The Continuing Saga / Judy

I went to the doctor today to have the stent taken out and now I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the two big stones (on my left side) are all broken up and now moving down the stent as they should. The bad news is that I have to keep it in for at least another week to get as much of the gravel stuff out of my body as possible. Mostly I'm fine, although the stent is uncomfortable, but I can ignore it to some extent. The main problem occurs when some of the stones start moving outside the stent and I feel like I'm having a full-blown kidney stone attack. However, I have learned how to deal with it--I take two vicodin and within about 30-45 min. I can bear it and then I usually go to sleep for a while. This is all taking much longer and feeling worse than I expected, but I know it will be over eventually. Then I can do the same thing for the one stone in my right kidney (aaarghhh). Today the doctor told me that I personally have as much "stone material" as four or five other people he treats. Sometimes it's no fun to be special.