I had a Pyleoscopy procedure done today to rid a stone that has been giving me grief. Its gone now but, it was a "heavier" procedure than I thought. I have to wear a catheter until tomorrow and the ureter stent stays in place until next Thursday. The procedure took 2 hours and I was under general anesthesia. I asked for Proforol (the late Michael Jackson's drug of choice) but they wanted to give me something a little stronger (deeper sleep with ventilator support). The anesthetist said Proforol would probably have been Ok but they don't want any risk of movement during this procedure. Waking up wasn't too bad, but the ensuing few hours were agony. The pain was excruciating when leaving the hospital but it started mitigating around 2PM this afternoon. I'm sure a couple tablets of Oxycodone helped. I probably waited too long to take them as they gave me the prescription fill right there in the hospital and told me to start on them.

The stent will aid in passing the sand like debris that is created from the laser blasting away (heat laser). He physically removed the larger fragments and this is an advantage over Lipotripsy (which I had about 12 years ago for another boulder). My Urologist favored the Pyleoscopy method due to being able to remove most of the fragments and, to do a bladder inspection (some urine numbers were suspect).

I am still passing blood but this is to be expected....I guess. Tonight I start on a couple other prescriptions (Flowmax and Phenazopyridine) to help keep things flowing and calm the irritation to the canals. The catheter comes out tomorrow but the stent takes a week. Once the stent comes out, I am officially released with no restrictions. Assuming I still have some red blood left, its off to the Tour de Cashiers. But gosh, a low red count is not a condition conducive with an event like Cashiers. Maybe I'll ask him for a shot of EPO tomorrow. Otherwise, I might volunteer to drive sag.

I still have another stone buried deep in a pocket in the right kidney but he was unable to get to it. Hopefully it stays dormant for years as this is not a fun procedure.

My Urologist is a good doctor and I'm very pleased with him. His wife is pushing him to get into biking and she wants to ride too. So he is thinking buying a couple bikes. We talk more tomorrow when the catheter is removed. In the meantime, this will be weekend off for me.