How can something so small...

.....cause a man so much grief???

What you see in my hand here is a kidney stone. This little bugger sent Gary to the ER last week in such agonizing pain. He held out, thinking he could just be tough (and not have to pay the $75 ER copay.) But, the pain was unbearable. We finally went in so they could hook him up with the "good stuff" that he got with his appendicitis a few months back. (Incidentally, Gary commented that he would take another round of appendix pain over this any day.) Once the IV drugs kicked in, he told me that it was the best $75 we could have ever spent. Poor kid!

We've heard plenty of people telling us passing a kidney stone is worse than labor. Well, he's never been in labor, and I've never had a kidney stone, so we'll just take their word for it. I really don't want to experience one myself in order to tell you whether they're right or not. But, sadly, Gary will likely be passing more stones. The CT scan revealed several more hanging out in his right kidney. Oh boy...can't wait!

By the way, here's a big thank you to Brenda and to Dani who were willing to come watch my kids late at night in a pinch! Thank you, thank you, thank you!