Our Weekend With The Stones

No, not those Stones, unfortunately.

I had three-- count 'em-- THREE bike ride options for this weekend and ended up not doing any of them.

So how did this happen?

Well, Dan came home from work on Friday complaining of blood in his urine. I quizzed him about symptoms and although we were concerned, nothing seemed life-threatening and there are some perfectly benign reasons for temporary blood in the urine. We figured that unless symptoms worsened he would probably be okay until the doctor's office opened on Monday. After all, it was after five o'clock and we had spent a fair sum for our Ravi Shankar tickets. He was experiencing no significant pain so we decided to simply monitor the situation.

We did, however, decide that the Gator Fest bike ride in Anahuac Saturday morning wasn't a good idea. Darn. It's a cool little ride-- not a lot of riders, good rest stops and a free ticket to the festival afterwards. Well, maybe next year.

So we went to the concert, and while we were waiting for things to get started, Dan suddenly reached around to his back and said something was hurting. "What's back here?" he asked.

"Your kidney," I said. "I bet you've got a stone."

We discussed this possibility a bit, but the pain passed and we enjoyed the concert and late night breakfast afterwards.

Saturday started out normally-- I did my long run, we went for Indian buffet, I took an afternoon nap. But toward evening Dan started having a lot of discomfort. His symptoms multiplied. By now though, it was Saturday night and I told him I was willing to take him to an emergency room if he thought something was life-threatening, but otherwise he was probably better off at home until morning. On a Saturday night, an emergency room would likely triage him last after the party night fare of car accidents, drug overdoses, etc. He could end up waiting for hours.

With Dan feeling so bad though, I thought it best to not go for either of my Sunday morning ride options. Dammit.

In the morning, with him still in a lot of pain, I took him to a minor emergency clinic I suddenly remembered. It's a neat concept, really-- it's basically an emergency room (run by one of our very best hospitals) for things that aren't immediately life-threatening, but that can't wait until normal doctor hours. I went there for an athsma attack once and was thrilled to find myself at the head of the triage line, which would've never happened in an ordinary emergency room.

At the clinic, Dan got to see a doctor within thirty minutes and was given a preliminary diagnosis of kidney stones. They wanted to run some tests so I left him there and took care of a few errands. When I came back, they had found two stones on the scan, one of which was still hanging out in his kidney, the other on its way down. They had also given him something for pain and rehydrated him a bit. One thing about kidney stones that I hadn't realized (but that I find very cool) is that in its effort to flush the stone, the body starts pulling water from anywhere in the body it can find it, leading to constipation, dry mouth and other symptoms if you're not aggressively taking in more fluids. Wow. The body is pretty amazing, isn't it? Drink your water, peeps!

So by the time we were through with all that, it was late in the afternoon, I was hungry and tired, and we decided that a nap was in order. Dan was feeling up for our usual Sunday walk later in the evening, and by the time we got home it was too late even for a ride on the trainer.

So no bike ride for me this Sunday.

I feel like such a slug.

But hey, my husband is feeling much better and sometimes you just have to put your own stuff on hold to help a person out.

Stay healthy!