Get OUT!

That's what I say to these awfull kidney stones that seems to be taking over my life. After much stalling and hoping that the stones will pass on their own, the docs and I have concluded that there is no better hope than to go in and get them out. I will be undergoing a 2 part procedure, which involves a "shockwave" to the kidneys in an attempt to break up the big ones in the kidneys, and an actual extraction of the stone in the urethra, closer to the way out. They will probably leave a stint inside the urethra so that the fragments of the bigger stones will have an easier way to go out. It sounds like a horrible and painful procedure, thus the stalling, but they are hurting and irritating me so much that I can't imagine just waiting any longer and I doubt they will be able to pass on their own. I am hoping the doc will be able to let me at least get a picture of the stone that they remove so I can post it.
In other bummer news, our last IVF cycle did not go so well. We got 4 fertilized embryos, but none of them made it to the 5-day blastocyst stage, at which they would have been implanted. Dr. B says that they probably were chromosomally abnormal and that we will take a more aggressive approach to the next cycle. That means more drugs, which mean more $$$.
Unfortunately, I am not sure when we will go through the next cycle. We were hoping to take February off and start up again in March, but as the stone issue has not been resolved, we have decided to wait until it is. I cannot imagine actually pulling a pregnancy off only to risk it by having an operation 3 months into it or so. I also cannot imagine going through 9 months of pregnancy with the stones in place and not being able to take any "good" painkillers. God willing, this procedure will go well and we can start to focus back on the family building efforts.