Flashback Friday

Okay so I'm gonna play with Jen at My Crazy Life this week.  She is doing Flashback Friday.  It's a story from your past--funny, sweet, whatever as long as it happened more than a year ago.

My story this week started in June of 2007.  I was on Field Camp(a field course for Geologists) and it was getting close to the end of the course--we had like a week left(it was a six week course).  That Wedsenday was the day before Nick's birthday.  I would be leaving for the final project the next morning, so we celebrated that day by heading to Ft. Collins for lunch and some shopping.

 I had not been feeling great but had chalked it up to sleeping in a tent and being way from home so much.  We got home that afternoon and around 4:30pm I was hit with the worst pain I had ever felt in my life.  I doubled over and hobbled out to tell Nick that something was wrong.  We took Turbo to the grandparents and headed to the hospital.  Once there they informed me I had a kidney stone.  Wonderful.

I got in to see a urologist in the next town (cause both the ones in my town were at a conference.)  He sent me for xrays and then put them up to look at. 
"Hmmm, We don't usually see this."
So not a good sign when a doctor says that.  It turned out I had not one, not two but multiple stones in my left kidney.  Two were easy to see the others had created a mass about the size of a walnut in my kidney.  Oh joy.  Thus started the summer of the kidney stones.  The next three months were punctuated by trips to the doctor, stays in the out patient wing and finally with an eight day stint in the hospital.  The final tally on the number of stones was over twenty.  I also have a lovely X marks the spot scar on my back too.

I now have to cut down on my salt intake and drink lots of water.  Who knew dehydration can lead to kidney stones.  I guess I'm an over acheiver--I'm a geologist and I make my own stones too.  Any way, I watch my sodium intake like most people watch calories--did you know there is salt in everything?  And I'm amazed by the amount of salt in stuff.  I have learned just because it says all natural preservatives doesn't mean it's good for me, salt is a natural preservative.
Anyway, that's my flash back--the time I got what I thought was for older people-kidney stones.

Next week, I promise will be more fun than this one.

Update:  For the record I would rather go through childbirth than have kidney stones.  With labor the pain does come and go a bit and you have something nice to show for the effort at the end.  With kidney stones, the pain seems unending and there is nothing to show at the end--who shows off their lovely kidney stones?