>      Never had them, I hope you had the gall bladder taken
 > out and shot?  :)
 
Yes, you could say that.  I have the two biggest stones in a little specimen 
cup next to the computer -- the largest is a little bigger than the end of my 
thumb.
 
 > I always
 > come in to work 30 minutes early, saw my lead man, told
 > him I was gonna lie down in the ladies' room till I felt
 > better. He sent someone in after me an hour later, when
 > I was doubled up on the floor so they called the paramedics
 > to cart me off in the ambulance with the lights and siren
 > as it was rush hour traffic.  Off the rest of THAT week.
 
Yes, there were times when I wondered if it would be a good thing to call and 
get carted away in an ambulance.  No fun at all to hit that level of pain 
where you break out in a cold sweat all over your whole body at once.  :(  I 
really came to appreciate why horses who are going through colic want to get 
down and roll.
 
 >      Jan, when are you gonna move to Phoenix or can I just
 > send Dub there for a vacation?  You and he can practice
 > dressage!  ;)
 
I'd gladly take Dub for a vacation, if I had somewhere to put him! 
 But I don't think he'd be really comfortable cooped up on my apartment 
balcony, and the cat at work would be really upset if I rigged up space for 
him there.  And I couldn't turn him out in the backyard at work unless he was 
part goat and could eat all the blackberry brambles 
(they're packed in solid and about 5 ft high the last I looked).
 Maybe next year, after I borrow Meg's goats!  ;)
 
And re: Meg's message, yes, there is a treatment for stones where they use 
ultrasound to break up the stones.  It apparently works better for kidney 
stones than it does for gallstones.  In my case, I had too many stones for it 
to work.  You see, unlike kidney stones, which are smaller and (apparently) 
get pulverised, with big gallstones, you end up with a lot of broken bits of 
stone instead, so if you pass 
*those* instead of a whole stone, you can get all cut up inside on 
the sharp parts.  Fun, huh?  So it was easier to just take the gallblader out 
stones and all, as you deduced.
 
Anyhow, this is getting rather out of hand.  How's your netmail doing? 
 If your system has settled down, I can take this conversation over 
there.  But you take care, and I hope things work out okay.  It must be 
terrible not to be able to go out and see your horses, not to mention do all 
the other things you want to do.
--- Opus-CBCS 1.73a
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