The Stone

This weekend I had another in a series of kidney stone attacks, and had some opportunity to pause and reflect on stones.

I have had kidney stones for the past 25 years or better. It is a hereditary thing – all of my brothers, sisters, and mom have had and will have kidney stones. We are just a lucky bunch that way. Urologists tell us different things, but the bottom line is, if you make kidney stones, you will continue to make kidney stones. They may stay in your kidneys, and cause no problems. It is when they want out, that they cause the pain and troubles.

I have about 20 stones left in both kidneys, but they tell me they are the size of tomato seeds, which I can pass without too much trouble. This stone, the mother of all stones, was 8MM in size. You can pass up to 6 mm without intervention, but this one was stuck. This mega stone was lodged right at the opening from the right kidney down into the urethra, which causes Mr. Kidney to back up and hurt like the dickens. They did the CT scan, confirmed the stone location and size, and had me spend the night, pending surgery in the morning.

It was a long night of morphine, sleep for ten to fifteen minutes, pray a rosary, then morphine, sleep, etc. I tried to tough it out on half-dose for the first two hours, then I said, give me the full strength. You still hurt, it just dulls to a feeling like someone punched you low in the back.

I had a long night to reflect on things, I thought of the stones God puts in the paths of our lives. I had blogged earlier about my little sister, Connie, and told you of how she had gallstones for the last years of her life, and could not tell anyone where it hurt. Her living that gave me a lot of strength during that night. She could not even tell anyone where it hurt, let alone ask for help. She was an example of strength beyond anything I will ever face. I know she was praying for me to get through this little ordeal.  I had mine removed on Monday, and am now home. I have a stent in for a stint, but things should be back on track.

We had picked up a small bag of river stones at a world market place last week. Margaret had suggested that we add a stone to a plastic peanut butter jar for every week that we have as a sign of God’s Gift to us (a different spin on the “Ten Thousand Marbles” story I had posted). On Sunday I had added the third stone since the news of our “Gift” had come to us.

I thought that night again of the different stones God puts into the path of our lives. I thought of those river stones, of my obvious kidney stones, of Connie’s gallstones, and also of the stones that may cause us to stumble on our paths in life.

I was even reflecting on how Jesus had stumbled, probably on some stones, as He carried his cross to Calvary for us. We all have stones in our path. We have to either go around the stones, stoop to move them, or stumble on them. We can lay there in the dirt and complain, or we can take the strength that God gives us and get up, dust off, and move on toward our ultimate goal in heaven. We decide, and God helps. The road is rocky, and there will be stones – we only need to decide how we will deal with them. And I almost overlooked the most important stone God has given us – Psalm 118: 22 “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”  Make it a Great Day!