Camel no more

My friends in high school used to call me a camel when we would eat out together. I drank sooo much water.. all the time. (Camels drink large amounts of water - up to 20 gallons at a time.) I gave up soda when I was 16, never drank coffee, so it came down to water and milk.

Well, things have changed. I "forget" to drink throughout the day and it has finally caught up to me in the form of kidney stones. Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of passing a kidney stone. Let's just say, the nurse said many women would rather give birth again than to pass a kidney stone. The emergency room was a nice place to spend a Friday night, but not fun. After following up with an Urologist, I found out that I had a least six more stones forming in my kidneys. Yesterday I had lithotripsy done on my left side, and a followup appointment will determine if I had to have it done on my right side. At this exact moment I have downed 24 ounces of water, which is about 20 ounces more than I am acustomed to.

The lithotripsy procedure feels like someone has kicked you in the back with a steel toe boot on. I am bruised, sore, tired, and am praying that this is the last time I have to deal with something like this. Moral to the story... drink water, lots of it!