No column this week, folks, and I apologize.
But I’ve got a really solid excuse.
I was rushed to the hospital late Friday night after two days of the worst pain a human can endure. Seriously — they told me that if forced to choose, women who’ve both given birth and experienced nephrolithiasis would go with the former. (I found that difficult to believe, so about an hour later I asked them if they were kidding. They weren’t. Go digging for the testimonials online, and you won’t believe what you read. My favorite is the guy who was on the floor, screaming and puking, next to a woman waiting to be seen for chest pain. Her husband couldn’t handle the horror, and asked the medical folks to help his wife second. I’m guessing hot tongue and cold shoulder are all he received from the missus after that poor call.)
The good news is I’m still on the right side of the dirt — as best I can gather, this thing doesn’t kill you so much as make you beg Dr. Kevorkian to pay a visit.
I suppose I’ll never know (with complete certainty) what went wrong, but dehydration is the likeliest suspect. I’ve been doing quite a lot of intense pruning out in the orchard, and slicing up a great deal of applewood to sell for fireplaces, campfires, fire pits, etc. come autumn. Have not been drinking water much at all. I know: stupid, stupid, stupid.
Still in a fair amount of hurt, and the side effects of the drug they have me on are not fun. (Fatigue is the worst — just no energy at all.) No choice but to be on a significantly reduced workload. Hoping to at least produce the “Daily Download” this week.
Again, apologies.
Please, no cards and/or flowers. As always, if you’re looking to lend DDM a hand, subscribe (assuming you’re one of those worthless freeloaders), tell a friend about NDAI, or consider a gift subscription for a young adult who has yet to be introduced to Western civilization.
Back at full power soon!
Best,
DDM
I was in a car accident on Friday. What was going on......last Friday?!! Man, the hospital is NO fun, (If you wanna stay healthy, stay out of hospitals!), but they can get you over the hump! I've never even heard the medical term of what you've got, which is kidney stones!! Now I'm going to study it, more! Stay well my friend, drink plenty of water with some lemon, and be Thankful you got back to the Orchard before this happened to you in New Mexico!!
So sorry to hear about the kidney stones. My brother-in law has been in the ER numerous times for them. He has had procedures to blast them also. One of the things that's helped him quite a bit is adding lemon juice to his diet (a couple squeezes of lemon with the water you need to be drinking). It's helped him tremendously. He is regularly monitored and has had no problems since he started doing that. Wishing you a speedy recovery.