Hi Everyone,

Well, I'm finally in California and my husband has left for Japan...twice. He came home for a military conference about 4 weeks after he left. But he's gone again. I might have mentioned that I've been having back problems including leg pain and numbness. Turns out I have a huge disc herniation and I was scheduled for surgery next month.

Well, right on time, cystinuria reared its ugly head. I've been taking my thiola on and off during the move - about 50% of the time. Bad, I know. I made an appointment with my new Stanford urologist, and he set me up for a CT scan just so he could see where I'm at. Turns out I have a bunch of stones, mostly on the left.

There's a 4x6x11 stone in my left renal pelvis...yay, my best friend (my renal pelvis and I don't get along if you haven't been following). I also have a 7mm stone in the lower infundibulum on the left. There are also 4 other 3mm stones scattered in the left kidney. There are tiny stones in the right kidney that can't be measured. Yay! They should pass. No stones in the ureter.

So, yes, I knew I had a stone on the left. Over the past month, I've had two instances of moderate flank pain. Nothing bad at all, just a pesky knock on the door like that cockroach in the Terminex commercial. This is the first time I've had pain and there hasn't been any stones in the ureter, so I officially thumb my nose to all urologists who say you can't feel stones/pain in the kidneys. Maybe my renal pelvis is extra sensitive after my last eswl gone wrong.

Since everything is lodged in the kidneys, I'm going in for my second eswl. My new doc knew I hated those with every ounce of my being, but what can you do? I may or may not get a stent, but as of right now, everyone is saying I'll be getting general anesthesia, to which I say pffFFFft. Hells no. They just don't know my history with that nastiness. If they do, I'm demanding an overnight stay at the hospital. It's either that or puke in my MIL's car the whole way home and for the next 24 hours. I don't want to go through that hell, plus the pain without my husband here. No thank you. The stone clinic I'll be headed too isn't even local. :/

Tomorrow I'm gonna call Beaufort Memorial Hospital's anesthesiologist dept to see if I can get my records faxed over or something. last time I had a spinal and sedation, something started going funny with my heart and they had to give me some kind of medication. They are real secretive about all that, so while I don't know what happened (assuming my heart rate slowed down too much) but I had a dry mouth, and the doc said it was typical with that medication. Sill, I'd rather have that drama than go through general.

My surgery is scheduled for Aug 19th.