by Maxine Reeder Strickland
Time for another true life experience here in The Garden of Eatin'.
In February 2004, I had a kidney stone that was too big to pass and had to be surgically removed. I won't go into detail about this stone, except to tell you that the doctor removed it through my "Rectal Shelf". I swear that is what he said. I didn't know I had a shelf in there, but I was pain free afterwards. That pain associated with a kidney stone was permanently recorded in my memory.
So, here comes January 2010, and we ate our usual black eyed peas to ward off any evil spirits ready to control the new year. We felt pretty good and were rejoicing surviving 2009. It was smooth sailing for a few days, and all of the guys around here wanted to go to Austin, about 60 miles from here, and spend their Christmas gift certificates at Cabelas. I saw this as an opportunity to have a day of rest without having to cook. I was excited. I might even take a nap.
About 11:00 AM I stood up to put one of my dogs down that had been in my lap, and the pain hit me like I had been stabbed with a butcher knife. The pain was in my lower back and extended through my belly, and it felt like the knife was twisting. I thought my back had gone out on me. I decided to go take a hot shower, but then I remembered what my urologist told me back in 2004. He said a hot tub bath will relieve the pain of a kidney stone, and the thought had just breezed through my mind that this might be another kidney stone.
I have a hugh walk in shower, which I prefer over a tub bath, but I could kill two birds with one stone by putting some bath oil in the tub and soaking this old winter skin of mine. I was so smart!!
I filled the tub, the bubbles were inviting, but remember, I was totally alone. As I stepped into the tub and began to kneel down to cover my entire body, VERTIGO hit me, so bad that I became seasick and I threw up, of course in my bath water. Where would you have puked?? Not on the floor!! Being 69 years old and having given birth to four, nine pound babies, my bladder is not too strong, so when I threw up, I peed on myself also in the tub. Now I am laying there in all of this mess and the tub is too SLICK to get out of. The thought of an autopsy hit me. How would my autopsy read?? Husband comes home to find wife dead from, whatever, and no one would know it was a kidney stone.
You can laugh now. It gets worse.
I pulled the plug on the tub and put the towel on the bottom to give some traction and now I headed for my shower. The pain was getting so bad I was going to call 911, but we have an electric gate that is complicated the first time someone uses it, so I thought again. I knew the guard Turkey would probably jump on any EMT that he didn't recognize, and that could be another problem.
About that time, my son called and asked me to go put his dog up because it was 18 degrees and he was in Austin also. I started crying and he asked, "Mom, what is wrong?" I told him I had a kidney stone that was traveling. My pain was becoming unbearable. He told me to drive myself to the emergency room, but I knew I couldn't.
He called a friend and got someone here, and she took me to the emergency room. When I got there, I told them I was sure it was a kidney stone, but my blood pressure was 267 over 165, and they were positive I was having a stroke. I told them what had happened and they put me in a dark room, turned out the light, told me not to even blink, be still and don't talk. Then they wanted to know on a scale of 1to 10 how bad the pain was. I told them a 10. The doctor said a 10 is if you can't talk or walk and you are able to do both. I told him to hand me my cane and I would show them how bad a 10 hurt. I told them if they would give me something for pain, then my blood pressure would go down.
Then they started doing their doctor rituals while I was squirming in pain, throwing up and all the other stuff that goes with it, and he picked up my bad foot and hit it with a rubber hammer on my heel to see if I had some paralysis on that side from the stoke I was having. He had not prewarned me, so I screamed again. This was my BAD foot. He said you came in here with belly pain and stroke symptoms, I didn't know about your foot. So I told him to ask before he hit anything else.
They finally got the pain down with some Toradol and took a cat scan. It showed a stone with a spike that was stuck in my ureter tube between my kidney and bladder. The urologist felt like I could pass this stone if I would drink 3 liters of lemonade and the medicine he was giving me. I tried everything and nothing passed.
We have a Mexican couple who works for us and they told me about a remedy that they knew about. You get corn silk(the silk that is on the end of an ear of corn) and some Horsetail (this grows around my lilly pond), some Yaupon leaves(we have them everywhere), Fiji apple peelings and some other herbs. Mix these together and make a tea. Drink 32 ounces and the stone will disolve.
Well, by golly, it worked. By the next day, I was passing what looked like 2 sesame seeds with a lot of wet cream of wheat. The doctor said this was kidney stone dust. After a couple of days, I was good as new again. The doctor told me to give up my leafy green vegetables which I love. I have been eating a lot of spinach and my collards that survived the winter have been so good with cornbread, but I will give that up too. Apparantly any food high in oxalates, such as green vegetables, can cause stones.
Today is a new day and I wonder what will happen next.
In February 2004, I had a kidney stone that was too big to pass and had to be surgically removed. I won't go into detail about this stone, except to tell you that the doctor removed it through my "Rectal Shelf". I swear that is what he said. I didn't know I had a shelf in there, but I was pain free afterwards. That pain associated with a kidney stone was permanently recorded in my memory.
So, here comes January 2010, and we ate our usual black eyed peas to ward off any evil spirits ready to control the new year. We felt pretty good and were rejoicing surviving 2009. It was smooth sailing for a few days, and all of the guys around here wanted to go to Austin, about 60 miles from here, and spend their Christmas gift certificates at Cabelas. I saw this as an opportunity to have a day of rest without having to cook. I was excited. I might even take a nap.
About 11:00 AM I stood up to put one of my dogs down that had been in my lap, and the pain hit me like I had been stabbed with a butcher knife. The pain was in my lower back and extended through my belly, and it felt like the knife was twisting. I thought my back had gone out on me. I decided to go take a hot shower, but then I remembered what my urologist told me back in 2004. He said a hot tub bath will relieve the pain of a kidney stone, and the thought had just breezed through my mind that this might be another kidney stone.
I have a hugh walk in shower, which I prefer over a tub bath, but I could kill two birds with one stone by putting some bath oil in the tub and soaking this old winter skin of mine. I was so smart!!
I filled the tub, the bubbles were inviting, but remember, I was totally alone. As I stepped into the tub and began to kneel down to cover my entire body, VERTIGO hit me, so bad that I became seasick and I threw up, of course in my bath water. Where would you have puked?? Not on the floor!! Being 69 years old and having given birth to four, nine pound babies, my bladder is not too strong, so when I threw up, I peed on myself also in the tub. Now I am laying there in all of this mess and the tub is too SLICK to get out of. The thought of an autopsy hit me. How would my autopsy read?? Husband comes home to find wife dead from, whatever, and no one would know it was a kidney stone.
You can laugh now. It gets worse.
I pulled the plug on the tub and put the towel on the bottom to give some traction and now I headed for my shower. The pain was getting so bad I was going to call 911, but we have an electric gate that is complicated the first time someone uses it, so I thought again. I knew the guard Turkey would probably jump on any EMT that he didn't recognize, and that could be another problem.
About that time, my son called and asked me to go put his dog up because it was 18 degrees and he was in Austin also. I started crying and he asked, "Mom, what is wrong?" I told him I had a kidney stone that was traveling. My pain was becoming unbearable. He told me to drive myself to the emergency room, but I knew I couldn't.
He called a friend and got someone here, and she took me to the emergency room. When I got there, I told them I was sure it was a kidney stone, but my blood pressure was 267 over 165, and they were positive I was having a stroke. I told them what had happened and they put me in a dark room, turned out the light, told me not to even blink, be still and don't talk. Then they wanted to know on a scale of 1to 10 how bad the pain was. I told them a 10. The doctor said a 10 is if you can't talk or walk and you are able to do both. I told him to hand me my cane and I would show them how bad a 10 hurt. I told them if they would give me something for pain, then my blood pressure would go down.
Then they started doing their doctor rituals while I was squirming in pain, throwing up and all the other stuff that goes with it, and he picked up my bad foot and hit it with a rubber hammer on my heel to see if I had some paralysis on that side from the stoke I was having. He had not prewarned me, so I screamed again. This was my BAD foot. He said you came in here with belly pain and stroke symptoms, I didn't know about your foot. So I told him to ask before he hit anything else.
They finally got the pain down with some Toradol and took a cat scan. It showed a stone with a spike that was stuck in my ureter tube between my kidney and bladder. The urologist felt like I could pass this stone if I would drink 3 liters of lemonade and the medicine he was giving me. I tried everything and nothing passed.
We have a Mexican couple who works for us and they told me about a remedy that they knew about. You get corn silk(the silk that is on the end of an ear of corn) and some Horsetail (this grows around my lilly pond), some Yaupon leaves(we have them everywhere), Fiji apple peelings and some other herbs. Mix these together and make a tea. Drink 32 ounces and the stone will disolve.
Well, by golly, it worked. By the next day, I was passing what looked like 2 sesame seeds with a lot of wet cream of wheat. The doctor said this was kidney stone dust. After a couple of days, I was good as new again. The doctor told me to give up my leafy green vegetables which I love. I have been eating a lot of spinach and my collards that survived the winter have been so good with cornbread, but I will give that up too. Apparantly any food high in oxalates, such as green vegetables, can cause stones.
Today is a new day and I wonder what will happen next.
1 comment:
Gee, girl, you are good with the home remedies! I am so glad you are "passed" all that, and you are OK now, but I know you must hate to give up the turnip greens. Loving my southern diet of corn bread and turnip greens, I will sympathize with you. Enjoyed your post.
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