My mom grew up on an eighty acre farm in Star Valley, Wyoming.  They lived in a small home about three hundred yards to the east of US Highway 89 between the towns of Grover and Afton.  My grandfather more or less built the house with his large, powerful hands.  You can see it on Google maps here.  My mom's family came up with the name Lonetree Lane, and it made me smile to find it labeled as such on Google maps.

My dad grew up in the very-slightly-less-rural setting of Circleville, Utah.  Circleville is a small town of about 500 people.  The home where he grew up can be found on Google maps here.  Interestingly enough, my dad's boyhood home is about three hundred yards to the north of US Highway 89.

My parents met after my dad returned home from his mission.  They moved to Billings, Montana after they married, and they lived there for more than 30 years.  All five of their sons eventually moved to Utah, so when the opportunity arose, my dad took a job in Utah County.  My parents have now put down roots in Spanish Fork, Utah.  They built a home where we all fully expect them to live for the rest of their lives.

By some strange coincidence, they built that home about a thousand yards south of US Highway 89.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

It's not over yet, I guess.  Sorry that my blog is becoming a medical journal of sorts.  I'm sitting here trying not to be stressed out, but I'm on pins and needles.

The results of my 24-hour urine test showed higher-than-normal levels of calcium.  It was about 25% above where it should have been.  My blood test showed normal levels of calcium in my blood.

Elevated calcium in the urine plus elevated blood calcium would make them think that I had a problem with my Parathyroid glands.  Elevated calcium in the urine plus normal blood calcium plus multiple kidney stones makes them think the same thing.

The Parathyroid glands are four rice-sized endocrine glands that maintain the body's calcium level within a very narrow range so that the nervous and muscular systems can function properly.  When blood calcium levels drop below a certain point, the parathyroid glands release Parathyroid hormone (PTH) into the blood.  PTH increases blood calcium levels by stimulating the break down of bone to release calcium.  It also activates vitamin D, which increases gastrointestinal calcium absorption and it promotes calcium uptake by the kidneys.

So this morning, I had another blood test to measure the amount of Parathyroid hormone in my blood.  If it is elevated, it means that at least one Parathyroid gland in my neck is out of control and is dumping PTH into my bloodstream constantly.  The only cure for this is surgery to remove the offending glands.

There are two types of surgery.  The traditional variety involves a 6- to 10-inch incision between my collar bones and my adams apple.  The surgeon would then dissect my neck until he found all of the parathyroid glands and removed the offending ones.  There is a new surgery called Minimally Invasive Radioguided Parathyroidectomy (MIRP) that uses radioactive dye to pinpoint the overactive glands.  It requires an incision about 1 inch in length.  It's a much easier procedure to recover from, though I wouldn't have as much fun explaining away the scar as a run-in with cut-throat pirates.  If I want MIRP, I'll have to find a doctor that does it regularly to make sure I have a high probablity of being cured.  I might have to leave the state to find one.  And then there's the worry about how much of a new procedure, if any, my health insurance will cover.

If my PTH level is normal, then I'll be put on a calcium-restricted diet for a couple of weeks and then they'll repeat the 24-hour urine test.  At that point, I'll probably stop seeing the Urologist and I'll head to a Phrenologist - a doctor that specializes in kidneys.

But a calcium-restricted diet??  I'd have to say goodbye to:

• Milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream...  Pretty much all dairy.
• Cereals and Grains.
• Green, leafy vegetables.  (Ok, maybe that's not so bad.)
• Spices:  Cumin, coriander, cloves, oregano, mustard seed
• Fish

So I'm back to three options:

A)  Surgery
B) Calcium-restricted diet
or
C) More kidney stones.

Whatever happened to:

D) None of the above?

*sigh*

The PTH-level blood test results should be in tomorrow afternoon.  Until then, I'll be nervous, wondering if I'm going to have to have surgery.

What a wonderful week!

My family spent a relaxing week on vacation last week.  We rented a 4 bedroom house just north of Williams, Arizona.

We woke up when we felt like waking up.  We drove to Grand Canyon National Park.  We stayed as long as we felt like staying, and then we went home and relaxed some more.  One day, we stayed "home" all day, just because we could.

We read, played games, watched movies, and generally didn't rush anything.  It was wonderful!  We hiked 7 or 8 miles of the rim trail of the Grand Canyon, amazed at the ever-changing views of this wonder of the world.

In the two pictures above, you can really see how the view changed as we hiked.  The rock formation is the same, but from different perspectives as we hiked around the rim of the canyon.

It was an incredible time.  The only sadness is that it's over.

Eighteen years ago, we were married.  Eighteen years ago this morning, we knelt across from each other and made covenants with God and with each other.  Eighteen years ago, we exchanged rings and started our life together.  Eighteen years ago, we were giddy and happy and we started this journey together.

What a wonderful journey it has been.

I will forever be grateful for the incredible blessing of having her in my life.  Each passing year brings us closer to each other as we live and love and laugh together.  Each new trial of our faith, of our patience, of parenthood... each of these things, a potential weakness, becomes a strength as we learn and grow and overcome.

Together.

Eighteen years is just the beginning.

Happy Anniversary to us, my love!

I repeat, we have normality.  Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem.

I actually think I'm starting to feel normal again.  Yesterday was a really good day.  I was able to work the full day without wanting to take a painkiller.  I was able to concentrate on work and everything.

I also took my rock collection in to the urologist and they told me I don't have to keep trying to collect more.  This is also good.  I don't have to take a whole kit with me to use the facilities.  Also a big step towards normality.

I'm still going to stay very hydrated, but not so much that I have to get up two or three times during the night.  I think a big part of why I'm feeling more normal is that I've been able to get more sleep the past couple of nights.

I have a follow-up appointment scheduled and they'll be able to tell me what's skeewampus in my body that is making it want to produce solids where only liquids ought to be.  In the meantime, I'm going to try to get back to life as usual.

*whew*

I just want to feel normal again.

I'm sick of this kidney stone crap and I just want it to end.

*sigh*

This is NOT cool.

I lived through the Lithotripsy.  The doctor used around 3000 sonic pulses to successfully break up the kidney stone.  That means that I now have many small stones that should pass easier than a 5mm stone would have passed.  Hopefully, that will all clean out soon and I'll soon be feeling back to normal.

I'm sore from being pounded 3000 times.  I'm loopy from Lortab.  I'm having quite a bit of regular kidney stone pain, and I'll still need to push a gallon or more of fluids a day so I can flush the pieces out of my system.  But finally I feel that this is the beginning of the end of kidney stone #7.

So... for those of you that want to know what I went through today, keep reading.  I'll rate the rest of this post PG for medical grossness involving the urinary tract and its functions.

The fun begins today and continues through tomorrow.

This afternoon, I'm headed to the American Fork hospital for another KUB (Kidneys, Ureters, Bladder) x-ray.  I've had little pain since the last one, so the chances that the stone has moved are, in my opinion, relatively tiny, though I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV.  They're also going to do a whole battery of blood tests, which is standard for someone going in for a "surgical" procedure.

Sometime today, the surgical center will call me and tell me exactly what time I will be having Lithotripsy tomorrow.

Everyone that I've talked to that has gone through Lithotripsy has told me that it is painful.  Hooray.  Fortunately, I'll be sedated, so hopefully it won't be too bad.  However, I'm quite sure that it will be less painful and less drawn-out than passing a 5mm kidney stone in one piece.

If Lithotripsy doesn't work, then I'll have to have a Ureteroscopy to remove the stone, and apparently, I'll be sore for a week if they have to do that.  And as I've mentioned before, the very thought of having a scope put there gives me the screaming heebie jeebies.

I just want this to be over so I can move on.  I'm sick of drinking more than a gallon of fluids every day trying to move things along.  I've had pain off and on (fortunately more off than on) since the end of March.  I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop--wondering when it's going to hit me as hard as or even harder than the other kidney stones I've had.

I haven't ridden my bike for more than a month.  I'm afraid of being out somewhere and having to ride home in agony.  Not to mention the fact that the medication they put me on makes me light-headed, so I don't even dare ride the trainer.  I didn't get to take my sons to the annual fathers and sons campout last weekend.  Project 365 went out the window when I went to Wood Badge and I haven't had the desire to do anything that I don't really HAVE to do.

It'll be nice to just put this behind me.

On Sunday, my bishop said to me, "Repeat after me: Nephrologist."  He told me that he had kidney stones all the time for years, and he hasn't had another once since seeing a Nephrologist.  Nephrologists specialize in kidneys.  So when this kidney stone is gone and I get the results from the 24-hour urine test and blood tests, I'm probably going to take it all to a nephrologist.  I can't hurt.  And even if it only lengthens the time between kidney stones, it's well worth it, because this just sucks.

Hopefully, I'll be a lot happier in a couple of days.  Wish me luck.

The good news is that I no longer have a 5mm (think pencil eraser-sized) kidney stone in my kidney.  It's been moving right along since November.  The pain I felt in March, April, and into May was the kidney stone moving towards the exit.

So now I have a 5mm kidney stone about 4 inches from my bladder.  The bad news is that's the narrowest part.  The hardest part is yet to come.

My job until the middle of next week is to push fluids and take the meds that the doctor gave me that could possibly relax things and move this stone along.  If it hasn't passed by Tuesday, I'll be back at the hospital for another x-ray and for some blood work.  If it hasn't made its exit by Wednesday morning, they're going to blast it.

Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy uses focused sound waves/shock waves to break a kidney stone into smaller pieces that can then pass much more easily.

So now I have a plan.  I'm hoping that this thing passes on its own before I have to go get Lithotripsy, because it's EXPENSIVE.  The doctor charges $1800 and the surgical center charges around $5000.  *ouch*

However, that  pain seems to be a lot less than the pain in the kidney.

It scares me.

What I DO know probably scares me even worse.

I have a 5 mm stone in my left kidney.  That's between 3/8 and 1/4 inch, for those of you that are metrically challenged.  Or, if you're me, 5mm is about the size of a large boulder, for all intents and purposes.

It's kidney stone #7 for me.  I've had 3 in the last year.  (You know about all of them if you're a regular reader of my blog.)  That's 3 too many, in my opinion.

The good thing is that for the first time, I feel like I'm headed down the path to figuring out what is causing my kidney stones and how I might be able to keep them from recurring.  I've done a 24-hour study and they've taken blood to help determine exactly what the stones are and why my body might be producing them.  Hopefully that will lead to some sort of dietary change or medication or SOMETHING that will at LEAST increase the interval between kidney stones.

So tomorrow afternoon, I'll be back in the doctor's office, discussing options for getting this boulder out.  There are a couple of "surgical" options, neither of which involve incisions or stitches or anything like that.  One involves thumping the stone with focused sound waves to break it up into smaller stones that will hopefully pass more easily than a single 5mm stone.  The other option involves retreiving the stone with a scope.  That thought gives me the heebie jeebies, but it's still better than trying to let nature run its course in this situation.  I'm sure than none of my other stones were larger than about 2mm in size and they were excruciating.  I can't imagine how much pain a 5mm stone would cause.

So hopefully, by this time next week, I'll be on the mend and life will be getting back to some semblance of normal again.  The unknown will no longer scare me, and the known will be reduced and relegated to the past.

And yes, this, too, shall pass.