Old Leaves: Kidney Stones

Several times over the years I have hosted Mr. Kidney Stone. Just a few nights ago I spent a portion of the pre-dawn hours trying not to wake Sheila with my moans -- and dreading having to spend the day at Harbin Clinic or the emergency room again so soon after my Half-Inch Drill incident. But about daybreak, shortly after I fessed up to my condition to Sheila, the pain disappeared. I think -- I hope -- I pray -- it passed and is gone. (I hope writing this hasn't jinked me!) Anyway, thinking about that made me think it might be time to dust off this post from 2007...

-------------------

Sunday Seven: I promise you - A Small Kidney Stone is Someone Else's Kidney Stone.

I have been experiencing the joys of hosting a Kidney Stone for the last several weeks. I didn't know the name of my guest till he kidney-punched me a week ago Saturday. He got in another hard punch last Sunday then just peppered me with light stuff for a few days. Thursday he hid out and until about four yesterday I decided he had left the house. But up he popped and gave me the hardest jolt yet. I walked bent for several hours, popping pain pills. I'd write a line or two of my post about Gary (below) then walk from one end of the house to another bent at the waist and listing several degrees to port (to continue my love of scrambled metaphor). Finally we jumped in the car and visited Immediate Care where a sweet little nurse stung my rear with a hefty dose of some modern magic. Twenty minutes later the pain was gone. It is still gone, but the stone remains and makes himself known in less dramatic ways.

Maybe you are wondering how I'm gonna get a Sunday Seven out of this. Well, folks, I am one thankful guy and at least seven times blessed this cool October morning!

1. I am thankful for Sheila. I can't imagine how lonesome it would be and what additional pain it would make to undergo debilitating pain without a life partner standing by. Sheila took time she couldn't really afford to represent both of us at Gary's funeral on Thursday. She has kept me supplied with delicious chicken/potato soup and corn muffins. She drives her moaning husband back and forth to hospital/doctor/immediate care. She walks the floors with me. She strokes my brow and seems to genuinely love someone who cannot possibly be very attractive right now.

2. I am thankful that I live in 2007. Can you imagine enduring kidney stone pain with no access to medical care. No pain reliever. No idea of an ending other than death. I can imagine a primitive person begging for death after a few hours!

3. I am thankful for the internet. Despite all the junk out there, a person can pretty quickly get a basic education on most any topic, including kidney stones.

4. I am thankful for the love and concern of my two daughters, my mother, and other family members who have called to check on me and cheer me from afar.

5. I am thankful for that magic shot in the tush. I forgot to ask the magician which spell he used with that slender wand.

6. I am thankful for the prayers, calls, and well wishes from so many church, school, family, and internet friends. I'll note one special friend, Mr. Wint Barton, who took the time for an encouraging call.

7. I suspect you all, wherever you are, will hear my deafening thank yous and hallelujahs when I finally get to see my unwelcome 4mm guest!

These are real pictures of relatives of my guest. They are not always so spiky, but ouch! No wonder that thing is hard to get outta there. It may be dug in.
(from another blog.)

Sunday Seven: Pics from a Month at School

1. The Rewards of School Fundraising (The Penny Drop)

Our class won a Limo ride to the pizza parlor...



The secretary got pied...



and the assistent principal kissed a goat (a three-day-old kid!)



2. Faux-spring Days on the Nature Trail

Tell this little beauty that it's not Spring yet!


Can you find the little lizard, all warm and active?



Or these little lizards burning with Spring Fever?



3. Science Fair

164 projects in all, 84 from my students --
from extracting DNA to attracting wildlife with bobcat urine!





4. Tornado Drill
We take these things seriously here 'bouts.



5. Valentines Day
I was good -- I stayed on the diet and gave all those little heart-shaped boxes away.



6. Recess
One of our environmental studies this year we call "Metatarsal Mayhem": we are studying the effect of foot-traffic on our playground. It is significant.



7. My student teacher with her Show 'n' Tell
I do love to hold babies!




---

Visit other Sunday Seven blogs though the Sunday Seven "hub".

Sunday Seven (A Week Late)

Wrote it, forgot it. (See #1) So here it is a week late:

1. Life has been very complicated for the past week.

2. I really like mac.com and the Safari browser. It is integrated into the i-Life set of programs on Mac. It has all kinds of capabilities many of which I have hardly used yet. I'll eventually drop AOL, I guess, but I hate to lose contact with those that find genealogical queries I posted years ago and old, infrequently communicating friends, and my old AOL websites.

3. WHAT A WEEK!!!! I am totally exhausted. Brannon had agreed some time ago to teach Drama at a local Drama Camp. They were desperate for a Music Teacher. In a moment of weakness I said that if they absolutely could not find someone else, I, with Lillian's help, could do camp music. I was speaking from stark ignorance. I did not know (or, at least, did not fully appreciate): the camp includes, gulp, TEENAGERS!!! The camp includes, also, 6-to-8-year-olds!!!! The camp runs ten days from 9 till 4 and leaders have to be there 8:30 to 4:30 and till 6 one day and until about 9 the last day!! There is a full-scale production in the Auditorium on the last Friday evening. I have to go back to my real job the very next Tuesday! Parents of very hyperactive children LOVE to send them to day-camp in the summer. Did I mention that I am TOTALLY exhausted?

4. WHAT A WEEK!!!! I learned by late Wednesday morning that I can, after all, in spurts and with many stumbles, successfully deal with, gulp, TEENAGERS!!! I learned by late Wednesday morning that I can, after all, in spurts and with many stumbles, survive dealing with BILL-the-demon-8-year-old (name changed)!!! And I have learned that parents think even our unbelievably off-key, unrhythmical, poorly enunciated, sometimes monotone, a cappella performances yesterday in the cave - done by their children - were glorious seraphic seranades! Granted, with the acoustics of the cave and the motivation of an audience, emanations from the mouths of these little rascals almost resembled song at times.

5. I am so glad we have the internet during Andrew's illness. It is so helpful, with him all the way across the continent, to be able to keep up with his progress and be encouraged by the love and prayers of his many friends, relatives and their friends and relatives. When we see in the news and on many blogs of all stripes such incredibly blind hate and compassionless provincialism, it is heartening to see that we humans are also capable of love and empathy.

6. We enjoyed getting to EAT and worship and visit with our fellow Roman family members, including the newest ones, and David's and Gil's families.

7. As for my babies: I've gotten to work with both of them this week and therefore deal with them as something of colleagues for the first time.

• Lillian was a HUGE help to me in camp Mon - Weds and will help again next week. Since Thursday Lil has been off with our youth group (including Jonerbub) on the sort-of-annual Wakulla/Ginny Springs Retreat in Florida. She'll be back tomorrow. Lil attended an orientation day at Mercer a couple of weeks ago and has been communicating with her roommate via e-mail and IM. She has registered for her fall courses and has chosen to participate in Mercer's alternative Great Books curriculum. She won't decide on a major for a while. She proudly sports several Mercer articles of clothing and a Mercer sticker on her car window. She loves the campus and what she has seen so far of the professors, students, and program.

• Brannon and I have worked pretty closely together in the leadership meetings for camp and have lunch together each day at the Creekside restaurant. I think that's been educational for both of us and a little strange. After our first dinner meeting to prepare for camp, she remarked about how interesting it had been to see me dealing with others as a "friend not as a Dad". Brannon spent the week of the 4th in NYC. She interviewed with a temp agency and feels good about having gainful employment while she tries to break into the professional theatre world. She and her prospective roommate have second dibs on an apartment in Astoria (Queens). The people with first dibs are pretty uncertain, so she's hopeful that she and Cathy will get it. If not they at least have a realty person looking out for something else. And she has made her plane reservations for September, so my baby will be a New Yorker soon. Yikes!! Sheila, Lil and I are planning to spend Thanksgiving in New York visiting Bran and seeing some shows.

• Sheila and I will have an empty nest come September!