Fortunately/Unfortunately - the long medical details of Chris' woes.

Fortunately I lived through another day without too much mishap. Unfortunately Chris was not able to join us down in Utah. He is still in Spokane. Fortunately Chris was finally able to get a diagnosis: kidney stones. Unfortunately the attack occurred on his way to the airport. Which prevented him being here. His whole medical story begins a month ago. The beginning of December Chris experienced some back pain that was unfortunately very familiar. The last time he had had the same back pain he ended up passing 7-8 kidney stones. Very painful!!! The pain went away and it seemed as though no passing of stones was going to occur. A few weeks later he experienced again the very familiar feeling of having painful and frequent urination. So, now it was time for the stones to pass. Chris tolerated the pain and inconvenience well for a while, but on a Saturday (when the doctor's office is closed of course) it got really bad and decided to go in and see a doctor. Since it was a Saturday he couldn't see his primary physician, he had to go to the Group Health urgent care center down town. Chris explained to the doctor what he was experiencing and told the doctor it was probably kidney stones. Well they ran some tests (std's too which was totally embarrassing for Chris) and didn't come up with anything conclusive. The doctor really didn't think Chris was having kidney stones but rather a urinary tract infection (very rare in men). So he was sent home with some antibiotics and a medicine to help the pain (and which makes you pee orange!). It was nice for Chris to have some relief from the pain and things started to feel better. But after a week, and when he was almost finished with the antibiotics, he noticed that he was again experiencing frequent and painful urination. But he didn't do anything about it. Then comes Sunday, during the night he said he had experienced bad chills. But got up and dutifully went to his meetings before church. He came home for a while and went back to bed before again going back to church. After church he came home and rested some more and felt a little better. He just figured he had caught a cold and was experiencing the first stage of feeling yucky. Monday morning he didn't get up early for basketball but did go to school. He wasn't feeling very well but loaded himself up on cold medicine. He felt better as the day progressed and didn't come home early. Later that evening, soon after coming home he started feeling bad again and started coming down with a fever. I didn't worry about him too much, just figured he would have to weather it out and hoped it wouldn't pass on to me or the kids. After FHE and while I was getting the kids to bed, Chris asked me to call our home teacher to come and give him a blessing. Now I knew something wasn't right - he doesn't do that unless he really, really isn't feeling well. So, I called up brother Reed who came and brought along brother Mattinson (for a medical chit-chat). At that point his temperature was 101.8. Brother Reed and brother Mattinson grilled him on everything tyring to figure out what was wrong and what to do. And then they finally gave him the blessing. After I took his temperature again it read 104.3!!!! I wasn't sure how accurate the thermometer was but he was burning up and getting a little loopy. I called our insurance's on-call nurse. Their only instructions were to keep the temperature down (duh!). But if it looked too bad to take him to the ER - but that would still mean hours of waiting. So I was determined to keep Chris home and comfortable until the morning when the doctor could see us. To compound matter, Chris has what is called Reynauds Syndrome. His body adjusts poorly to change in temperature. His body cuts off circulation to his hands and feet when there is a drop in temperature (much like our bodies would do if we were out in a blizzard for hours which is why people get frost bite on their fingers and toes first). But Chris' body does this all the time with any drop in temperature (like going from a hot shower to the bedroom). So while I am trying to cool him off, his hands and feet are freezing and he is experiencing really bad chills. We made it through the night. And his temperature finally started coming down. By morning the fever was pretty much gone. But we still went to the doctor (as bro. Mattinson thought maybe it was a kidney infection). At the doctors they ran the same tests as before. Chris saw a different doctor, but again we were told that it was not kidney stones but they couldn't figure out what else it could be. His best guess was an infection in the epidimis or prostrate. They sent Chris home with new antibiotics and told us to come back in if it got worse. Chris felt fine again for most of the day, but as evening started so did his fever again. He averaged 102 all night until the morning. And again the fever disappeared. As I mentioned in my previous post, I wasn't sure if I should come to Utah and leave Chris home - but he insisted that I go. So he drove us to the airport and we said goodbye. When I called him later that night he was still doing fine and no fever. So, we were both still stumped at what was going on. We knew something was going on but the doctors weren't very helpful. Again, on Thursday when I talked with Chris he was fine and all set to join us on Friday after school. Well, on Friday, he again started feeling the urination problems. He prayed about whether he should come or not. He started driving down the hill and when he hit Freya and 22nd the big pain hit. He had to pull off and wait for the pain to subside before driving again. So, I guess he got the answer he needed and then drove home. When he was home he called me to tell me what had happened. I agreed that he had made the right decision and told him to get a doctor's appointment right away (back with Group Health clinic as it is now a Friday night). I also told him that he was not to leave the doctors' until they had given him and ultra sound and proved without a doubt that he was not having kidney stones. Finally, on the third doctor Chris was listened too. The last doctor he saw did think it was kidney stones and sent him for an ultra sound. After the ultra sound they did find kidney stones!!!! Apparently they had been blocked (causing the fever) but for some unknown reason (priesthood blessing?) had dislodged themselves and were now traveling down the pipe. They gave Chris more pain medication and again sent him home. Now he just has to strain his urine to see if he passes any stones. Then on Monday he is supposed to see his primary care doctor so he can get permission to see a urologist. When he sees the urologist he will then determine what needs to be done - just let them pass or some kind of surgery. And until then they may even pass themselves. But if Chris develops a fever again he has strict instructions to go the the ER. So at the moment Chris is doing okay, but he is basically a ticking time-bomb for something to happen - either the pain of passing stones or the pain of surgery to remove them. I guess we will eventually find out the how and when of the whole situation.