Went to the Dr. and the Dr. said…

All this time I thought that I was going backwards on my Sarcoidosis and it turns out that the soreness may be Gout! I never thought that I would be happy to have Gout but I really am! Gout is much easier to kick then Sarcoidosis (I think). So what we think right now is that I am still making great progress on my Sarcoid, enough that we are going to reduce the Prednisone in about 3 weeks! Yea! =)

So the Gout is red spots that seem to move around in different places on my feet, get worse with exercise and is worse in one foot than the other. It is also down in my toes. It appears that it is the Gout that fells better when I put cold on it. I feel really bad because someone else who had Sarcoid (Bonnie) tried the cold water and it made it worse! I guess this explains it. It wasn’t Sarcoid that the cold water was helping.

I think I have gotten through the worst of the kidney stones. It passed and I am getting back on my feet. I’m still not feeling good, but I think that is from the other infections I am fighting and the antibiotic I am taking says that it can make you not feel well. I’m on this antibiotic for 21 days, so I hope that the feeling of unwell is mainly from the infection and not the medicine. Have to wait and see.

At first it appeared that there may be a link between the kidney stones and the gout because both can be caused by uric acid. I had my blood tested for uric acid but it came up normal. This may be due to my massive increase in drinking water. This can flush uric acid from your body and lower the reading. We won’t know for sure until they analyze the kidney stone and see what it is made out of. I should hear back on this in a few weeks.

See, you never what’s going to happen, and many times we don’t even know what is going on when we think we do. Just got to keep smiling, pushing and believing that Heavenly Father is watching over us.

Michael

When life gives you lemons… kill kidney stones!

Today I was able to pass the bringer of pain (kidney stone), or at least part of it. I am still so amazing that something so small can cause so much pain! Mind you it was hard as nails and sharp as glass, but you can’t help asking yourself “Really? That’s it?” I have been cut wide open before, I have had nails go right through my foot, had serious tooth pain, slammed funny bones, I even smashed my pinky almost completely flat and yet this tiny little thing was the cause of the most intense long lasting pain I have ever felt. Amazing!

I have heard that drinking the juice from freshly lemons will help break down a kidney stone or even turn it into a substance like soft jelly bears. I had a kidney stone before, all be it much less painful, and drinking the lemon juice seemed to work, so I tried it again this time. The doctors have me using a strainer to catch the stone so that they can analyze it and hopefully find out what is causing them. When I caught a bunch of soft gummy stuff came with it and surrounded it in a coating. It appears that the lemon juice really works! I have decided that when I go out from now on I will be drinking lemon aid. Let’s see if this helps in the future.

By the way… how I was told to take the lemon juice was to squeeze ten lemons and then drink the juice straight. It’s a tough thing to do, but if you are good at gulping water down you can do it all in one shot. You will have a ton of funny and intense after tastes go through your mouth, but the results are really worth it. (At least in my opinion) Now I’m not a doctor and I don’t know how this will work for everyone, but it worked well for me. Oh… and if you do it, don’t forget to brush your teeth right away. Don’t want that acid on your teeth.

On the up side I have been having trouble getting my Sarcoidosis under control. Ever since I went down on my medications this last time I have not been able to get the redness and swelling to go away. I have just been fighting levels of inflammation. Well, since all of the problems with the kidney stone happened my Sarcoidosis has really shaped up and is under control! The swelling is gone! I don’t feel any pain, but that is probably because of the pain killers for the kidney stones. I don’t know if the additional medicine the doctors gave me for the stones has somehow helped the Sarcoidosis or if it is just that I have been on my back for three days. Regardless I have made some good progress.

I still haven’t seen my Sarcoidosis doctor yet. I had to reschedule with everything that has been happening. Hopefully I can get in and see him some time this week. For now it is just working at getting life back to normal. One great thing that came from all of this is that Sarcoidosis pain is NOTHING compared to the kidney stone pain! Somehow that makes the normal pain not hurt so much. ;)

Michael

Ps. Just for the record… her are the additional medications I am taking for a short while:

Flomax .4 MG 1 time per day (To help speed thing up with passing the stones

Percocet 7.5 MG as needed (For pain)

Nitrofurantn 100MG 1 time per day (Antibiotics. This is a long 21 day course for an infection I have.)