A Slight Setback

The past couple days of my life have been rather eventful. I will give you a day-by-day breakdown and I will make it short:

Wednesday: I go to have a Cat Scan done for my kidney stones before I leave for Ecuador on Monday. I leave there, go to the hospital where my mom is having surgery, then head back to Emory to take my last exam. I didn't think I did good on my exam and I had a B going into it, but I didn't do that bad because I ended up with a B in that class. That's another point of excitement...I made 3 As, an A-, and a B for the semester! I'm excited. That day went on with no other happenings...besides me going to eat Mexican with my two aunts and two cousins, which was fun.

Thursday (yesterday): I get up early and go to Johnson City with my friend Dana. While we are there, the college nurse calls and says that Dr. Elmore (my doctor) wants me to see a urologist before I leave for Ecuador. My cat scan showed that I had a 7mm kidney stone blocking my ureter and I also had another 3mm stone somewhere else. So, after having my records faxed all over the planet it seemed, I ended up at Bristol Urology yesterday evening. I saw the nurse practitioner and she told me that my trip to Ecuador wouldn't be feasible unless I had something done about this because if I put it off, I could lose a kidney. So, after being upset for a minute about my trip, I realized that I purchased trip insurance so it shouldn't be a problem to put off my trip a couple days. The nurse practitioner makes some phone calls and gets me an appointment with a urologist in Kingsport this morning at 8:15. Yesterday evening, Josh (the kid I mentor) came to Emory and we played ping pong for a while. It was good to get my mind off of this mess.

Today: I visit the urologist in Kingsport this morning at 8:15. He tells me he wants to do surgery today at 1:00. So, I went directly to the hospital and checked in. He went in, shocked and lasered my stones, and now I'm sitting in my aunt's condo in Bristol with a stent in me. My trip is being postponed for a just a few days. I have an appointment on Monday morning to have an x-ray and a follow-up with my doctor in Kingsport. If everything goes as planned, I should be off to Ecuador by Friday or Saturday, Monday at the latest.

I was depressed about this at first, but it's best I had this done rather than lose a kidney in Ecuador! I'll keep everyone up to date. Sorry you had to hear about my dang kidney stone troubles, but I figured I should explain rather than just say I wasn't going to Ecuador Monday. This is a set back, but at least I will be healthy in Ecuador and my later trip to California.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.