When the rubber meets the road

 The procedure to laser the kidney stones was easy because of anesthesia. I woke to the strange reality that I had strings hanging out of my urethra and the doctor telling me to take the stints out after 5 days. The stints are there to keep the urethras open after much manipulation and swelling. Also swelling in the kidneys. After looking it up on YouTube, I found the stints were about a foot long, reaching through the bladder into the kidneys. They have a little curl in them that holds them in the kidneys until they are pulled out. After 5 days, I was ready to have these out as they caused cramping. I took a couple Ativan, waited 45  minutes, and pulled them out. Easy peasy. The urologist believes that my urethra was constricted, making infection more likely. He stretched it out to get the scope, camera, and laser in and feels this is the real culprit - not the stones.  I have felt so much better since then. No UTI symptoms. I feel virtually normal, like no lymphoma and ...

 After about a week of no UTI symptoms after the California ER put my on another antibiotic, I felt the burning, achy feeling again so we went back to the ER. They admitted me again, since we really don't have oral alternative anymore.  I have come to really hate being in the hospital.  I was essentially in there to get IV antibiotics that only took 1 hour a day. I was there 3 days until the Infectious Disease Specialist got me set up to do them at home. He also decided that the thinks the recurrent infections are from latent kidney stones and that we could see the clear up if the stones were removed.  UC Urology was called I and I have a procedure Tuesday where they go through the bladder into the kidney and use stints and cameras and lasers to blast and remove the stones. They leave the stints in from 2 days to 2 weeks. I am so not looking forward to this. They use anesthesia for the procedure but it sounds uncomfortable when you wake up.  Hopefully this will ...

 Hi all.  I was so so so blessed to be able to go to my nephew's wedding in Santa Barbara and our dear friend's wedding in La Jolla. I was still dealing with UTI symptoms; in fact, we went to the ER while there to make sure I wasn't going septic again. I am thankful for pain relievers but I was scared they were covering up things getting worse.  We've been home for awhile. I was supposed to have chemo when I got home but they cancelled my appointment with the oncologist, Dr. Mellott, and put me with a NP who wasn't feeling good about me moving forward without more time to make sure the infection is cleared.  I met with Sarah Larson last week, NP for Dr. Mellott. She wants me to meet with the Center for Disease Control for more extensive testing and a urologist to deal with these UTIs. The big thing right now is they want me on propholactic antibiotics while I'm taking chemo but it is not clear what antibiotics will be effective.  On a personal note, I am experie...