Whoa, Another One, A Bigger One

I got a lot of flack from a variety of people when I posted the kidney stone picture a couple weeks back. It was gross and stuff, and why would I post it. But you know, I went through some pain for that. It was kind of an accomplishment. And it is kinda neat. At least I think so. So I’ll do it again. Yeah, it is a little gross, but so what.

Ever since the last episode right before Thanksgiving I’ve had occational twinges of pain. Nothing as bad as that first night though. Just discomfort mostly. At worst I’d take one of the Tylenol with Codines that the doctor gave me and it would get better and be gone in a few hours. For awhile. It would happen every couple of days. In between I’d feel mostly fine, although perhaps not 100%.

Thursday evening after work I started to feel a little uncomfortable. Not bad though. Just a little. I was tired though, after not getting much sleep after my flight home the night before. So I went to bed early. Like at 9 PM. I woke up when Brandy came to bed a little before 2 AM. I got up for a quick bathroom trip. But there was some pain. Not a huge amount, but some. And it felt like it was moving a little, and almost out. Sure enough, a couple minutes later, with some help from me and some strategic use of tweezers, I passed another stone. (I know, too much information… too bad!)

It was huge!!! It dwarfed the other one from the other week. (But for some reason it had hurt less… dunno.) I’ve been having kidney stone episodes every couple of years since 1996, but this is the biggest one yet. I know lots of people have bigger ones, and sometimes ones too large to pass that require surgery to get out. But still. OUCH!

After some of the other ones in previous years, Rebecca has said something like “The size of a grape-nut? That’s nothing! Tell me when you pass a watermelon!” OK, so no watermelon. But I did a little better this time. More like the size of a pea. That is it in the picture above, next to the one from Thanksgiving week. See how much bigger? It is also a much different color. That probably means something, but I don’t know what. And while in the picture it looks like it might be soft, trust me, it is a stone. Completely hard and solid.

I am actually amazed how little this one hurt. I hurt a lot more with the little one, and other ones in the past. This one caused twinges over the last two weeks and it did hurt off and on, but when it finally passed, it almost didn’t hurt at all.

Afterwords, it did hurt some, and I took another of the special Tylenols. Since then I have been up. I am getting tired again though. And I need to be at work in a few hours. And the Tylenol has me all groggy. (But pain free!) Now that this one is out, maybe this series of stone episodes will be done and I’ll be OK for a couple of years. Or maybe there will be more next week. Dunno. Guess I should do that follow up with the doctor soon. They were going to give me a refferal to a specialist, but hadn’t done so yet. I’ll call them up later today and get that moving I suppose.

I think I need to go to bed now.