A night in the E.R.

I went and played some basketball on Sunday night after church. It had probably been a year and half since I played an actual game against other adults. With my job, I play pick-up games and such with students all of the time but to play against adults is a bit different.

I was sore when I got home. Not that it was rough play, but running up and down the court is a lot different than running long distances. Anyways, I got home and was sore but didn't think much of it because I just played 2 hours of basketball. I went to bed at 11 something and woke up around 1:00am with some crazy intense pain in my back and right below my stomach. No matter what position I was in, if I tried to massage the pain away, no matter the amount of muscle rub applied - nothing was working to get the pain to go away. I put up with the pain for 4 hours before deciding to go to the hospital. After they did some tests, they believe it was another kidney stone. At about 6 something, my pain went away for the most part (and I didn't have any pain meds). No stone or abnormality showed up on the x-ray either. They believe the stone passed from the kidney to the bladder (which is the hardest part). I'm praying that the hardest part is over! I wouldn't wish kidney stones on anyone. They are not fun and they disrupt your activity level.

I took yesterday off from work and tried to sleep as much as I can, but I am not one that is able to sit or stay still for too long. My body will begin aching if I choose to do nothing. I woke up this morning with a little pain in my lower back, but I do believe that it is because of the amount of time I laid down between yesterday and last night.

I have changed my diet to be more of a kidney stone prevention diet since the last stone, but maybe it wasn't enough. I've decided that I am going to be more strict with the preventative diet because that pain is not fun and if I can do something to prevent it - then I need to.

One thing that I've been working on already is going most of the week without meat. Meat isn't the cause of the stones primarily, but does play a factor due to all of the animal protiens. It is okay to eat meat if you get kidney stones, but I don't suggest to overdo it. I really don't mind not having meat in my diet as long as I get my protein and such from other sources and vegetarian dishes are actually pretty good.

Another thing that I've decided is that I must get my activity level up. Being sedatary for such a long period of time with the ankle issue and the last kidney stone (one I had to have surgery for) probably hasn't helped with my body being able to fight or break up any stone formed. Hopefully, that was the last stone that I'll ever have.

I need help vegetarians!

I'll just say it.

I enjoy sitting down at the dinner table with my little family to a meal full of chicken/venison/beef or some other kind of meat as the main course(sometimes the only course). That doesn't happen as much anymore though. I

 am very interested in the vegetarian diet, but not all the time. Since having the kidney stone, I choose to have meat only 3 days a week due to the extra stuff that meat has that helps form stones. I did see an initial change in weight dropping off but am unsure if it was the stoppage of eating meat or an increase in activity. What I am sure of is how my body felt the days that I don't have meat. I usually feel better.

I've decided to try a different kind of vegetarian diet of my own. It's the '6 day vegaterian'. It's not a special diet - it's just a vegetarian diet for 6 days of the week. My wife and I like to go out to a buffet after church on Sundays to a nice meal and I thought Sunday would be a good meat day (especially since I can barely stomach the thought of spending the same amount of money on a meat dish as a non-meat dish).

Here's my dilema. My wife and I run out of/exhaust the vegetarian meals that we know we like. There are tons out there, but many of them aren't for the novice vegetarian. I think vegetarianism is a science and one that takes a lot of study (and money). I figured some of who visit my site are vegetarians and so I have some questions for some of you.

1. How does being a vegetarian affect your activities (specifically running)?

2. How do you make up for the nutrients lost that was from the meat?

3. What store do you go to to get the best quality of food?

4. We like organic foods, but is all lost when vegetarians don't use only organic?

5. What is your favorite vegetarian dish?

Also - I think I'm doing another HALF-MARY in the early Fall.