May 23, 2014

I didn't really do much with my morning but this afternoon I had my urologist appointment. It was nice not being there under the dark cloud of a kidney stone. Just inevitable future kidney stones I guess. The results from my tests came back and those were the topic of discussion. My blood test looked completely normal, so that is good. The 24-hour urine collection I did showed all the stuff my kidneys are outputting. Even though I drank a lot of water that day, I only had a volume of 2.2 liters, and it should have been at least 2.5 liters. Which means I need to drink even more water. I've said it for years but I need to get better at spacing the water out. I have a tendency to binge drink and then get stuck going to the bathroom every five minutes. Although, even if I space out my drinking, I still need to get to a volume of 2.5 liters, which means drinking more that 2.5 liters of water, or liquids in general. I probably drink at least two liters on any given day, sometimes more depending on what I'm doing, but if I'm just hanging out not doing much, it is hard to just drink for the sake of drinking. My kidneys might need it but the rest of my body sure doesn't.

The test also showed that my calcium levels are low, which is good. And they should be low because I don't eat much calcium. My previous urologist told me to cut out calcium completely, which I did, and just made more stones. From reading independently later on I learned that calcium needs to bind with oxalate in order to pass through your kidneys. If you have too much of one it has nothing to bind with and stays in the kidneys, forming stones. So when I got rid of calcium, I probably just caused more stones. My new urologist said that the old recommendation was to get rid of calcium but newer research showed that when you take calcium out of your diet, your body starts taking it from your bones, which isn't good for your bones and can increase kidney stone production. So my decision to get back into calcium in small ways was a smart one.

The main thing the test showed was that I need to work on getting more citrate in my diet. I started adding lemon to my water during this latest kidney stone but I have since fallen out of that practice. I have been meaning to add more fruits and vegetables to my diet, wanting to be healthier and a better vegetarian, and the urologist said that increasing fruit and vegetable intake was the best way to increase my citrate level. There are supplements out there but he said that usually means taking two giant pills a day and it would be better to get it from food. So I need to work on that. I'm going to do another 24-hour collection in December and we'll see if I have been able to consistently increase my liquid intake and output, and increase my citrate level, while maintaining the low calcium level.

These solutions won't get rid of the kidney stones I already have inside me but they should lower my risk of forming more and help inhibit the size of the ones already in there. The main suggestions from my old urologist were less sodium, no calcium, lemons and limes, and exercise. He was completely off with the calcium thing, and didn't do a great job at explaining all the other stuff. This time around, I feel better about things, especially with the recommendations being based on actual test results, not just a blanket statement. It still seems like I'm pretty much screwed for the rest of my life, or until they find out a better solution for kidney stones, but it would be nice if I could decrease the size and frequency of the stones I form.

On my way home from my appointment I saw a dude on roller skates. Not even inline skates. I didn't no roller skates were still a thing.

While watching YouTube videos today I started designing a cross stitch pattern. It took me awhile but I think I am finally satisfied with the wings of my Harry Potter snitch. Tomorrow I am going to play around with maybe adding the designs that are on the real snitch. Once I start back at the theater five days a week, which should be the week after next, I want to start cross stitching again. I have the snitch idea, which should be ready by then, and tonight at the theater I came up with another design idea based on the song Wiggle by Jason Derulo. Yet another awful song lyrically and the music isn't as good as Talk Dirty, but some of the lyrics are hilariously awful.

I spent most of my night at the theater reading. I continued reading the Stephen King book and started reading one of my book fair books, Grave Secrets by Annette and Gina Cascone. I had more than enough time to finish it because it is less than two-hundred pages long and reads really fast, but I took time out to watch X-Men: Days of Future Past. I really wanted to boycott the movie just for having a ridiculous title, but that idea didn't last very long. It was a decent movie, and much like all superhero movies, it left me wishing I had some sort of superpower or mutation. Although being a mutant in the X-Men world seems a tad dangerous. I need to go back and watch the other X-Men movies because I have forgotten a lot of what went on. There are just too many years in between the movies. And they better increase that output if they want to keep some of those actors around because they aren't getting any younger.