I've kept this message and your previous one. For someone who suffers from them as much as I do, I'm woefully undereducated about them, but am working on that.
Previously, I'd found that if I ever let myself get the least dehydrated, I knew a kidney stone was in my future. Which means they typically happen to me during the summer, when I'll sometimes find myself working a quarter mile or more from the house and have forgotten the big thermos.
Am pretty sure that wasn't the case this time. But I'm going to start forcing myself to drink a LOT more. And bottled water. The mineral (and chlorine) content of our local water is very high. The whole area is a bunch of sandstone and limestone with a thin layer of dirt on it.
Fortunately, I love cranberry juice, and always drink a lot of it when I know I'm fighting a kidney stone (most of which I just quietly deal with on my own). To digress, that works out well during the holidays, too. I'm the only person in the family who likes cranberry sauce, so I get it all to myself.
I should mention I've been on this low oxalate regimen for nine years. It took two for the stones that had already formed to work their way out of my system...and the last one was a monster.
I'm hopefully seeing the urologist Tuesday and finding out shortly after that what's going on.
The following is a list of some of the foods and beverages highest in oxalate content. This information can be confirmed with any urologist.
Tea
Coffee
caramel (especially that used in sodas with a dark color)
beer
chocolate
spinach
rhubarb
I do drink a fair amount of tea and coffee. But not as much as most of my former co-workers. Maybe 3 cups of coffee per day, and maybe 3 glasses of tea per week. Any difference between caf and decaf?
I don't drink sodas, so I'm fine there. And in reality I drink very little beer. I'm about halfway through a case of Bud Dry I bought about 2-3 months ago. Prior to that, a six-pack would last me a year.
Chocolate. Hmmmm.... I'm going to limit myself on that and see what happens. I don't eat much of it, but for the past couple of months my wife's been keeping the candy jar filled with dark chocolate, which I love. I love spinach (either with butter or vinegar -- yummers), but haven't had it in ages. I'm horrible about eating vegetables, so would hate to rule out one of the few I like. Perhaps coincidentally or perhaps not, I recently started eating the vegetables with my chinese meals and finding I really like them. Used to always pick around them.
Hope it's confirmed that they're the calcium oxalate kind, since that sounds controllable.
Definitely thanks for the info.
after having suffered with them from my early twenties.
You know, the people I find myself arguing with the most vehemently are often those who're the most like me. <g>
PS May you have a full and complete recovery.
Jury's still out on that one. I'm sure it'll be full and complete, but it won't be soon. It's amazing how 4 days in and out of 3 hospitals, and everything else that goes with it, can take such a toll. I've been "home for keeps" for a couple of days now and get winded just on the short walk down to the pond and back. I hate this. I've got a vicious case of cabin fever and the weather is perfect for doing the kind of work I love doing (and that takes my winter weight off), and I'm at least a week away from being back to 50%, I think. Hate it!!! I know from experience that I won't be up for normal driving for at least another week, let alone the rigors of the track driving I love so much, and I'm missing excellent track weekends. :(
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