[Embo]

as I type, I am home from work (when I really need to be at work), listening to Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes, staring down a bottle of Percocet as I gainfully attempt to pass a 4.5mm kidney stone.  

Yeah, sorry.

I knew somehow that jacketree and redrum were my brothers  ... and now I know why.  

I typed up half a post last night about my own kidney stone, thought it was too disgusting for public consumption, and deleted it.  Now that redrum has chimed in with his story, what the hell, here goes:  

I am usually in very good health.  Strongest med I previously ever had taken in my life was a tylenol with codeine when I had my wisdom teeth removed, and I think I took only one.  Last year, I was at work, and abruptly felt this sharp little twinge in the middle of my back.  I thought, did I just pull something?  In just a few minutes I was sweating heavily and the nurses around me were insisting I go to the ER.  I declined, saying I just had some back pain, but when the pain hit 10/10, I relented.  (The nurses later told me I did not look good - at all.)  I was panting and puking as I hit the ER - just ten minutes after the onset.  I got morphine for the first time, and repeat doses didn\'t even touch the pain.  My EKG was worrisome (in retrospect, the EKG changes were due to the sheer stress of my pain) so I was whisked for a cardiac cath (interesting experience, and normal) and then a CT (to look for an aortic dissection, what I was really worried about.)  The CT showed the stone.

I was fortunate in that a urologist on our staff came over, gave me the options, and scheduled me for a ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy.  It was quick and neat - I went under in the OR and awoke in recovery with the urologist showing me the stone in a specimen jar.  

Before you feel shortchanged, jacketree, let me tell you the further details.  When I awoke from anesthesia, I saw for the first time the skinny plastric string coming out the end  of my you-know-what.  (Because the stone was in my ureter, and the laser can cause some swelling, a temporary stent is placed into the ureter to keep it patent.  The string is there for the removal of the stent.)   Juust imagine how the end of my pecker felt when the string got caught on my clothes (lots of "ooooh!!" moments, so I would walk carefully and bowlegged.)  When I first got home, I peed - and I nearly fainted when I saw I passed a clot.  (No sympathy from my female colleagues with this story - "Hey, we pass clots every month.")   As I mentioned, the stent was temporary - and it needed removal three days later.  The removal was by pulling the string and hence the stent, from my ureter through my bladder through my urethra.  It wasn\'t a pain but an extremely bizarre, uncomfortable sensation.  Let\'s just say even Dick Cheney wouldn\'t allow it as an interrogation technique.

Hope you are feeling better, jacketree.

Okay, who have I offended?  ;)

[Embo]

as I type, I am home from work (when I really need to be at work), listening to Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes, staring down a bottle of Percocet as I gainfully attempt to pass a 4.5mm kidney stone.  

Yeah, sorry.

I knew somehow that jacketree and redrum were my brothers  ... and now I know why.  

I typed up half a post last night about my own kidney stone, thought it was too disgusting for public consumption, and deleted it.  Now that redrum has chimed in with his story, what the hell, here goes:  

I am usually in very good health.  Strongest med I previously ever had taken in my life was a tylenol with codeine when I had my wisdom teeth removed, and I think I took only one.  Last year, I was at work, and abruptly felt this sharp little twinge in the middle of my back.  I thought, did I just pull something?  In just a few minutes I was sweating heavily and the nurses around me were insisting I go to the ER.  I declined, saying I just had some back pain, but when the pain hit 10/10, I relented.  (The nurses later told me I did not look good - at all.)  I was panting and puking as I hit the ER - just ten minutes after the onset.  I got morphine for the first time, and repeat doses didn\'t even touch the pain.  My EKG was worrisome (in retrospect, the EKG changes were due to the sheer stress of my pain) so I was whisked for a cardiac cath (interesting experience, and normal) and then a CT (to look for an aortic dissection, what I was really worried about.)  The CT showed the stone.

I was fortunate in that a urologist on our staff came over, gave me the options, and scheduled me for a ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy.  It was quick and neat - I went under in the OR and awoke in recovery with the urologist showing me the stone in a specimen jar.  

Before you feel shortchanged, jacketree, let me tell you the further details.  When I awoke from anesthesia, I saw for the first time the skinny plastric string coming out the end  of my you-know-what.  (Because the stone was in my ureter, and the laser can cause some swelling, a temporary stent is placed into the ureter to keep it patent.  The string is there for the removal of the stent.)   Juust imagine how the end of my pecker felt when the string got caught on my clothes (lots of "ooooh!!" moments, so I would walk carefully and bowlegged.)  When I first got home, I peed - and I nearly fainted when I saw I passed a clot.  (No sympathy from my female colleagues with this story - "Hey, we pass clots every month.")   As I mentioned, the stent was temporary - and it needed removal three days later.  The removal was by pulling the string and hence the stent, from my ureter through my bladder through my urethra.  It wasn\'t a pain but an extremely bizarre, uncomfortable sensation.  Let\'s just say even Dick Cheney wouldn\'t allow it as an interrogation technique.

Hope you are feeling better, jacketree.

Okay, who have I offended?  ;)