Ah, for the love of Kidney Stones!!

I am having a visit from an old friend today.  We are well acquainted, know each other intimately.  We know just how vulnerable a person can be and then we have long, productive conversations where we talk about old times and catch up.

Of course all of this is a metaphor for passing a kidney stone.

But you don’t have to tell me that you are sorry for my pain—no no!  I believe that we should not hide from our pain—we should charge it.  Embrace the pain that you have had and overcome.  Relish it!  Reminisce on its nuances, its textures, its flavors.  Don’t hide from it—it no longer owns you.  You own it.  It adds character.  And it gives me stories to tell in the future.

But in the meantime, it helps to vent.


Thanks,

Eric

Ahhhh, my friend, I've felt the pain a few times in my life too.  It has been many years since the last one. I do hope it was indeed the last one!!!

You can understand why kidney strikes are taught in some hand to hand combat classes.

I do hope this will "pass" very soon for you.

Heddwch

Deane,

Yes, those who have had kidney stones understand just how painful pain can be.  When I had my first one, I had no idea what was happening or how bad pain could be.  

True story:  I was just out of college and living with my old college dorm roommate.  He knew something was wrong and approached me where I demanded that my roommate take me to the hospital.  Being in the middle of the night, I was wearing a pair of old cutoff sweatpants—and absolutely nothing else!  When we got to the hospital parking lot, we couldn’t figure out how to get to the entrance—it’s a bizarre parking lot layout.  I saw the ER ambulance bay, got out of the car and walked into the ER through the ambulance bay.  It was Friday night in a college town and I was a 22 year old recent grad walking around in nothing but cutoff sweatpants.  I knew that I looked like a good candidate for a drunk and/or drug seeker.  But I was in so much pain that I was far beyond rational thought.  As I walked I explained “OH GOD, IT HURTS, SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!”

To my surprise and partial relief, ER docs had me on a gurney before I could fully enter the hospital, stuck a needle in my arm and gave me morphine—which strangely made the pain worse.  I couldn’t feel the rest of my body EXCEPT for the kidney stone which hadn’t been touched a bit—in fact, the pain was almost focused.

During the delirium and nausea from the morphine and the most intense pain I had ever experienced by far my mind drifted back and forth from random thought to random thought.  I had recently taken a class on WWII which was influential on me.  One thought that drifted into and then out of my mind was that I would not have wished this pain on Hitler.  And I couldn’t believe that thought even occurred to me but I was in so much intense, exquisite pain that I literally could not wish this pain on anyone who ever lived—even that person.  That’s just how much pain I was in.  And I wish it on nobody—no matter what.

So yeah Deane, we know just how horrible a kidney stone can be.  I am thankful for painkillers.



Eric