As always, given my product management mindset, I try to over communicate. Including letting you know the fun details of my moderate amount of medical maladies!

Not well edited FYI so excuse the typos if there are any.

I expect to still get the chapters out this week, probably Wednesday and Friday but whoo baby, those things hurt. I was minding my own business last night, finishing up a quick item delve before bed (I think to level 20) in Disgaea – which is great game, I recommend it, just picked it up again on Steam's sale last week – when my back started feeling tight. I pulled a Terry and said 'no worries, I've got this'.

I did not have this.

I am going to explain the symptoms a bit (spoilered) so people might know if they are going through the same thing since I have to hit 500 words anyway :)

So, my first symptom at least – I have had kidney stones before but wasn't sure it wasn't just really strange back pain those times as my symptoms don't match perfectly to those I've seen online and the pain level was bad but not this bad – was the feeling of pretty strong muscle cramping and tightness in my upper mid-back, right below my shoulder blades. That might sound weird because it's a bit above the kidneys and yup! I also have weird muscle issues with my shoulder blades so it's not that uncommon of an area of pain for me, hence never being sure what's causing it.

So, I was able to get some relief by stretching pretty aggressively and using a foam roller but the pain still increased slightly. Now, I know my hydro homies and homettes (no idea of a good gender neutral term there for my NBs) out there are going to be saying 'did you drink water?' and the answer is no, I stop drinking about five hours before bed. My bedtime is midnight so I stopped about 7pm or 19:00 for anyone that uses the 24hr system. But I drank maybe 5 liters yesterday – one liter is a little over 4 cups or 32 ounces. That's a lot! And typical for me.

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So anyway, my symptoms start to progress as my back feels tighter and tighter so I take my good ol' friend Naproxen Sodium. Highly recommend. Generic name in the US is Aleve and I couldn't find it on my short stay in Europe which sucks. It's a great pain killer and general anti-inflammatory. It helped some but not a great deal.

Now is when the pain ramps from about a two of ten to maybe a four? It starts feeling like a muscle cramp but with no waves. Just a constant pain. That gets worse. For the next few hours. I lay down on my back and just try not to move – I am pretty good with constant pain so while it sucks, at least it isn't random stabbing pain. I had my tonsils out at 33 and this is far worse other than day four of recovery. They tell you day four is bad. Believe them. Don't wean off your meds before then and have none left... trust me...

Anyway!

Finally, pain at a constant five and half to six out of ten, I give up on sleep and decide it is actually a stone and start chugging water. The pain doesn't really get better for the first 45 minutes but it does start to migrate slightly slowly lower and focus in on a small spot instead of about a third of my back. I think I had two, one on the left that dropped through quickly and the bugger on the right that didn't. So I drink about 3 liters over the next hour – far more than you are supposed to normally in that amount of time – and the pain finally subsides enough at 4:30am to fall asleep. I have to wake up every few hours to pee but at least low pain... The stone is still there, I'm just hydrated enough that it only kinda hurts.

Now I have to go to the store and get beer – it apparently expands the pipes in general to help you pass stones – which can trigger my autoimmune BS for a day, which is why I have none ATM. So I am definitely out of commission today and possibly tomorrow!

I hope your weekend is going far better than mine! 👋

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