October 11, 2015

Kidney Stone Removal Surgery



Kidney Stone Removal Surgery
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for October 1, 2015


It was an interesting week in the Swank Household.  I had been dealing with medical stuff which we thought was some kind of UTI or bladder infection, but it wasn't going away with antibiotics.  So my doctor sent me in to get a cat scan, a colonoscopy, and visit the urologist to check things out.  They discovered I had a 7mm kidney stone that didn't seem to want to pass out of my kidney so they recommended I go in for surgery to get it blasted out of me.


On Wednesday, I went in for surgery.  They wheeled me over to get x-rays before the surgery which I thought was kind of silly since I had just walked into the hospital on my own, but who am I to complain.  We ran into a bit of controversy when the surgeon came in to see me and said he could no longer see the stone on the X-Ray but he thought it best that he go in there anyways to check things out.  No problem I said.  I've always wanted to have someone shove a long tube up my urethra.  At least I was completely asleep for the procedure!!  After about a half hour of going under anesthesia, I woke up confused and asked the people who were there "What happened?"  They told me the surgeon found the kidney stone in my bladder and was able to remove it from there.  Lucky for me, they didn't have to put in the stent they were planning which would have been a whole different experience to have removed.  So hopefully this episode is behind me and I don't have to deal with this again.  They tell me to drink lots of water and that should help.  So I'm an H2O guy now!!


On Friday night, we decided to put our medical concerns behind us and go to a show!  The America's Got Talent All Stars show was at Mystic Lake Casino, so we decided to check it out.


We loaded up Grandma Linda in the trunk and headed to the casino.  There was a bit of electricity in the air as we came up to the showroom.  We just knew we were about to see some TALENT!


The boys both love Taylor Williamson.  He was a comedian that took second place on the show a few years ago.  He's got a real dry wit about him, but judging by how many times Luke and Avery shouted out his punchlines to me it seems that he's been leveraging the same AGT material for awhile now.  He was hyping for us to come back to his one hour show, so I'm sure he's got a bunch of material there which might not be as "Family Friendly" as what he said on the show.


Emily West was on last year's season belting out songs like Sia's "Chandeliers" which she sang for us again.  It sounded beautiful in person as did the rest of the songs she sang to us.


The Kristef Brothers were as wild and crazy as they were on the show.  They're a couple of impressive acrobats who mix comedy into their performance while they do circus type feats of strength.  I was particularly impressed with the balance my brother on my head trick.


The great Smoothini calls himself the "Ghetto Houdini".  I got to see this side of him first hand when I tried to go up to him during an intermission to to get a picture with me.  He was walking straight toward me, took one look at me, pretended to turn to talk to someone in the audience, then literally ran away to the other side of the auditorium.  Watching him from afar for awhile, we came away with the impression that he was much more interested in taking pictures with the young ladies than with old dudes with funny arms.  I guess I can't really blame him for that.


Most of the performers did 2 or 3 different acts and it was a great variety of singing, dancing, music, magic, comedy, and circus type performances.  We all left the show feeling like it was really good time and a whole bunch of fun.  Way to go, America!


After the show, we tracked down Taylor so the boys could get photos with him.  He was a nice guy, although he did seem a bit overwhelmed by all of the attention.


The Kristef Brothers didn't hang around to take photos with the audience, though.  They were headed straight to the bar when we came across them.  We ended up walking with them for awhile and they were great.  The big guy told me that some of the group are pretty fun and they all like to party together.  He said he and his brother grew up in a circus family and they really love what they're doing.  Good for them!


On a sad note, a good friend of mine passed away recently.  Heradio Lopez was only 61 when he succumbed to his battle with cancer leaving behind his loving wife, Elizabeth, and 4 great kids.  I worked with Heradio at three different companies and he was really a great guy.  We went to his Celebration of Life on Saturday and I had the chance to see some other old friends who I used to work with in the past.


Rest in Peace, Heradio!

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