Surgery Done

I may have much to blog for a couple of days.  The doctor was playing Space Invaders in my kidney.  A stent all the way from penis to kidney; a fiber optics to see what he was doing; a laser to shatter the stone.  It was apparently big enough and close enough to the kidney that he pushed the stone against the far wall, and shattered it into zillion little pieces.

UPDATE: I am no longer in any real pain, except where the stent comes out of my body, and when I urinate.  This is a irriation caused by the stent, so I am off to get a couple prescriptions filled today which are supposed to alleviate this.

The urologist said that the mass in the left kidney is likely a cyst; 15% of men over 50 have them, and they are benign.  He has scheduled a contrast dye CT to see if it has blood flow or not.  If it has no blood flow, it's a cyst, ignore it.  If it has blood flow...maybe something more serious.

Even though gallstones aren't his area of specialty, he says lots of people have gallstones without any health problems.  I have never had any of the symptoms that would indicate a blockage.  Unless there's symptoms, there's no need to take out the gall bladder.