Is it 2010 yet?

2009 is not starting out as I had planned. On Tuesday I had my follow up appointment with my Urologist on my Kidney Stone procedure. The first thing he asked was "did you get your xray yet?" I was like, "no, I haven't been scheduled for one". He said that the hospital should have scheduled me one after my Lithotripsy but nope, they didn't. So he said he would get it scheduled for this afternoon. I told him no way, I had a conference call I had to do but I could do it on Thursday (New Years Eve). He said he would have the nurse schedule it and they would call me back. Of course, no call all day Tuesday and I was there at 10am. Well, I HAD to get it done before new years because my Insurance was changing plus I would have to pay another deductible. They never called. Finally on Wednesday morning I called. The nurse said they would be calling me back next week to schedule and then I explained the situation I was in. I HAD to get it done today! Well, they called back later and got me scheduled for an Xray at 2pm at Springhill.

Getting the Xray was easy, after tons of paperwork, you just go in the room, lay down and they take a picture. I figured all was well because I had been having no pain or complications. By the time I got back to the shop I started feeling sick. I was having pains on my lower left side and I knew it was a stone. It was hard to tell what it was because by this time everything feels like a kidney stone. Maybe it was just a stomach bug or something. After about 8pm we ate dinner and then shortly there after it went away. Weird.

James, Michele and Karen came over around 11pm so we could celebrate New Years. I was feeling great then, even had a couple beers. James and I watched some triathlons I had recorded and we had a good time. It was nice to ring in the new year with good friends but I was glad to be home and not out. We never even got called out at the Fire Department.

New Years day I felt great. I did pass on the 8am run. It was 25 degrees out and when I saw that I said no way. I didn't feel "that great" to be running in the cold. I did want to run though. Annette made it out and got 3 miles in I think. Later in the afternoon we went to James and Michele's and we all ran together. It was a nice slow, easy run. Actually my endurance sucks so bad it was more like a race to me, even though we only did about a 10:40ish average for 3 miles. I was happy to get some miles on New Years day. Wish I would have biked. Annette even made black eyed peas for dinner so all things were looking good for the new year.

Then Friday came. Basically another Monday since we had to work. One of the first calls I get was from my West Little Rock store and they were letting me know that someone had cut a hole in the fence and broke in to two cars on the lot. Looked like they picked the most expensive stereos to get.

While I'm there looking at that, I get a call from the Urology doctor. The nurse tells me that the Xray is still showing a kidney stone, 3x5. I was assuming this was millimeters. Since the original stone was 7mm, that meant they only crushed maybe 2? You have to be kidding me. And the bill the hospital sent for that Lithotripsy procedure was right at $10,000. I thought, I bet they want to do it again! I had already told them that my Insurance was changing and I had a very large deductible so I think that cut those thoughts short anyway. The nurse told me that I may have already passed it or if not, it was getting ready to come out. She told me to keep drinking fluids and that she would talk to the Doctor more and let me know.

I still had other things to get done with work, we had a welder broke and I had to pick up another one. After the nurse had told me that I started feeling the stone. All day I could feel it just sitting there, wanting to come out. At times it would hurt some and then it would pass. I have a very high pain tolerance anyway so I wasn't even taking aspirin. Didn't get lunch till 2, then I started drinking water and haven't stopped all day.

Kind of puts a damper on any major activity or training because running seems to make it hurt more. Not sure if that's good or not. I just know I am sick of dealing with it and ready to move on. So for now, I just have to wait till the next pee and hope a big piece of rock comes out. Ha, now that sounds like fun doesn't it!

I hope everyone else's start on 2009 is better than mine. I'm hoping that this just means its going to get better and better from here on. Keeping my fingers crossed and water bottle full.