Good Health

I have to let you all know that my procedure for removing kidney stones went great yesterday (Thursday). Going into it the Urologist was not sure if he could get both of the stones out. He knew the first one would be no problem but was not sure of the second that was larger and was six inches away from the first one. It turned out he was able to remove both in pretty good timing. The procedure took almost two hours.

I arrived at the hospital very early at 5 am. The hospital is only ten minutes away from my home and is in Gig Harbor. I went in for the surgery at 7:15 am and woke up around 9:15 am and taken in recovery for about an hour than back to the area I was prepped for the surgery. I left the hospital around 11:30 am. I had to make a stop at the pharmacy for some prescriptions. My friend Art who is really great guy took me to the hospital and back home as well. He took me to a different hospital in Tacoma back on April 6 for my heart procedure.

I do have a little pain this morning but it is working out just fine.  The only thing is that I feel like peeing all the time but I wait until really have to. So far it has been after every hour or. Yesterday I had some blood but no longer.

What was the neediest part of going to the hospital was the nurse Rita who got me ready for the procedure. Not only had she done a really good job I found that we went to the same wedding last Saturday. She realized when I said where the reception was which was in a different location from the wedding. I did not go the reception because I was not feeling very well. She knows the bride because the bride mentors her thirteen year old daughter. I told her that I knew the groom longer and met the bride through him. I go to the same church as the groom. Now the bride attends the same church. It is sort of different because I find in my experience the groom usually ends up at the bride’s church. The church that the bride attended is larger than our church.

A second part of the equation is that after talking a bit longer I asked her if she went to same high school that I attended though several years later. She told me that she went to the same school as a freshman, however; she transferred because a new high school was built in Gig Harbor. So she attended and graduated from that school. It was called Gig Harbor High School while mine was Peninsula High School. She asked me when I graduated it was several years before her; however, an older brother graduated a year after me. It was really neat because I had not seen him in so many years so she was able to tell me where he lived which is near San Francisco, California. Rita told me about her family as well as his. Also, had an even older brother who taught at my high school when I and her brother were going there. Though were not in the same grade we were close in many ways. We talked a lot about baseball and basketball. I thought of him as a great guy. Over the years I have thought about him frequently so it was great learning about him from Rita. I told her to be sure to say hello to him the next time she sees or talks with him.

When I got to the hospital and she started getting me prepped before talking about her brother and family she said all the nurses on her schedule though I had a cool name. Of course, with the last name of Nightingale and every nurse knows about Florence Nightingale I get that a lot of times. She was a second or third something like that anyway of my great-great grandfather. Another interesting did bit is she died the same year both sets of grandparents were married in 1910. My dad’s father was probably real close in age to my mother’s parents; however, his mother was much younger than any of them. My mother’s parents were in their 30s when they married and my dad’s mother was in her early 20s. My mother was the youngest of four siblings. Her oldest brother was born in 1911 while my mother was born in 1920.  She had another older brother but I am not sure what year he was born in most likely 1913 though. She had older sister that was born in 1918. So they were not too far apart in age. I may write about their relationship at another time. It is quite interesting though to say the least.

So far the last couple years I have felt like I could use a new body; unfortunately none of us of get that lucky though. I am sure all of us feel like that now and then.

I feel very fortunate because I have known others recently who have been much sicker than me.  I have had both some around my age or younger that have gone through a lot worse than me. There has been a few as well who have died too; so sad to know friends and classmates that are no longer around.  

I have to say that we all should feel fortunate to wake up each morning being still around. It is very important to encourage one another since we never know how long we will see each other. I hope to be around for a lot more years, and for sure not have any more procedures for some time unless it is something that is more routine.

Everyone have yourself a wonderful weekend.