SORRY I MISSED YESTERDAY'S POST BUT I'M IN THE STRATFORD HOSPITAL

Late Sunday afternoon, I felt a slight tweak in my lower left back but didn't think anything of it at the time.  A couple of hours later, I felt a pain growing in my back and beginning to radiate around my left side.  I recognized that pain right away.  Kidney Stone!!  Long-time readers will remember my bouts with kidney stones during our RV Travel days in the Great American Southwest.  My first encounter with a painful kidney stone was near Lymon, Colorado on our way west.  A few years later, I had a second kidney stone attack in Tucson, Arizona.  After returning to Canada after the Tucson stone, I had to have a large kidney lasered out by a Stratford Urologist by the name of Dr. Bukala.  That's where they put a stent in, and then go in and blast the stone into a bunch of small pieces to make those pieces exit the body painlessly through the stent. ....... The pain in my back ramped up Sunday night, and I took way too many pain pills to knock the pain down and ended up making myself sick.  It was a terrible night.  I was no better on Monday morning, and I began shaking again.  Luckily, Lorraine was there and able to get me into the car right away and take me to Emergency at Goderich's Hospital.  It turned out be a long day.  Among other things, they did a CT scan and the results of that scan showed a serious infection in my kidneys.  After the Goderich doctor consulted with my Urologist, Dr. Bukala in Stratford, it was decided to rush me by ambulance to the Stratford Hospital.  A great ambulance crew by the way.  When Dr. Bukala saw me and the condition I was in, he said we had to head for the operating room right away.  So, a short time later, I was on the operating table and out like a light bulb.  He immediately inserted a stent into my kidney to begin draining the infection.  When I woke up in the recovery room, I felt better than I had been feeling for the previous few days and weeks, and maybe months.  When Dr. Bukala came into my room first thing this morning to see how I was doing, he said it was a close call.  He said if I had come into the hospital 12 hours later, with the infection rapidly spreading, I would have been placed in the Intensive Care Unit and it might have been touch and go.  So, right now I am in the Stratford hospital while they monitor my condition.  There is a chance, if everything goes well, that I could go home Wednesday afternoon or Thursday.  But this isn't the end of the story.  Dr. Bukala said he didn't want to deal with the numerous (some large) kidney stones until all this infection is cleared up and under control.  So, I will be returning to the Stratford Hospital over the next three or four weeks to have all those stones removed...... So right now I'm in my room typing this on my laptop computer, which Lorraine thankfully brought me today.  If I make it home tomorrow, I may have a few pictures for you.................