Kidney Stone, Remix (last one was 2 years ago)

I had some back pain recently, and thought it was related to shoveling and bicycling.  It occurred to me for a moment that it felt sort of like when I had a kidney stone two years ago, but I wrote it off because of the exercise.  Then yesterday, after the amazing amount of snow that dropped on us - I shoveled three times and that didn't take care of all of it by any means, let alone the two feet of snowplow churn that was all over the bottom half of the drive this morning - perhaps 20" if you base it on our bird bath, I developed a sort of spasming backache that I was certain was shoveling induced.  Until about hour number three of the pain which was both across my back and in my abdomen.  We called my mother, the Nurse Practitioner, and she said to go to the ER as I wasn't sure what it was (could be kidney stone, could be ruptured bowel - who knows until you get it checked out).  That was easier said than done as the plow hadn't come by yet.  We bundled into the car, backed down to the end of the driveway, and promptly went no where.  The neighbors came out to help push the car back into the driveway while my wife called the ambulance.

But the ambulance couldn't get to our house either, so a cop showed up in a big SUV to find me laying on the floor (didn't really stop the pain, but at least I'm not teetering all over).  He asked some questions, loaded me into his truck, and hauled me to the end of the neighborhood road where the ambulance was just getting unstuck.  From there it was into the back of the ambulance and hooked up to saline and drugs, waiting for the plow to come blaze the way like some icebreaker.

A very bumpy half hour or so later, we were at the ER.  They put me in a room, asked me some questions, and I took a nap while they got around to me for a bit of blood (she missed - I hate that - I really hate it when it's one of those teflon suction needles.  They hurt.) and scheduling me to go get a CT.  Later the doc came in to tell me the CT had found a 4mm stone and that it was in the tightest spot and on its way out.  That said, they checked me out and sent me home.

Easier said than done.  It was 12:30 a.m., my wife still couldn't get out of the driveway, and taxis were running 2-3 hours behind schedule.  I picked up some percocet at the pharmacy (vaguely works with me, at least it cuts the pain if it's not a full on attack), and noticed this sign.  This is funny if you've had surgery in that area.  At least I thought it was funny.  Rectal cancer itself is in no way funny.

Percocet in hand, and a bag of vending machine fruit snacks in my stomach to make up for all the vomiting I'd done earlier in the evening when the pain got too bad, I went back out to the ER and sat in a wheelchair facing the sliding doors and waiting for the cab while reading a Discover magazine.  Around 2:30, my cab hadn't shown up yet, but another cab company was dropping someone off and had availability.  It was an interesting ride back.  In certain places, they'd plowed one lane out of six, leaving a road between two tall mounds of snow.

When we got close to home, I took a look at the roads going back into my neighborhood and told the cabbie to drop me off on the corner about four-five blocks from my house.  I gave him a good tip, and then started walking home.  I'm glad it was relatively warm out and that it was a beautiful evening, but trying to get five blocks with back pain and abdomen pain is a bit of a hassle.

By the end of today, despite the doctor's assurance there was a single stone, I've passed 3.5 stones (one was very small), maybe 3.75 if I count the sliver, and there's obviously more left given the cycling of pain I feel.  And there's more snow.  But at least I'm pretty sure the back pain isn't from shoveling.

Responses - Wordle, Mean Mr. Mustard

A reply to Jonathan Feinberg first, as I personally offended Wordle, much to Klund's amusement. This is presumably what he took umbrage with "Wordle is cool. It's just not accurate." So I'll clarify, although up until that point in the post I'd been pointing out that the cloud generated didn't capture the essence of my blog. Not that Wordle had a problem, only that the resulting cloud wasn't accurate in the sense that it wasn't representative - e.g. as dissociated from the Wordle program. That may sound like criticism of Wordle, but it's not. Wordle did it's job with what it had - that doesn't make the result any more indicative of the content of NodToNothing.

My real issue, and I could have phrased it better, is that when I pointed at a completely different month by putting that month's URL into Wordle, in order to grab the details that weren't related to the last 100 posts in the Atom feed and generate something a bit more representative based on what I hoped was a more representative month squarely in the middle of geocaching and bicycling season, Wordle instead regrabbed the Atom feed for the last month, not the content from the month I selected. That's understandable as well. After all, if it just grabbed the URL and went on it's merry way, it would probably have to parse out all the HTML and CSS-type tags. I sympathize with using a structured Atom or RSS feed and forgoing that mess. I could resolve a bit of that by using the paste-into-a-textbox function, but that was painful as I ended up grabbing the tags (meaning some words were counted twice) and some of the template information, which didn't turn out well. My assertion that the Technorati cloud was more accurate was in no way a reference to a program or algorithm, but only to how Technorati tracked my tags, resulting in a cloud based on what I had personally tagged as important in my blog and that seemed to capture keywords more appropriate to what it's about: bicycling, geocaching, Eryn, beer, and for some reason, the City of Rosemount.

To give Mr. Feinberg a nod (to something, not nothing), and perhaps invite a retaliation from Dave Sifry, Mr. Feinberg's Wordle program a.) creates more aesthetically pleasing clouds and b.) is no doubt more accurate in assessing the actual content cloud of my blog from an appropriate dump of text than Technorati's cloud is, which relies on my own ability to tag my content with appropriate metadata, a skill of questionable ability in anyone who isn't an information architect with a library science background.


I have a much shorter response for Mean Mr. Mustard, who commented on the post Pain. Despite my choice of language in the post, it was still a better call overall than telling an architect at work today, "You can blow me off any time. You're only two minutes away." Fortunately, I've switched jobs enough times that no one realized, or was unwilling to comment upon it, that I was snickering at my own stupidity as I transitioned to a new topic. And, on a more personal note directed specifically at you, I appreciate that I have so many a**holes in my life, so that only one had to have hemorrhoid surgery. I hope your back feels better soon.

Pain

Someone - two someones actually, my aunt-in-law among them - asked me today about all my issues from the past few months. Restless leg (less of an issue now that I drink less caffeine, and even less so when I'm not drinking within a few hours of bedtime). Hemorrhoid surgery. Kidney Stone. And I noted that I was happy about these things because they were finite. They had a start, and they had an end. Per the brackets above, the restless legs seem at least somewhat under control. I'm not going sleepless for weeks at a time. The surgery happened and was over. There's recovery. But I'm capable of riding my bike trainer despite the healing process. And the kidney stone. Well, passing that was the most painful thing I've ever done, but the whole event was done in two days and only involved four forty-minute episodes, only the last one being a heaving pain fest, and some concern about peeing on the floor because the filter sprays urine in 256 directions. Yes, I could have one of the other stones they CT-ed drop loose. But it's still an event with an end.

So I look at my friends. Tall Brad who threw his back. Again. Presumably having problems lifting his daughter or pulling her in the sled I gave him. And definitely laying out some big bucks for a bed in order to address the issue. Mean Mr. Mustard who also has back problems that x-rays can't identify. At least not yet. I can feel the disruption in his life over morning coffee and how it exacerbates all the other issues he faces. My admin, who is back at the doctor for a second round of combating breast cancer. My wife, who has spent over two years with nerve pain and is combating it with four rounds of painful shots interspersed with hopping on and off narcotics. A process which takes her away from our family for a day or two each time she has to DT.

My issues, despite that they seem to be related to turning 40 in some weird way, are contained and manageable and the end is right there where I can grasp it and deal with it and know I'm coming out the other side. I am thankful for how fortunate I am and that how limited my pain has been leaves me time to listen to my friends and family, have breakfast with them, and do what I can to help them through their pain, and hopefully provide them some ability to laugh at my travails and extrapolate that if there's an end in sight in the short term, maybe there's an end in sight in the long term.