Humbled by Friends; MANY thanks

[41 Frank]

Hope you get past this quickly Bob, we hope to see you at the Orphan Car Drags in a couple of weeks at Bean Blossom, Indiana.

[52-fan]

Yikes! Joe has had kidney stones and I know from him that they are bad. I hope your recovery goes well.

[BobPalma]

As of 6 PM Sunday evening, I am no longer stoned. How the hell anything that small could cause so much pain is beyond me.

Thanks for all the good wishes; 'feeling fine and back in the saddle.

Thanks again to all who helped. BP

[jclary]

As of 6 PM Sunday evening, I am no longer stoned. How the hell anything that small could cause so much pain is beyond me.

Thanks for all the good wishes; 'feeling fine and back in the saddle.

Thanks again to all who helped. BP

OK...I just returned from buying "mater" plants for my garden. Came in the house to change into my clod knocker boots before returning to the garden and noticed you had finally responded (again). Happy to note that you have announced being no longer stoned. If your experience has been like mine (and many others), by now your vocabulary has been introduced to some new words. Such as calculi, hematuria, oxalates, crystalline, etc. After my very first visit to a urologist...I think I developed PTSD. Caused by that terrifying sound of a latex glove snapping around a wrist...followed by the words..."BEND OVER!"

So Bob...seeing all the responses from those of us having had similar episodes... wishing you well, and letting you know, you are a member of a fraternity, to which there is a large membership. Nobody was invited to join, but everyone in it was initiated. Joining, is always involuntary, and certainly spontaneous. Regardless of whether you are in a bad mood, grumpy, or happy to be relieved...it is a "Rite of Passage." (drink plenty of liquids)

[studeguy54]

Bob,

Glad you're feeling a bit better. Truly, we missed your presence. Despite the inclement weather the early part of the week, Friday and Saturday turned out well. Not having you in the mix or activities is a loss to the people who were there.

Get better, and we'll hear from you soon!

[BobWaitz]

Bob,

Glad I got to talk to you for a bit before "the unpleasantness." Extra glad I got to see you on all twos as you were heading home. You looked better than you felt! Remember, wine can reduce your risk of kidney stones!

Bob

[Michael J Hawk]

My condolences. I know how painful that is.

[8E45E]

Bob,

Sorry to hear something so painful struck at the most inoppotune time! In 1978, a friend of my grandfather's endured the pain of a kidney stone. And it must be as painful as you say: This guy was in WWII, and was a few hundred feet away from a bridge that got bombed somewhere in Europe. He told us, himself and the others in his Division got injured with flying debris from the bridge with several pieces of small shards of steel from it embedding in the one side of his body. He was days in the hosptial having it all removed. He thought that itself was painful enough, but he said that one kidney stone was worse when it came to pain!

I definitely hope it's the LAST one you ever get!

Craig

[StudeNewby]

Bob,
So sorry to hear of your ordeal, but very glad you are now on the mend. My cousin has had several kidney stones and has relayed the experience to me in no short detail, and that is as close as I ever hope I come to experiencing it for myself.
It was great meeting you after the Co-Operators Seminar. I look forward to your next columns in TW and HCC!

[trap442w30]

Bob, I don't know if I met you or not. I had the more-less unrestored 1917 Studebaker touring from OH (that is titled as 1918). I can, however, relate to stones. I have passed 729 of them since 1996. I have passed most without blasting, but have been blasted in water, blasted dry, even had them manually removed. I never actually saw the first one (it might only be 728). I started them two weeks before getting married the first time and averaged 1 per day about 1/8" diameter until about a month after the divorce. The largest was 5mm x 8mm without blasting. The pain is unbearable. But this part of the world is known as the kidney stone capital (around the great lakes). The world record holder who has passed thousands of them is from Hamilton Canada. I've seen specialists, been to dozens of hospitals, I tried changing my diet (when your passing one a day, its easy to tell what makes a difference. What I have come up with for the cause.....Stress. Other than that, dark carbonated beverages, nuts, tea, caffine. Most stones are calcium-oxylate so they focus on decreasing those, then they try increasing those, but the key is that Uric Acid causes the calcium and oxylate to combine. Instead of stress giving me an ulcer, it forms uric acid. Once you get one, you are likely to have more. I obviously can't tell you how not to get them, but to help them pass....pick something up fairly heavy using your back repeatidly, the rolling motion helps them move. Keep some pain pills handy, expecially to sneak in the hospital, because they won't give you any thing for pain after blasting until you pee all the shards of shattered stone. Take one before you attempt. If they put a stent in between your kidney and bladder, make them put you under before pulling it out, or you can have them tie a string to it....its uncomfortable, but two weeks after blasting instead of going up there with a scope and a clawed parts pick up tool, they can just pull the string. If you go to a hospital begging for something for pain and they ask what you want...its a trap...whatever you say you are now an addict until they get a urine sample to prove otherwise...but of course by then you are blocked...which by the way is the cause of the pain, not the stone itself. I know this was lengthy, but I hope it helps someone out there.
Tim Plas

[trap442w30]

Almost forgot, the little things they give you for straining your pee....they work great for running paint through before putting it in a spray gun. Also try to get some sleep, and a heating pad helps a lot....so do heated seats in a car. They say to drink 64 ounces of water per day (that might be part of my problem). There have been many times I was actually praying that I would die or pass-out. I only passed out once from the pain....unfortunately it was while driving myself to the hospital in 1999....took out three telephone poles. woke up in the hospital with a ticket laying on my chest for failure to control. Luckily the judge has had kidney stones and he dropped all charges and fines.

[trap442w30]

The first doctor said to drink lots of beer. (beer actually causes stones. so does cranberry juice...but the cranberry juice helps with the urinary tract infection you will probably get). I asked why beer and he said "you get the most urine output for the input, plus the pain relieving and antiseptic qualities of the alcohol". I asked if he'd write me a prescription for that so I could take it to work, but he wouldn't.
On the hopeful side. My most recent doctor put me on a blood pressure medicine hydrochlorothiazide that in small doses helps with kidney stones. At 25mg per day, I haven't passed a stone yet this year....a side benefit is it lowers your blood pressure.

[voxnut]

As of 6 PM Sunday evening, I am no longer stoned. How the hell anything that small could cause so much pain is beyond me.

Thanks for all the good wishes; 'feeling fine and back in the saddle.

Thanks again to all who helped. BP

Glad to hear you're in the pink. I've dealt with three of them in the past and it is a toss up between those and a gallbladder attack being the most painful things I've gone through. I will say when you pass a kidney stone it is the textbook definition of relief!

I'm sure you'll get a pound of advice, but I've cut way back on colas and increased water and cranberry juice intake. So far, so good. Last bout with one was 2012, knock on wood.

All the best

[Chicken Hawk]

Just now getting around to reading all these posts, emails, etc. Bob, you,re correct on all as far as I know EXCEPT I didn't eat breakfast. I was busy trying to find out what hospital you were at, how you were, gathering all the items from the room, etc.

Sure glad you passed the stone and are back on track now. You wouldn't believe the number of people that stopped by our booth asking about you. And John Kern was a life saver getting your trailer hooked up to your truck, loading the Tomato, loading parts on my truck, etc. He's a human dynamo.

Ted

[BobPalma]

Just now getting around to reading all these posts, emails, etc. Bob, you're correct on all as far as I know EXCEPT I didn't eat breakfast. I was busy trying to find out what hospital you were at, how you were, gathering all the items from the room, etc.

Sure glad you passed the stone and are back on track now. You wouldn't believe the number of people that stopped by our booth asking about you. And John Kern was a life saver getting your trailer hooked up to your truck, loading the Tomato, loading parts on my truck, etc. He's a human dynamo.

Ted

Sorry, Ted; I owe you a breakfast. I hope there's a Cracker Barrel near your house; Uncle Hershel's Favorite ought to fill you up. Sorry, I had no way of knowing where they'd take me and get back to you once in the ambulance. Thanks so much for gathering up everything in the room.

I'll stop by Ditch Witch here in Brownsburg this morning, where John is a mechanic, and thank him personally for his help. You're right; he's a human dynamo.

George and Ludene got here safely at 11:00 AM Wednesday to drop off the truck and empty trailer on their way back to Nebraska via friends in Iowa. They were on their way by 12:15 PM after lunch with us at Steak & Shake; the last day the coupons we had were valid!

Everything is fine & dandy thanks to so many good friends like you guys. Thanks again many times over. BP