I've been complaining about pain in my hip and leg on my walks about Nantes and Paris. After some self-diagnoses, courtesy of the internet, I think I find I may not be as good a doctor as I thought I was. I slept very fitfully Friday night, waking every couple of hours, feeling a little nauseous. I finally awoke for good with a pain in the region of my left hip above the "love" handle I placed there so carefully over the past thirty years. By 9:30 am I throwing up because the pain is so great. I call Morgan and ask him for a ride to the hospital.
Upon leaving my apartment and walking down to Morgan's I was feeling better, and, by the time I got to the hospital almost all pain was gone. By this time, both Morgan and I had diagnosed Kidney Stone (Calcul Rénal). Walking from the parking lot to the hospital I stupidly decided, since the pain was gone, I could, perhaps, last until Monday when I could make arrangements to see a regular doctor and not use emergency room facilities. So, at my request, Jerry loaded us both up into his car and away we went.
We spend about three hours running errands, picking up laundry, buying groceries, all the usual things, then I returned home. About an hour later I was hit with the next wave of pain, even worse than the first. I called Jerry and off we went, back to the hospital, arriving about 5:00pm.
We were met at the hospital by the cutest, most pleasant little French nurse you'd ever hope to see. Her name was Celine and, after telling me (jokingly) that she hated Americans, she just took great care of me. I registered with admitting (gee, was it only forty years ago I worked with my cousin, Merle, in admitting at the Lake Region Hospital in Leesburg, Florida?). I was checked in, interviewed by a medical student who was quite engaging and pleasant. After seeing how much pain I was in they admitted me and gave me a drip of something that could only be described as "heaven in an IV." Sort of reminded me of that old joke about, "if you remember the 60s, you weren't there."
I could go on-and-on about the levels of pain associated with a kidney stone, but I suspect many of you know, or don't want to, so I won't bore you. The final diagnosis is that I have a small (thank God it isn't large...I can't tell you how much that means to me) kidney stone and that "this, too, shall pass." But not without some pain and blood. So, I've been given some rather nice chemicals to use for my next attack and I don't look forward to it.
Meanwhile, I returned home by about midnight and slept very peacefully (you would too with those wonderful chemicals in you) the entire night. Woke up this morning without any pain at all so Morgan and I went off and I played my first round of European golf.
It was a nice course on the Loire river, with the Chateau Clermont overlooking from the far bank. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, but I will next time. The view was wonderful. After a four month layoff I didn't expect much from my short game and wasn't surprised, double-hitting one chip (I know WT...you've seen it before), three-putting twice and four-putting once. I managed to shoot a 75...then played the remaining three holes. But, I wasn't unhappy with the swing and, as always, enjoyed the golf.
Morgan started off poorly but improved as the round went on. I told him he stands too close to the ball..after he hits it..but he can't take a joke. He really came around on the last five or six holes so I'm starting to see the potential for a little bet in the future.
Anyway, the day was great, sunny, temperature around 75 degrees F., no wind. It couldn't have been better. Especially in view of this little "passing" problem that has to occur in the near future. I have some meds, but am not looking forward to that. The good news is, perhaps that was the root cause of the problems I've been having walking and, once past that (pun intended), things will get back to normal.
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