Monday

Today was an eventful day, starting at 8 a.m. I don't think I have ever posted about Joe's kidney stone history before. It all started back in 1999 I believe. His first stone attack occurred while he was on his motorcycle. It took two weeks to pass after the first sign of pain. We were dating at the time and I took him to the ER, after he was puking, practically passing out and on his knees. I felt so bad for him. He was in bad shape and I had never seen him sick before. Well, 8 years and about 10 stones later, he is still having them. He came home this morning around 7, after working all night, and he went to bed. At 8 a.m. he got up and came to the kitchen for a drink of water. He never gets up once he goes to bed. I had a feeling something was wrong. He said "I'm feeling a little bit of pain, I think I have a stone." Within 5 minutes he was falling to his knees in excruciating pain. I was trying to finish feeding Jonas breakfast so we could get out the door. We know from his past experiences, you just never know how big the stone is or what it could entail to pass it. He has had two Lithotripsy procedures in the past as well as one emergency Sunday surgery to extract a stone that was stuck and causing a severe infection. His urologist has an x-ray machine in the office and usually they can fit him in on a whim like this, to let us know how big the stone is. This prevents us from going to the ER and paying a larger co-pay. So, I called my mom and said we have to drop Jonas off and get Joe to the Dr. I threw a days worth of Jonas necessities together in case we had to go to surgery or have a day full of doctor's visits. We dropped Jonas off and arrived at the doctor's office a little before 9. They were very accommodating and told Joe to do a urine specimen. He did and passed the stone!! For those of you who are familiar with kidney stones, you know that it never takes less than an hour to pass a stone after the first onset of pain! We are grateful he passed it so quickly and we didn't get charged for the quick doctor office visit. I am grateful he was home when this happened. He tends to have attacks when we are on vacation or ready to go somewhere. He has had a stone in Hilton Head, Charleston, Pigeon Forge, right before leaving for Atlanta...and I believe all the rest here at "home." Yes, there was a time when I was afraid to leave overnight with him! :-)

He goes back this Monday for a check up to see if he has any more stones. Hopefully not!

I love you baby, in sickness and in health!