Crazy Times

It's been crazy around here for a couple of weeks. Well, as you can tell from my two previous posts, it's crazy all around us with all of the fallout from the Great Nashville Flood of 2010.

It's gratifying to see our little corner of the world come together and encourage each other. Around these parts, if you weren't affected by the flood, you probably know someone who was. Neighbors, churches and volunteer organizations are being extremely generous in helping. There are fundraisers all over the place. Out of something bad, we are seeing so much good. We are, as a community, rebuilding.

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Now please excuse me for being a bit personal. But I have a history of kidney stones. I have had three in the past ten years. The first one I apparently passed, although I wasn't aware of it. I had about 36 hours of this god-awful pain in my back, went to the doctor and was diagnosed, then a couple of days later it was no more.

I was told to drink plenty of water, put lemon in that water, and try to stick to a low-sodium diet. But the good doctor also told me if you've had one, you'll probably have another . . . and another. If you tend to have them, you tend to have them.

The good news is there is no real medical danger from the pesky little things. The bad news is the pain -- oh, the pain. And yes, I'm a typical man and I don't do well with pain.

Kidney Stone number two came along in 2006, right before I was about to go with my family on a cruise to Alaska. The weekend before our departure found me in the Emergency Room. The pain was not as intense as the previous one, but the scan confirmed what I already knew: I had another one and this, by kidney stone standards, was a whopper -- nine millimeters. Probably not going to pass on its own.

My doc loaded me up with pain meds and sent me on my way, and scheduled the little surgical procedure for a few weeks later. You see, these things have a way of moving around and sometimes there is virtually no pain. Fortunately, I had none on our trip.

The surgery is called "lithotripsy" and it involves being put under general anesthetic. The doctors then "zaps" the little bugger with sound waves and it passes out of your body kind of like sand. This little procedure successfully took care of this stone back four years ago.

That brings us to about April of this year when I noticed a little blood in my urine (again, my apologies for the graphic detail). I made a visit to my urologist, who did an X-ray, confirming yet another of the unwelcome visitors. This one was five milimeters and since there was no pain, he recommended living with it and hoping it would pass. So I lived and hoped.

Two weeks ago this Saturday I woke up a little sick to my stomach. I walked the dog and the pain got a little worse, and extended over into my lower back. I was also nauseated.

The day progressed and it got a little better, though I did not feel very well. I went to Younger Son's rugby game and became increasingly uncomfortable. By 5 p.m., folks, I was writhing in pain and just as sick as I could be. Either the kidney stone was giving me fits or there was something else terribly wrong but whatever it was, I had to have some relief. Wife and Daughter accompanied me to the hospital.

The E.R. is a colorful place on the weekends. It takes 30 minutes to an hour just to get processed. I guess if you were dying, they would have a way of knowing, and would give you some kind of priority, but if you're just the run-of-the-mill bellyache as I was perceived to be, you wait your turn.

About four hours, an IV and a scan later, it was confirmed that this stone had moved (I'll spare you the details) and that's what was giving me such intense pain. The E.R. doc gave me some wonderful drugs and said I should see my urologist first thing Monday morning.

I saw my urologist and, thanks to the great technology we now have, he had all the records from the E.R. By this time I was in very little pain and he suggested that I give it two more weeks, then come back and if I haven't passed it we'll schedule another lithotripsy.

To my knowledge I haven't passed it. I've had some discomfort but nothing major. We'll see what the doc says Monday.

More detail than you ever wanted to know but hey, I appreciate your stopping by. I'll keep you posted.

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In the midst of this, Wife and I are in the middle of a little renovation project here at the house. We have put off getting new floors for nine years and after deferring and deferring, and saving, we finally scheduled it for this year.

We got new carpet upstairs which was installed last week. This week we're having hardwoods put in the kitchen and den which will, after everything is finshed, match the ones in the entry hall, living room and dining room. This is a messy procedure and we're pretty much living in a construction site.

Next week we have to move out while the stripping of the old floors, sanding and staining is done. We're imposing on some friends by moving in with them a few days, then making a little trip over Memorial Day weekend.

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We have also chosen this time to try and crate-train an approximately 12 or 13-year-old-dog. Ralph, a 20 lb terrier mix, came to us from the Humane Society in 1999 and we were told by our vet he was 1-2 years old.

Ralph is a great dog. Weeks after coming to live with us, he attached himself to me. According to what I have read, dogs looks for a "pack leader" and he picked me. Bless his heart.

Anyway, in 2005 I took a job that requires that I travel to Memphis and I am out anywhere from one to three nights most weeks.

This freaks Ralph out. Even though he loves everyone else in the family, he is most attached to me. And I love Ralph, make no mistake about it.

Ralph has taken out his frustrations on area rugs for sometime now. He'll go a while just fine but then he'll start doing it again. We clean it up but after a while the smell is just intolerable. We have lived with it and had the rugs cleaned repeatedly. But with the new floors coming, we decided it was time to try a crate for sleeping at night (early mornings seem to be his worst time) and for when we're gone from the house for more than hour or so.

It's not Ralph's fault. We should have done this a long time ago. We're having mixed results but after two weeks, he's doing pretty well. All the reading Wife and I have done indicates that you CAN teach a dog new tricks.

Please pray for Ralph.