Thus is my life currently. Well, now more especially than normal.
Despite the fact that I generally don’t have exciting weekends as a married man and teacher, this weekend was exceptionally thrilling. I ended up at the doctor on Saturday for pain in…well, we won’t go there. Let’s just say it was an exceptionally sensitive spot. I had to go from there to the hospital and eventually the ER.
And the trend continued on Sunday, when an early morning bout of severe lower back pain sent me back to the doctor…and the hospital…and the ER again, to find out that the likely ultimate cause of all of my misery was a 2mm kidney stone. (See the photo for an idea, although seeing one is nothing like having one inside one of your ureters.)
The timing really could hardly have been worse: this was to be the last full week of school before semester exams next week (which I’m already dreading somewhat). Seniors had scheduled presentations this week, and they have to get put on hold and ultimately rescheduled for when I get back, which will be Wednesday at the earliest. Until then, I sit at home with a supply of Vicodin and Flomax, trying to rest and not to think about the pain (which is tolerable now) and the nausea (which is actually a bit worse).
(I’m seriously sorry for all the information that you probably didn’t care to know, Intrepid Reader.)
I really should be used to this kind of thing by now – well, not the minor medical emergency, but having to adjust. And I think I can make things work out, but missing days of school is not what I wanted to do in the last two weeks before Christmas break.
What can I do? Just keep keepin’ on, I suppose, doing whatever I can to make things work. As Heraclitus famously said, “The only constant is change,” and so I must keep adapting to whatever manifestation of change I encounter.
Even if it is a 2mm ball of calcium oxalate.
[Photo courtesy of Blanche and Guy (and my sympathies to Guy!)]
Docere Est Discere 
Leave a Reply