Everybody Must Get Stoned

Bob Dylan said it and I’m here to attest that his words are true. They are in my case anyway.

A couple weeks ago as I lay alone in my bed resting a pain developed in my side. I didn’t think much about, after all, I often have side pain with my Crohns Disease. The pain didn’t dissipate as I had planned. Instead it got worse.

It was a different kind of pain, like a contraction. Now I’ve given birth on three separate occasions—I know what contractions are like. The difference with this pain and a contraction is that with childbirth, you get a small break in between.

I’m a very patient woman. That’s the only reason I can determine why I lay in my bed writhing in pain for two hours. My husband at work, my two younger children at school, I decided to call my eldest son, home from college. He was down the hall asleep in his bedroom.

My son, rushed to my side. We came to the conclusion that I must be having an attack of appendicitis. I’d just gone through that only a couple months earlier with my husband.

The pain continued to worsen to the point that I began throwing up. The only good thing about this turn of events is that the pain seemed to abate for a few minutes after throwing up. I threw up four more times before I saw the emergency room doctor.

My husband met me and my son at the ER. I could tell he was frightened. He’d seen me give birth to our three children. He knew how I reacted to that pain. This was worse. He would later tease that he was sure an alien was going to explode out of my torso.

Thank God the emergency room was fairly empty and I was quickly taken back. After seeing the ER physician I was hooked up to an IV, given some fluids and a very strong pain killer before being rolled down for a CT scan.

The CT came back shortly with a diagnosis—kidney stones.

The following evening I survived the passing of my first stone. It wasn’t nearly as painful as the day before. I investigated kidney stones on the internet and was surprised (well sort of) to find that people with inflammatory bowel disease are prone to kidney stones. This disease just keeps getting better and better.

From my blog posts I must sound like I’m sick all the time…but I’m not. I’m living a happy, productive life despite my illness. In fact I praise God for the trials I’ve gone through. I even searched for a Bible verse to describe this current situation. Here’s what I came up with.

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:38-40

I’d like to think that when I was laying there unable to do anything but groan in pain that my “stones” cried out with praise to God!

But don’t get me wrong…I do not feel so all alone, because everybody must get stoned…