decided it wasn’t appendicitis but probably a kidney stone since I have a history with kidney related issues. They did an ultra sound after the pain meds kicked in and everything looked fine. They didn’t see any stones so they assumed I passed it. Also the pain meds started to wear off and the pain wasn’t coming back. However, I didn’t want to go back to where there wasn’t medical care if something was wrong so the doctor suggested we stay at his house. He and his wife have a beautiful home two houses away from the hospital. They fed us the best food, gave us clothes to wear since your home girl was basically naked, and let us shower in the most amazing shower I have ever seen. They had the softest most comfortable couches ever where we spent the day watching movies from their huge movie collection, and eventually slept for the night.

2 am. I woke up with the pain back. We woke up the doctor and he drove us back to the hospital where they gave me fluids and pain meds again. Your home girl peed like every 5 minutes and Courtney lovingly walked with me holding my IV so I could go to the bathroom. She put towels on my head when I was hot, she monitored my phone and communicated with everyone that needed communicating with and was my rock through the whole thing. She was a great blessing never leaving my side, except to get me things I needed. 

Anyways, the doctor decided that I have a kidney stone but it may be stuck, therefore I just have to wait to pass it. I decided it would be the same waiting at the doctors house as it would be at home, so we came home and I moved out of the village into our teacher’s house where there is a nurse and access to help with I need it. They sent us home with pain meds so if I need them I have it and they left the IV in because well it took them 4000 tries to get it in because I have the world’s smallest veins so they wanted to keep it in in case I needed it again. 

The plan as of now is if the stone doesn’t pass in the next day or two, I will have to fly home so they can blast it into pieces so I can pass it easier. I am hoping we don’t get to that point. 

I am so blessed to have the love and support that I do. God has been working in this through it all and I am so glad I have the love and support that I do. 

Thank you all for your love and support. I will keep you updated.