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1 Month + 5 Urologists+ 2 OB's = No Answers PLZ help!
My girlfriend is now 10.5 weeks pregnant. At 6 weeks she started getting left flank pain that is in the lower quadrant starting from the back to the front with occasional shooting pains that go into her vagina. This has been a constant pain for nearly a month now. This has been extreme pain for her, 9 or 10 out of a pain scale of 10 (10 being the highest). During peak times (when the nurse takes her time bringing pain meds) the pain brings her to tears and is very unbearable to watch. The only relief she has had is after she gets IV delodid. There is no position that is comfortable for her and the pain seams to increase when she is pushed on, coughs, sneezes, vomits, and right after she urinates. She has been very nauseated since week 5 of the pregnancy and vomits on a daily basis (we believe this is just due to 1st trimester pregnancy). She has a hard time keeping food down which has caused her to lose alot of weight. She has had very irregular bowel movement which we believe is just because of the low amount of food consumption.
She has had numerous ultra sounds which reveal nothing except that the fetus is in the correct position. From an OB standpoint our baby is just fine, her hormone levels are perfect and every other OB tests seam normal.
Heres the kicker... She does have a history of Kidney stones but she only has gotten them once and guess what.... she was pregnant at that time too. She went into the hospital with the same symptoms I outlined above but, like this time, nothing showed up on any tests. Unfortunately her kidney suddenly began to swell up to a point the doctors thought it was going to rupture and they had to do emergency termination the baby to operate on the kidney, It was then when they found a kidney stone the size of a pencil eraser. The stone was analyzed to be a calcium stone (what ever they call it). 2 days later she was discharged and was doing great.
Now here we are 2.5 years later.
Given her past history the DR's decided to put in a stint between the kidney and ureter on the left side in hopes to relieve the pain. They went in by systosscopy (how ever you spell it) and didn't see anything abnormal but still placed the stint. It's been 8 days now and still no change in hew symptoms.
So... Even with past medical records and history we have gone through 5 Urologists, 2 OB's (1 specialty high risk OB), and 100's of residents that all keep telling her they can't see/find anything wrong with her. Then how can we explain the pain she is having?
We are limited to the amount of testing that can be done because of her pregnancy.She is allergic to IVP Dye (she swells up) so we can't do a CT scan. However when they did the systoscopy surgery they did what they call a retograde? and checked her left kidney and they said everything looked normal.
She has no other past medical history other than the very 1st time she had the stone which was 2.5 years ago. Both sides of her family has a history of breast cancer but from the grandmothers (one died at 33 because of it), her mother is in her 50's and has no signs and is very healthy.
We are dying for answers.... Over the past month she has slept in our bed a total of 3 nights. We are very fearful of the baby because she is still in her 1st trimester and has not been able to eat but a very small amount of food and has been on delodid for a month now. We are very desperate for answers or any suggestions that we can bring up to the doctors.
Thanks,
Doug
She has had numerous ultra sounds which reveal nothing except that the fetus is in the correct position. From an OB standpoint our baby is just fine, her hormone levels are perfect and every other OB tests seam normal.
Heres the kicker... She does have a history of Kidney stones but she only has gotten them once and guess what.... she was pregnant at that time too. She went into the hospital with the same symptoms I outlined above but, like this time, nothing showed up on any tests. Unfortunately her kidney suddenly began to swell up to a point the doctors thought it was going to rupture and they had to do emergency termination the baby to operate on the kidney, It was then when they found a kidney stone the size of a pencil eraser. The stone was analyzed to be a calcium stone (what ever they call it). 2 days later she was discharged and was doing great.
Now here we are 2.5 years later.
Given her past history the DR's decided to put in a stint between the kidney and ureter on the left side in hopes to relieve the pain. They went in by systosscopy (how ever you spell it) and didn't see anything abnormal but still placed the stint. It's been 8 days now and still no change in hew symptoms.
So... Even with past medical records and history we have gone through 5 Urologists, 2 OB's (1 specialty high risk OB), and 100's of residents that all keep telling her they can't see/find anything wrong with her. Then how can we explain the pain she is having?
We are limited to the amount of testing that can be done because of her pregnancy.She is allergic to IVP Dye (she swells up) so we can't do a CT scan. However when they did the systoscopy surgery they did what they call a retograde? and checked her left kidney and they said everything looked normal.
She has no other past medical history other than the very 1st time she had the stone which was 2.5 years ago. Both sides of her family has a history of breast cancer but from the grandmothers (one died at 33 because of it), her mother is in her 50's and has no signs and is very healthy.
We are dying for answers.... Over the past month she has slept in our bed a total of 3 nights. We are very fearful of the baby because she is still in her 1st trimester and has not been able to eat but a very small amount of food and has been on delodid for a month now. We are very desperate for answers or any suggestions that we can bring up to the doctors.
Thanks,
Doug
Well... I think I spoke too soon :(
at around 10pm that evening my wife told me she wanted to go to the hospital. She was in extreme pain and was feeling really sick this time, More sick than the usual nausea.
We get to teh ER and they order up an ultrasound. Results come back and her left kidney is showing signs of swelling. They keep her overnight for observation. Around 6am she started to develop a fever. Fortunately her Urology doctors was just around the corner making his rounds and came in to speak with her. After he finds out she is developing a fever (a clear indication that she has developed an infection) he makes a call down to the OR and tells them to prepare. They immediately take her down to OR to remove the sint clean things up and replace it with a clean fresh one. After the surgery he then tells us that the stint was clogged with small 1 and 2 millimeter kidney stones witch could but not 100% be the cause for her pains.
A few hours after the surgery she is still having a fever and it is progressivly getting worse. On top of all that, her constipation that has kept her from having a bowel movement in over a week has now turned to uncontrolable diaharea. They collected stool samples and have sent it down to lab to be tested for c-diff. She is experiencing all the symptoms of c-diff: nausea, fever, abdominal craps, diaharea, and a very foul smelling stool. Having been an Emergency Department Technician myself for 4 years I'm 100% positive she is positive for c-diff but we wont know for sure until the results come back. They also tansfered her to ICU for better monitoring.
I'm very scared becuase I have done some more research on c-diff and pregnant women and most cases don't look pretty good. Of course that may just be because most of the bad incidents are documented and the good cases go out the door with the discharged patients.
I however am also feeling more safe now because we are at Beaumont Hospital in Michigan which is well known for its excellence in health care and she does have an amazing team of doctors this time and they are finally doing some digging to help find the cause of all this pain.
I will report more as I find out more information. I'm approaching the 48 hour mark of no sleep (1st night in the ER and 2nd night in ICU) and my mother-inlaw is on her way to relieve me so I can get some sleep.
at around 10pm that evening my wife told me she wanted to go to the hospital. She was in extreme pain and was feeling really sick this time, More sick than the usual nausea.
We get to teh ER and they order up an ultrasound. Results come back and her left kidney is showing signs of swelling. They keep her overnight for observation. Around 6am she started to develop a fever. Fortunately her Urology doctors was just around the corner making his rounds and came in to speak with her. After he finds out she is developing a fever (a clear indication that she has developed an infection) he makes a call down to the OR and tells them to prepare. They immediately take her down to OR to remove the sint clean things up and replace it with a clean fresh one. After the surgery he then tells us that the stint was clogged with small 1 and 2 millimeter kidney stones witch could but not 100% be the cause for her pains.
A few hours after the surgery she is still having a fever and it is progressivly getting worse. On top of all that, her constipation that has kept her from having a bowel movement in over a week has now turned to uncontrolable diaharea. They collected stool samples and have sent it down to lab to be tested for c-diff. She is experiencing all the symptoms of c-diff: nausea, fever, abdominal craps, diaharea, and a very foul smelling stool. Having been an Emergency Department Technician myself for 4 years I'm 100% positive she is positive for c-diff but we wont know for sure until the results come back. They also tansfered her to ICU for better monitoring.
I'm very scared becuase I have done some more research on c-diff and pregnant women and most cases don't look pretty good. Of course that may just be because most of the bad incidents are documented and the good cases go out the door with the discharged patients.
I however am also feeling more safe now because we are at Beaumont Hospital in Michigan which is well known for its excellence in health care and she does have an amazing team of doctors this time and they are finally doing some digging to help find the cause of all this pain.
I will report more as I find out more information. I'm approaching the 48 hour mark of no sleep (1st night in the ER and 2nd night in ICU) and my mother-inlaw is on her way to relieve me so I can get some sleep.
Sorry I didn't read all the posts before posting, but wanted to now comment on the chiroprator thing. I know that if the person knows what they are doind and have the right table that it is fine during pregnancy. I am planning on going in for an adjustment right before delivery as that seems to help me during labor. Again I hope she is feeling better and good luck!
I was just hospitalized for kidney stones and both my kidneys are inflamed also and I am now 34 weeks pregnant. I was in exactly one month ago. They actually thought with all those symptoms that I was experiencing apendictits. My ultrasound of my body showed nothing and of course like you said they can't do a CT, BUT...they can do a MRI (hence my pictures of MRI of my baby posted)! Maybe they should consider that! It might be worth checking out. It saved me from having a surgery at 30 weeks along. Good luck!
We got home from the ER at 6am this morning. Fell asleep around 6:30am. Woke up late cause we didn't hear the alarm go off since we were exhausted from yet another long night in the ER. My wife took her 2mg of dilaudid pill at 9:30am. We were at the chiropractor by 10:00am. Her pain was at a 7 before we walked into the chiropractor. He did his adjustments and said things were much smoother than yesterday. We left the chiropractor with her pain at a 7 (much better than yesterday when we went in at a 7 and walked out at a 10).
It is now 1pm, 3.5 hours since her last pain med and she says her pain is still around a 7. Thats amazing !!! Over the past week she has not been able to go 2 hours without reaching a 9 or 10 and here we are past the 3 hour mark with the 4th hour mark in our grasp. However this could be a fluke or could be related to the chiropractic adjustments, who knows.... I don't want to get too excited so soon and jinx ourselves but I'm praying that this could be the answer to our prayers.
I will continue to keep you guys updated on how she does throughout the day.
It is now 1pm, 3.5 hours since her last pain med and she says her pain is still around a 7. Thats amazing !!! Over the past week she has not been able to go 2 hours without reaching a 9 or 10 and here we are past the 3 hour mark with the 4th hour mark in our grasp. However this could be a fluke or could be related to the chiropractic adjustments, who knows.... I don't want to get too excited so soon and jinx ourselves but I'm praying that this could be the answer to our prayers.
I will continue to keep you guys updated on how she does throughout the day.
Thank you raqant and brittny27 for your posts.
Well.. It's 4:15am and the Doctor just came to see us. Like I assumed.. "Your test results look normal, you should follow up with your OB in the morning, I'll get your discharge papers ready". Why am I not suprised?
We told him that our original OB had decided that she was a High Risk patient and that he doesn't take high risk patients (he didn't even give us a referral), so here we are at 11.5 weeks pregnant without an OB and Monday morning we will be seeking out a high risk OB.
I think we will continue to follow up with the chiropractor and see how things go with him. We made an appointment with earlier today for 9:15am which is in 5 hours :( On the down side of things, he doesn't accept the insurance we have so his treatment will be out of pocket :(
Were praying that this chiropractor treament will work.
LOL she said no to acupuncture, she's had her fair share of needles in the past 31 days :)
Well.. It's 4:15am and the Doctor just came to see us. Like I assumed.. "Your test results look normal, you should follow up with your OB in the morning, I'll get your discharge papers ready". Why am I not suprised?
We told him that our original OB had decided that she was a High Risk patient and that he doesn't take high risk patients (he didn't even give us a referral), so here we are at 11.5 weeks pregnant without an OB and Monday morning we will be seeking out a high risk OB.
I think we will continue to follow up with the chiropractor and see how things go with him. We made an appointment with earlier today for 9:15am which is in 5 hours :( On the down side of things, he doesn't accept the insurance we have so his treatment will be out of pocket :(
Were praying that this chiropractor treament will work.
LOL she said no to acupuncture, she's had her fair share of needles in the past 31 days :)
I was in a car accident and it threw my hips out of alignment and after 3 dr's 2 neurologists and numerous painful tests after 4 months of them telling me nothing was wrong and I finally went to a chiropractor and after 2 weeks I was pain free and able to walk again. I still see a chiropractor every two weeks to keep my hips aligned. This could be the cause of her pain. I highly recommend chiropractors! I also would see about going to get acupuncture. It worked great also. Very relaxing.
about the pain try going to a chiropractor or even better a skeletol manipulative theropist the second is not a real doctor but they find out why shes hurting and have the pain gone in one day. most of these doctors have learned from thier family and reading this you might think their quaks but i went to one from horriable chonic back pain and i was cured just by a touch and a wrap( my hip was out of place and it actually made my leg shorter by 3/4 of an inch) why doctors couln't find that is beyound me)
sorry about the problems i myself am on the 3 rd. miscarriage. but the one that kept and was healthy is now 4 yrs, 4 ft, and 68 lbs of all muscle! during my sons pregnacy my first trimester i never ate!! the smell of food made me sick to look at food it made me sick i never wanted to eat again!!i could never eat breakfast so i always kept watermelon close by and crackers( saltines) for lunch i forsed it down and it usually came back up, for dinner it had to be at a moments notice and if my husband took to long getting it i would no longer be able to eat it so i kept myself full with slurpees from 7-11 crackers and watermelon. the 7-11 people called my son "the slurpee baby"needless to say i lost alot of weight.... alot of weight. anyway the doctors told me sometimes a person in the first trimester cant eat.and lose weight that is normal dont worry about the wieght trust me she'll get her apotite back and you'll be running, usually at 4 am to get her something crazy.i dont think i got hungry until i was 5 or 6 months preg. by the way i was sick about 4-5 times a day and felt like **** and my doctors made me feel crazy becuase everything was perfect with the baby just remind the doctors that just cus everything is fine with the baby it's not fine with you. sometimes they only worry about the baby and not the mommy. well remind them that if mommys happy than babies happy. my doctor took that approach i finally felt like such **** at 4 months pregant i quit my job and stayed home. my doctor said why everythings fine with the baby. what a bit**
My sister-in-law suggested we go see a chiroprachtor. Her chiropractor in fact, because he specializes in child birth. He has some certification about breached pregnancies and I guess deals with alot of patients that have similiar symptoms.
So... we go see this guy today. He claims he can relieve her pain in 10-12 days. A known condition of my wife is that her right leg is shorter than the left. The chiropractor tells us that due to this it has shaped her hips out of alignment which he believes is causing her left flank pain. He also told her she has about 75% of her spine out of alignment which could also be contributing to her pain.
He gives her an adjustment and tells her to put ice on her lower back for 50 minutes on and then an hour off for the remainder of the night.
We get home and my wife is in extreme pain from the previous dose of dilaudid running out along with the added pain from all the adjusting the chiropractor did. 4 hours go by and she is still in extreme pain and she asks me to take her to the hopital ER.
Now, here we are in the ER awaiting for blood and urine results to come back in which we are 100% positive that when they get them back they will tell us there is nothing they can do and send us back home.
After we left the chiropractor I had called some friends and family, they both told me about underlying issues about having a MD and seeing a chiropractor. I guess MD's don't like it for you to see chiropractors because of the liability or something like that.
What are your thoughts on her hip being out of alignment? and could that really be the cause of all her pain? and what exactly are the risks/complications of seeing a chiropractor while she is pregnant?
So... we go see this guy today. He claims he can relieve her pain in 10-12 days. A known condition of my wife is that her right leg is shorter than the left. The chiropractor tells us that due to this it has shaped her hips out of alignment which he believes is causing her left flank pain. He also told her she has about 75% of her spine out of alignment which could also be contributing to her pain.
He gives her an adjustment and tells her to put ice on her lower back for 50 minutes on and then an hour off for the remainder of the night.
We get home and my wife is in extreme pain from the previous dose of dilaudid running out along with the added pain from all the adjusting the chiropractor did. 4 hours go by and she is still in extreme pain and she asks me to take her to the hopital ER.
Now, here we are in the ER awaiting for blood and urine results to come back in which we are 100% positive that when they get them back they will tell us there is nothing they can do and send us back home.
After we left the chiropractor I had called some friends and family, they both told me about underlying issues about having a MD and seeing a chiropractor. I guess MD's don't like it for you to see chiropractors because of the liability or something like that.
What are your thoughts on her hip being out of alignment? and could that really be the cause of all her pain? and what exactly are the risks/complications of seeing a chiropractor while she is pregnant?
Well.. we are at home now. The doctors gave us a rude awakening the other day. Came in at 4:45pm and told us. "The test results from your MRI are negative so we have prepared your paperwork". "Paperwork?", we said. "Yes, your discharge papers" said the doctors. Needless to say we were outraged. I was FUMED and very loud. How the hell could they discharge a patient who is crying her eyes out at the 1:45 mark waiting to get her IV push of dilaudid that comes every 2 hours. They sent her home with oral dilaudid and phenergan.
Needless to say I will badmouth that hospital to who ever I speak to for the rest of my life. The doctors there GAVE UP !!! It was my impression in life that doctors are the ones we turn to for answers. Hell thats why they spend all their lives in school and work, to help heal people like my wife. These doctors have given up on my wife, who are we to turn to now for answers?
3 hours after we got home she was in tears as usual. We went to the ER of a different hospital. This makes our 3rd hospital now. They take her in, give her meds to calm her down and do the usual tests. 3 hours later they come in with discharge papers too! "Sorry, we can't find anything wrong, follow up with the urologist that put the stint in".
We have been home now for 2 days. She is taking dilaudid that is supposed to be 1 every 3 hours but she is taking it 1 every 2 hours. She has only left the bedroom to pee. This is not how a pregnant person should be living through their pregnancy.
We are desperate for answers.
Needless to say I will badmouth that hospital to who ever I speak to for the rest of my life. The doctors there GAVE UP !!! It was my impression in life that doctors are the ones we turn to for answers. Hell thats why they spend all their lives in school and work, to help heal people like my wife. These doctors have given up on my wife, who are we to turn to now for answers?
3 hours after we got home she was in tears as usual. We went to the ER of a different hospital. This makes our 3rd hospital now. They take her in, give her meds to calm her down and do the usual tests. 3 hours later they come in with discharge papers too! "Sorry, we can't find anything wrong, follow up with the urologist that put the stint in".
We have been home now for 2 days. She is taking dilaudid that is supposed to be 1 every 3 hours but she is taking it 1 every 2 hours. She has only left the bedroom to pee. This is not how a pregnant person should be living through their pregnancy.
We are desperate for answers.
After the weekend stay with her at the hospital I am back home to do some work. We have had an MRI of the gall bladder and the pancreas and are still waiting for the results on those. However we seen a Urology specialist and from the sounds of it he believes it is not related to kidney stones. He believes she is suffering from Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome. He briefly told me a little about it and I will research it some more tonight after I get some work done. I bought a lap top and it comes in through UPS today so I'll have it tonight at the hospital.
Basically he believes the nausea and vomiting is triggering the CPPS and that once she passes her first trimester and stops vomiting then it will all go away. Unfortunately the only way to truly diagnose CPPS is with a lot of radiation which is not an option at this time. Currently they have her on a 25mic fetinal patch (getting upgraded to a 50mic today) and 1mg dillaudid every 2 hours. She is in a lot of pain at the 1:45 mark so we are pressing the call light early every time. If the nurse doesn't make it in by the 2:10 mark she's in tears and has a very difficult time handling the pain. Hopefully the 50mic patch will help her in that last 15 minutes. We have an Anestesia team monitoring her pain and see them every day to try to come up with a solution to keep her comfortable.
I'll post more a little later tonight when I get back to the laptop with my new laptop, got to get some work done.
Basically he believes the nausea and vomiting is triggering the CPPS and that once she passes her first trimester and stops vomiting then it will all go away. Unfortunately the only way to truly diagnose CPPS is with a lot of radiation which is not an option at this time. Currently they have her on a 25mic fetinal patch (getting upgraded to a 50mic today) and 1mg dillaudid every 2 hours. She is in a lot of pain at the 1:45 mark so we are pressing the call light early every time. If the nurse doesn't make it in by the 2:10 mark she's in tears and has a very difficult time handling the pain. Hopefully the 50mic patch will help her in that last 15 minutes. We have an Anestesia team monitoring her pain and see them every day to try to come up with a solution to keep her comfortable.
I'll post more a little later tonight when I get back to the laptop with my new laptop, got to get some work done.
The delodid won't harm the baby, it's a opiod as far as I know. and Opiates are safe during pregnancy except for the last month, because of dependency in thebaby..... they'll probably either A) ween her off it the last couple months of pregnancy, or B) just contend with a slightly depressed (sleepy) baby at birth.
Where do you live?? There should be other Urologists that can look at her blood tests and such to find out if it's a true kidney stone. WITHOUT having to abort the baby.
Where do you live?? There should be other Urologists that can look at her blood tests and such to find out if it's a true kidney stone. WITHOUT having to abort the baby.
I don't have any answers...just wanted to send condolences and best wishes for wife and baby and you too! I know it can be hard to be the hubby in times like these...be strong!
I wish you guys could find an answer, and quickly. I wish I could help with any suggestions, but I have never heard of such things happening while pregnant. But I agree with bioclock1, doing your own research seems to get you further than just relying on doctors. Again, I am so sorry, and hopefully this will pass and soon. You both will be in my prayers and I wish you the best of luck.
Please be sure to keep us informed... again, good luck and I wish you both well.
Please be sure to keep us informed... again, good luck and I wish you both well.
Thank you both for your comments. We've got our fingers crossed till we find an answer.
i'm sorry you all are going through this. I unfortunately don't have answers but sometimes I've found its helpful to do your own research, whether online or through medical journals...
i hope you all find out the cause of the pain and go on to have a healthy pregnancy.
Good luck and God bless!
i hope you all find out the cause of the pain and go on to have a healthy pregnancy.
Good luck and God bless!
Well, all I wanted to say was morning sickness is supposed to be a sign of a strong healthy pregnancy. And that your girlfriend will suffer from lack of nutrients way before baby. They take what they need. For example calcium, if pregnant women don't have enough stores, the baby will take it from your bones.
As for your girlfriend, I really hope you get answers, it sounds awful.
As for your girlfriend, I really hope you get answers, it sounds awful.
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