Stones

I woke in the night with symptoms of a kidney stones episode. Once you’ve had them the likelihood is they’ll recur. I was hospitalised with my first bout around thirty years ago and for a while it felt like I’d need to take myself up to a&e. I thought I’d wait and see though, so took pain meds and imbibed plenty of water and green tea. Essentially one of my kidneys was blocked up, but by mid afternoon the blockage had cleared and the stones washed through so I’m glad that the low intervention method worked in this instance. I do wonder if this bout was triggered by yesterday’s wasp sting, as that will have delivered a toxic load to my kidneys, it may just be coincidence though.

I had a ticket for some live music in Saltaire during the evening, and had been thinking for most of the day that I was just going to have to miss it, but such was the improvement by tea time I thought I would head down. In the worst case I was only a five minute taxi ride from home.  

En route to the gig I encountered the surprise star of today’s blip. Little Egrets are still not that common in my part of the world, so I did a double take when I was scanning the Saltaire Weir for it’s usual occupant, a Grey Heron. Perched on the stones on the evening sun, the Egret was certainly a good tonic for the day.

As was the music, provided by Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys (extra), a country/rockabilly/celtic band from Prince Edward Island.  They entertained an enthusiastic audience at the Live Room. They have just a few dates left on their current tour, including dates in Inverness and Manchester, but will be back again in future years.