Number Five

The first time I felt kidney stone pain, I had no idea what was going on.  All I knew is that I hurt, and no matter how I shifted position, the pain wouldn't go away.  We were living in a basement apartment close to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center at the time.  We had also recently purchased a new vehicle  - with a manual transmission.  My poor wife wasn't used to driving it yet and she had to drive me to the emergency room.  The emergency room staff had me diagnosed before I got into the emergency room.  They said I was doing what they call the "kidney stone shuffle."  The pain was horrendous.  I was vomiting from the pain before they finally gave me painkillers.

The second time, I already knew what the pain was.  I was at work near the mouth of Provo canyon.  I drove myself to the Orem Community Hospital emergency room.  I remember lots of yelling and pounding on the steering wheel while waiting at red lights.

The third kidney stone happened in the middle of the night.  My wife drove me to the American Fork hospital emergency room.

The fourth one came on the same day I was notified about an IRS audit.  I drove myself to the emergency room early that morning because my wife was already at work.

Today's kidney stone makes number five, but fortunately, it was the quickest.  I woke up at about 6:15 this morning with that familiar flank pain.  Fortunately, I still had Lortab left over from number four, so I took one of those, called in sick, and spent today in relative agony.  Fortunately, it came out before the Lortab ran out, so this will also be (BY FAR) the least expensive kidney stone.

I'm tired of getting them, of course, but I don't really know what else I can do.  I keep myself constantly hydrated, which is the best thing I can do.  I guess I could try a low oxalate diet (the second stone was sent to the lab and was determined to be a calcium oxalate stone), but between stones 2 and 3, I was on a low oxalate diet, and it didn't seem to help.

I guess that this is something I'm going to have to deal with every so often for the rest of my life.

*heavy sigh*