An Update / Judy

I would put up more pictures from Aspen Grove, but I can't find them; they're somewhere in the computer (sigh). But I did want to tell about my recent experience.

In January I had the kidney stones on my left side taken care of and it was awful and the whole thing lasted about three months. On Monday I had to do the stone in my right side and so far it hasn't been nearly so bad. Here is an excerpt from an email I sent out the family:

Well, I'm now on the other side of the ordeal and it really wasn't as bad as last time. In the first place, they did NOT put in stent...Yayy! and so far I haven't had the pain after coming home I did last time. Or maybe I know how to manage it better--I've been taking a pill every 4-6 hours all day to head it off before it starts. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am on Monday and the "surgery" was at 7:00 and we were home by 11:00. We would have been home an hour earlier, but I did have a big spasm that vicodin didn't help (and I threw it up), so they gave me some intravenous morphine and then I had to wait for an hour while I was mostly floating and sleeping.

When I was in the operating room, being moved from the gurney to the table, I said, "Wait, stop! I've changed my mind so let's not do this." You should have seen their faces! Everybody froze, and then said, "Really?" I had to laugh and then I said, "No, not really. But I actually don't want to do this." There was a sigh of relief and a couple nervous chuckles and next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room. I think people who work there are never told no. They just assume everybody will go along with the program, no questions asked, which is reasonable of course.

I was awake in the recovery room and feeling well for about half an hour and they kept asking me how I felt, so I finally said, "I'm bored." At that point the nurse said maybe I could go back to my room then, where Lloyd waited for me. So here I am, a little out of it, but not too bad off, and hoping it stays like this. It's now Friday and I haven't taken any pain med since yesterday and even then it wasn't very much. As I said, “So far, so good.”