Things that go with kidneys?

Kidney beans? Check. A kidney-shaped pool? Ok. Kidney stones? Bad idea. Very bad idea.

Want to know why I think that they're a bad idea? Because I passed one on Saturday night. And it hurt. A lot. I am talking major league pain here. When my buddy Nick got one about a month or so ago, I thought it was sort of humorous (BTW, when I told him about mine he laughed his ass off too) because I thought it was something only old people get or dudes who were wound up way too tight.

Apparently all sorts of people get them. Saturday was supposed to be a kick-ass day, Aly was hanging with her friends and I was going out with Ryan, Tim and Andrew to meet a bunch of SoSHers. Every year a group of people get together, toss a few back and go to a Sox game. I was there to toss a few back and maybe find my way into the Red Sox game.

Around 2:30 it was time to take a shower, but first I had to take a leak. It was bloody. This has always been one of my great fears and I was sort of interested in what my reaction was going to be should the day ever occur. I pretty much was shocked and said, "This doesn't look quite right."

I told Aly and then waited until the next time I had to pee before I called the doctor. Next time I went, it was there again. So off to the telephone I went. The doctor was at a pool party and said that if I do it again, to get up to Anna Jacques and give them a urine sample. Of course, it happened again, so we went to Newburyport.

Good bye SoSH, good bye Aly's friends, good bye drinking. When we got there, Aly and I pretty much figured that I had a urine infection and that was that. I peed in the cup and went to visit my folks. We had a little dinner on the deck and after that I started to get a really searing pain in my right side.

My parents and Aly thought that I was dying or something, so we got into the car and went back to the hospital. Normally, it takes maybe 10 minutes to get to Anna Jacques from my parents' place, but it seemed like it took six hours. When we finally got there they hustled me into the emergency room where I was convulsing a bit and alternating between the sweats and freezing my ass off.

They got me hooked up to an IV where they gave me some fluids and pain killers. I started to feel much better after that. And then it was pretty much over. I sat in the bed for about three hours; got blood taken from me, spoke with a doctor and that was pretty much it.

I apparently passed the stone on the deck because passing the stone doesn't mean passing it out of your body. It means going from your kidney to your bladder. That's where it hurts the most. The doctor told me to call a urologist on Monday and then he sent me home.

Aly and I stayed at my parents' for the night and we were out of there around noon on Sunday. Aside from a bottle of percocets, none of which I've taken, not much has changed. Today, I took Aly to work and when I came home I called the urologist to make an appointment. I mistakenly thought that a passed stone would bump me to the head of the line, but you have to be dying to see this guy.

His office told me I couldn't see him until August 10. That rots because while I'm not in intense pain or anything, my side is a little sore and I wouldn't be surprised if I passed another stone. So, I've been sitting around the house all day bored out of my cotton-picking mind.

I finished my homework. I paid some bills. I watched TV. I read the paper. I tried to nap. I found the last hotel for our honeymoon. I'm writing this Blog and after this I'm going to upload my strip for tomorrow. I never thought that I'd say this, but I'm fucking bored of being at home. Work can't come soon enough.

As bad as my Saturday was, it can't compare to my uncle's Sunday. Last night, my aunt Rita died. She was the last of the old school Pettorutos and will be missed. She hasn't been doing well for a long time (at least 10 years) and it was always sort of a running conversation whether she'd make it to the next big holiday. But every year she was there at our house or Uncle Bud's.

By the end of her time, she really didn't know what was going on and had sunk into a pretty deep state of dementia. I heard from my mom, that she was talking to people who have been dead for decades and it wasn't a pretty site. This, of course, is a huge shame as not only was she the matriach of my family, but she was a leading business woman in the Lawrence for many years.

Rita stood by my uncle Al (her brother) when he ran and ultimately won a state rep's seat and she really put her parents' store on the map with a lot of broad ideas that were considered revolutionary in her day. She always had time for Jason and I and I'm going to miss her very much. But, to be honest with you, even though she physically left us yesterday, she had been gone for a long time.