THANK YOU!!!

Earlier in this blog I had made a general "thank you" remark to all those whom had expressed concerns about me hopping to Japan last month, so soon after a trip to the hospital emergency room. Well... I was at a game-industry-sponsored children's charities black tie dinner in San Francisco Wednesday night of this week, and associates I hadn't seen or talked to in months came up and said, "Glad to see you back on your feet, John; I understand you've had a rough time lately." A couple people even commented that they saw reference to it on my blog (and I didn't even know that they knew I had a blog). I'm not sure how this news traveled so widely. So in reply to all the inquiries, here is what has transpired. I'll put it in timeline format:

• March 6, 2006. The morning I was supposed to leave for Japan, incredible back/abdominal pain causes me to black out. I'm taken to hospital emergency room by ambulance, and later find out I'm passing gargantuan kidney stones. Several intravenous doses of narcotic painkillers later, I pass the stones, and I'm on the flight to Tokyo the next day.
• June 22, 2006. This time I know what the symptoms are, and before pain causes me to black out, Michelle takes me to the ER. I miraculously pass stones that should in no way have been able to pass. Surgery avoided, and it's a good thing, because five days later, we moved from California to Idaho.

Through all of this, we realize that I am a unique case. The U.S. has the highest percentage of dehydrated people of any country in the world (I've become a HUGE fan of everybody drinking a lot of water!!!). As a result of this, we as a people get more kidney stones than anybody else, and some 95% of these stones are composed of calcium oxides, caused by poor calcium metabolism. Not me... I'm a bit of a freak. My stones are composed of uric acid, caused by having too much blood urea. From what I have come to understand, these stones are tricky to treat. But we treat them and I'm OK for a while. But the chronology continues:

• May 18, 2007. On my last day in Tokyo on business, I start to recognize that I'm about to pass more kidney stones. I naively think that I'll be able to make it home before they become a significant problem. I end up passing kidney stones at 30,000+ feet over the Pacific, in the airplane lavatory. Talk about terror on an airplane!!! I resolve never to pass kidney stones again, except for in a hospital under a morphine drip (like I have any control of that).
  
• September 9, 2007. Wow... another kidney stone attack. My first trip to the hospital ER in September. Not how I wish to spend a Sunday evening, but the morphine drip sustains me.
• September 12, 2007. I undergo a surgery called "lithotrypsy" where they essentially blast my kidney stones apart, so they can pass. Later analysis of "captured" stone fragments shows that I'm still cranking out the unusual uric acid stones. I'll spare you the detail on "how" those stone fragments were captured, nor will I give you detail on the "ureter stent" they put in.
• September 21, 2007. Ureter stent removed. I am warned that less than 1 in 20 patients, post stent-removal, can have kidney-stone-like symptoms, as the ureter spasms after the trauma to the ureter. Little did I know...
• September 22, 2007. I become a not-so-proud member of the 5% Club, becoming one of those less-than-one-in-twenty patients. Symptoms get so bad that Michelle takes me to the ER, for the second time in September. Morphine drips have at this point become my friend. So... Saturday night in the ER with Michelle. Am I an entertaining date, or what?!?! Little did we know that it wasn't just trauma-induced ureter spasming; as we later learn, I'm passing more stones. If I had known that, would I have not taken off for Tokyo two days later???
• September 28, 2007. At a conference in Tokyo, in the presence of several hundred game developers, I have a wicked kidney stone attack. I end up in the emergency room of Tokyo University Hospital; my third ER trip during the month. Even though I'm overseas, I'm at least happy that I'm in a country where I speak the language. I miss my flight home that evening (ya' think?!), and fly home the following day.
• October 4, 2007. I undergo a surgery called a "ureteroscopy" - look it up, gentlemen, if you care to be completely freaked out. I will never again complain about a prostate check as long as I live - that stuff's child's play! In this procedure, they go in and extract a 20mm kidney stone. The stone has trashed my ureter, and to allow it to heal properly, they put in another ureter stent. This one has to stay in a bit longer than the first one, and for the past 15 days it has been causing me rather annoying pain and discomfort. At times, I've wanted that morphine drip that has become my friend, but 4 ER trips in the span of 4 weeks would just be too much!!!
• October 19, 2007 (today). In a procedure that I think could be rather highly effectively used to extract information from enemy combatants, they go in and pull out the stent. I'm glad to be rid of the thing, but am now in moderate ureter spasm pain, like a mini-kidney-stone-attack. Typing in the blog proves a nice distraction.

Through all of this, the doctors think they have settled on the right mix of medicines and diet to control these stones a bit. As my doctor said today, "If you've got 10 more kidney stone ER trips in your life and we've cut them to three, then we've done some good things." Well... I'M HOPING FOR NO MORE!!!

Through all of this, I appreciate all of the thoughts, well-wishes, prayers, cards and gifts sent my way. I even thank all of you whom have stood in the long lines to lecture me about taking better care of myself, and I'll commit to trying to significantly cut back on the 200-250 days a year I spend on the road every year. I appreciate everybody's concern for me. THANK YOU, EVERYBODY!!!