Age and its Aches

      I had always thought of stones as those little things you would find in a road and perhaps, if they were flat enough, you would skip on a pond.
      I never would have believed except in a science fiction way, that your own body would produce stones to cause you pain. You probably deserved it after 80 years of not giving it proper care. But it is enlightening when you begin to feel an inexplicable pain in the upper left quadrant of your back. I was very lucky though. My daughter was returning to Australia and I was going to drive her to Los Angeles to the plane. Perhaps I had a premonition, or perhaps I wanted her mother to see her off. or maybe I had mentally toted up the costs and the cost on me, so I bought her a ticket on our local flivver flight instead. It was pretty expensive considering the alternatives but turned out to be the very best alternative.
      Sauny and I went to the airport with her and the back pain was there. As we sat there, I became more and more restless due to the pain. I finally suggested to Sauny that we leave so I could rest. Instead I asked her to take me to the ER at French Hospital. After considerable probing and testing including some x-rays, the word came down that I to have the honor of passing a small kidney stone. The relief at finding the cause was an inappropiately placed 2-3 mm concretion of calcium oxalate did much to relieve my fears when I considered the alternatives that might have been. But of course, it did little to relieve the pain. That had to be left to the world of pills.
      So I took the prescribed pills when the pain appeared and they managed it quite well. We were to visit our son and his wife just before Christmas and it was a concern whether or not I would be able to make the trip. We decided to chance it. We packed the pills and got into the car and left for the 800 mile drive.
      I really don't believe taking a long drive is therapeutic but the pain never recurred. Apparently either the stone shifted to a new non-painful location or it broke up and went out without causing the anticipated excruciating pain! How lucky can I get!