Rachel's Story...

One of the hardest things a parent can endure is seeing their child in pain.  About three weeks ago, Rachel came home from school complaining of her left side hurting.  At first I just assumed maybe she had pulled a muscle, so I told her to just lay down and rest a little.  Well, the pain kept getting worse, so I thought maybe a hot bath would help.  About ten minutes later she comes downstairs bawling saying how bad it hurts and then she throws up.  Immediately, I thought I knew what was wrong with her, but prayed I was wrong.  I called Josh and told him he needed to come home so I could take her to the emergency room.  As we were there, the pain intensified and she continued to throw up.  The doctors tested her for several things that came back negative. I then told them that I have a history of kidney stones (I've had 4, one being last year) and that my first one was at the age of 10.  At first their reaction was like my doctors many years ago, "but she's so young".   They gave her some pain medicine and told us to follow up with her primary care doctor so that she could schedule an ultrasound. Since this was not considered an "emergency" ( because there was no infection, just pain) she was scheduled for the available ultrasound which was the following week.  At this point it had already been four days of her in pain and I was so frustrated.  I might could understand if it was an adult, but a 9 year old girl to be in constant pain, I did not understand that.  Their reasoning was that it could be controlled by pain meds. My frustration was yes, I can give her the pain meds, but they put her to sleep ( it had codeine in it) and she couldn't function at school like that.  So we were doing a mixture of Motrin during the day and the strong stuff at night.  The doctor did tell me if the pain ntensified anymore to come back in.  The next day Rachel was at school and I got a call from the nurse saying Rachel was hurting really bad, so off we went.  To make a long story short, they did an ultrasound and sure enough she had two kidney stones.  The next step was for her to be referred off post to a pediatric nephrologist.  That took an additional five days. During this time her pain had gotten a little better.  She wasn't hurting as bad during the day ( could function with just Motrin) and the strong meds were helping her at night. Finally after a week and a half we were referred to Seoul National University Hospital.

We finally made it to the International Clinic at the hospital.  The staff there was so nice and helpful.  We had a translator that was with us the entire time.  She escorted us to every area (ultrasound, laboratory, etc.) that we needed to go to and we never had to wait in line!  I was amazed at how fast our appointment went.  After looking at the ultrasound the doctor said that considering where the stones were at, it was in Rachel's best interest to have the stones removed as soon as possible.  After some back and forth phone calls with Tricare & Josh getting involved, Rachel's referral for the operation went through that day, so we thought she was good to go.  However, Tricare covers a private or semi-private room, which this hospital didn't have a lot of, so we had to wait an additional two days for a room to come open for her.  It was such a frustrating process!

Entering the International Clinic...

Balloons make everything feel better, especially when they come out of a cool machine!

Finally, we received the call that a room was open and we needed to bring Rachel in.  I snapped this picture as we were headed to the hospital.  She didn't say much on the way there, which was not normal for her, so I knew she was really nervous.

I finally talked with her a little bit about my experience with kidney stones when I was little and how she was going to be fine.  I told her she had SO many people praying over her and that God was going to be with her through it all.  By the time we reached the hospital she was feeling much better.....

The first thing we had to do when we arrived was get her registered.  Again, we our translator met us and was with us the entire time.

We were then led to the Pediatric Nephrology department.  I actually took this picture so I could show someone in case I got lost...lol.  Thankfully I never had to do that :). It was very interesting being the only foreinger in the unit.  Like everywhere else in Seoul, they doted on Rachel and took really great care of her. 

She and I had a big laugh over this one...she looked at me and said "Mom, are they going to feed me snake?  I AM NOT eating snake!"...lol...

Next, they had Rachel change clothes (they gave her a cute little pj set that she loved) and then they got her IV's hooked up.  I was so thankful I brought my kindle, otherwise she wouldn't have had anything else to do.  I was surprised they had 110V outlets too, so we could keep it charged for her.

Our first night in the hospital was spent doing a lot of pre-op stuff and making sure her body was fully hydrated for the operation.  She also got to experience Korean hospital food.  It wasn't that bad and no she didn't have snake :).  

By this time, our translator had left and it was just the two of us. She did give me her cell number in case I needed it.  Rachel needed to go to the bathroom and I had no clue how to ask. The nurse spoke a little English, but not enough to understand what I was saying.   Thankfully, I had my Itranslator app and it worked out great!

 I realized why it had taken a couple of days for Rachel to get a semi-private room as we entered the nephrology wing.  Most of the rooms around Rachel's held anywhere from 4-6 kids in them.  Rachel's semi-private room held her and one other patient.  The picture below is the other side of her room.  I assume the child she was sharing a room with was a long term patient.  His mom had lots of things in the room, like they have been there for a while.  The refrigerator we shared was completely full too!  She didn't speak any English so I never talked to her.  She did however help me with a couple of things in the room I didn't know who to operate.  Our first night was rough.  For one, it was really hot in the room.  Mix that with the fact that every time the other mother would open up the refrigerator it would make our entire room smell like kimchi, mixed with strawberries, and other items...it was not good!  It was so bad that poor Rachel got sick on her stomach and they had to give her some medicine.  Thankfully, the medicine made her super sleepy, so she had a great nights rest.  I was not so lucky, the bed I was sleeping on was more like a doctors exam table that you sit on when you go to the doctors office. Then,  another mom came to visit the mom who was in there and they stayed up until 1:00 am talking :(.  I was glad though that Rachel slept well!

The next day Josh came up to be with us (thanks to our wonderful friends for keeping our boys). Rachel was so glad to see her Daddy.  I love this picture of them....she was getting nervous again.  Josh started brushing her hair and reassuring her that everything was going to be ok.  Then we both prayed over her and I left to go with her to the operating room.

I was able to stay with her all the way until right before they took her back.  They asked her would she like to be put to sleep with me there or in the back in the operating room.  She said she wanted me there to hold her hand.  By this time, I was trying my best to hold my emotions together.  They gave her the medicine in her IV and I'm telling you within 10 secs she was out!  I wasn't expecting it to be that fast and when I saw her eyes roll back I just lost it....I knew she was going to be ok, but that was my baby they were taking back to operate on.  I got myself together and then went upstairs to be with Josh.  They had told us it would be anywhere from 3-5 hours before we would see her again.  It all depended on if there would be any complications removing the stone.

Would you believe that an hour later we got a text from the operating room saying that Rachel was out of surgery and would be in her room within the next 30 mins!!!  Josh and I couldn't believe how fast the surgery and her recovery time was! The doctor came in, showed us the stones ( which were small) and told us that Rachel did great!! It was SO good to see her smiling face again!!!  She was tired and sore, but doing well.

We had to stay one more night and by the next day around noon, she was up walking around and they were checking us out to go home!!

It's now been a week since her surgery and she is doing fabulous!!! We went for her follow up appointment on Friday and her stone analysis had come back.  It all came down to the fact that because of her family history she will be more prone to get a kidney stone and she needs to drink more water during the day, especially when she is at school.  That my dear friend, is an easy fix.  

Thank you all so much for the prayers that were sent our way!!!  

Until Next Time,

Michelle