It's been nine days since I was diagnosed with a kidney stone and, sadly, I had to be taken to hospital again last Sunday. I really don't want to get into the details but it seems that my stone still is in my body, while some smaller, undetected ones came out.
While I'm largely pain-free, my period kicked off yesterday, making it difficult to catch "Heidrun" (yes, I gave my stone a name). Additionally, my pain killers were so strong that I was unable to eat properly until today. My alpha blocker, on top of this, nearly made me faint twice, yet it appears that I've made it through the worst, thus no longer requiring any pills.
The sad part, however, is that I will not be taking my next field trip this week. Saturday will be a very sunny and very warm day, the latter currently being the biggest problem. I still am fairly weakened and my first appointment with my urologist happens on the 18th, a day after my birthday. While I watch my diet (and whatever I void) carefully and make sure to mitigate the formation of more stones and minimize my chances of developing an infection, it has become highly unlikely that I will NOT be distracted by my current state and the heat may stretch my recovery (and the release of the stone, if it shouldn't happen before Saturday) out.
Needless to say, I don't know when I'll get back into my ecological observations. As much as I want to get back into it, I still am too fragile to tolerate an hour of summer heat. My mental health currently isn't all too great, either, and maybe I'll publish an entry about the current state of Germany's neoliberalized health care system. Right now, I'd rather not talk about it.
But on a positive note: My cat is doing better and he only got something stuck between his teeth.