I thought I could pick up right where I left off.  I was away from the gym for a month with the surgeries.  Now it has been a month since my last procedure and I am still not back on a regular schedule.  Thanks to Dennis for giving me some inspiration!  I WILL get back to the program.

Stones are gone.  Stints are gone.  No more “happy pills”.  Back to the work at hand, making less of me.  I’m stopping by the gym tonight after work.  I’ll let you all know how it goes later.

Later! 

Ok, so this picture is not of my kidney stones, but it sure felt like them.  I had two half inch (1.2 cm) stones removed last week.  I am glad they are gone but the stints remain and they still make life miserable.  I can’t wait for next week when they will be removed.

As for the stone’s composition, calcium oxalate, the most common of the kidney stone composition.  Easily regulated with modification to one’s diet.  Kicker is, my attempts to eat a bit healthier is what led to these monster stones in the first place!

Calcium oxalate, or more precisely, the oxalate itself, is found in many plants and vegetables.  Berries and the juices of berries are also high in oxalate.  Well, in a effort to get a bit healthier in my snacking I decided to change from candy bars and soda pop, several months ago I switched to peanuts and juice.

Except that peanuts are near the top of the list on the oxalate scale.  And I wasn’t eating just a few peanuts.  No.  I had bought one of those 3 pound tins and had it on the passerger side seat for my drives into and home from work.  So if I wanted a snack I didn’t have to stop at McDonalds or the 7-11.  I could grab a handful of peanuts and snack away.

And I switched to Juicy Juice juices.  Berry this and berry that.  Big mistake.  I grew kidney stones faster and bigger and more in number in a few short months than ever before.

So keep away from peanuts and berry juices and a brief selection of other foods and hopefully I can drastically reduce the number and frequency the stones develop.

Just a little update about how I survived the “Sin City” - Let me say that this really is the city of excess - But I tried to keep to my new lifestyle change and really did watch what I ate - It really was hard when there was so many great places to eat and enjoy.  So many choices - trust me it was very hard but I think I played it pretty smart and kept using my food journal of what I ate to keep track of the calories and helped me plan my day.  Yes I did go to the buffet - and I was able to watch what I ate - let me tell you the buffets have some of the best fresh fruit that you can get and you can ask for your eggs to be prepared any way you want - I was able to order some poached eggs one morning. Yes, you have to watch and know yourself - I really wanted to load down my plate with all the fried goods and creamy treats but I knew the rewards of watching what I ate would be better for me than the food itself.

I kept my pedometer with me in my pocket to see how much I walked around between casino and show. My total for the 4 days was 22.75 miles of walking / gambling :-)  I think most of it was the long long hallway to the room.

If you get a chance to go to Vegas - I would highly recommend seeing the shows there. I got to see several different ones while there - Mama Mia (Great Show - Much better then the movie) - and I can’t recommend Le Reve more then enough - This was the best show I have seen in quite some time - I might even say it was the best show I have ever seen. While it is not truly a “Cirque du Soleil” Show it was created by the creative director (Franco Dragone) who created some of the best Cirque Shows (O and others) and he only made this show one of hottest shows to see. I loved the music, all the water (1.5 Million Gallons), the wonderful acrobatics, the hydrolics, and all the fantasy costumes.

Well that is my update on how I am doing and to wrap it up - I broke even - I didn’t loose any weight but I didn’t gain any either.

I have been away from the gym and FFG for a week or so now.  I have a history with kidney stones, but most of them pass fairly quickly (but not easily).

This time, though, I had 5 of them at once, and in both kidneys.  My urologist said she wanted to go in and get as many of them as possible.  One was nearly a centimeter in length!

I have had kidney stones removed in this way before, and it is never fun.  The stones were too big for standard lithotripsy, so I was put under general anesthetic and in the doctors went.

They got all but one of them so I have another visit scheduled in a couple of weeks.  So for now, it is enduring the misery of the stents put in while I wait for the stone to move to a more reachable position.

Don’t get kidney stones.  They sap the strength right out of you.