A kidney stone! My first and I hope only. This week, from Sunday on, has been ummm… memorable. Sunday our dishwasher decided it was time to check out, it was over twenty years old, and was acting weird these past few weeks, but I loved the thing’s look and charm.. anyways, it died on Sunday, not really a big deal. Always could wash dishes by hand. But then the furnace goes haywire. Turns out it was a circuit board related to the igniter. While that was getting fixed yesterday (just in time for today – but the last couple nights have been nothing to sneeze at), I was in the hospital with a kidney stone.

Got a new dishwasher, furnace is working great (I can take a shower this morning without flashbacks to the squat I lived in), and I’m alive!

Yesterday was crazy. Went to work as I always do, read some email, checked PF, opened Newsgator, got to Scripting News, and then… the pain in my left side was worst then I could describe – deep inside – like an organ was being squeezed.

I have Spondylolisthesis, and at first I thought it was simply a case of it getting worst – I have pain from it I deal with everyday, I don’t talk about it much. It’s just a reality of life to deal with. This, however, didn’t feel muscle or bone related. My family doctor agreed to take me at 1PM. Far away from center city, near Willow Grove. I made it there, coping with the pain using similar mental exercises I use for the spondi.

My doctor at first thought it was back spasms, but the urine analysis said otherwise – lots of blood cells – and she had me rush to the ER. By the time I got there, the pain was subsiding, coming in waves instead of constant pressure. The doctor there said it was probably a kidney stone, based on diagnosis – but that I didn’t look like someone having them – bent over crying in pain. Well inside I was. And earlier in the day, at work, I know I looked terrible.

A short time after arriving at the ER it passed. Around the size of the large end of a sesame seed. So damn small. According to the docs, however it wasn’t. Didn’t need a filter to see that thing. I have it now to send to a urologist if my family doctor thinks I should go. Piss, blood, and a pebble. How pleasant.

Speaking of piss and blood, the pissing match between John Harris, Jim Brady and Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post, is fascinating. More here. What’s for sure is Dan Froomkin is now an online star. Where’s his RSS feed?

Heh, anyway – this will be a good day. Damn straight.