About a month passed before it happened again. But, then it started happening many times a day. The only way to get the pain to pass is to lay on the floor on my left side with a heat wheat draped across my right kidney. This would happen every couple of hours. Sometimes more frequently. Ugh!
After three days straight of this kidney pain, our bub thought he'd add something extra special. He not only pressed himself against my kidney, but also started kicking me in the kidney at the same time.
I finally decided to call the 24 hour midwife desk at Mater Mother's Hospital, where bub will be born. The midwife who answered listened to my symptoms and told me that she thought it would be best for me to come in so that our OB could make sure it's just bub and not something else more serious. Ryan, being the superior daddy that he is, drove me to the hospital and sat with me while I waited for Dr. Bretz to examine me.
After a urinalysis and some other standard tests, Dr. Bretz said that he was pretty sure it was just bub pressing against my kidney. But, in order to rule out kidney stones he ordered a bladder/kidney scan for the next day. Kidney Stones?? Really? Oh man....
Yesterday afternoon, I had the scan. I guess I should have been happy to hear that my bladder and kidneys are normal and that I don't have kidney stones. But, what this means is that for the next few months I just have to deal with the pain of bub making himself cozy up against my kidney. Fortunately, I can feel it slowly coming on, and if I lay on my left side quick enough, the pain passes before it becomes unbearable. What has this looked like today? 45 minutes of standing, sitting or walking....then, 15 minutes of laying on the floor.... repeated all day long! Ugh!
I know that this pain is temporary, and I'm happy to endure it now knowing that, in the end, we'll get a precious little gift.
