Kidney Stone

In the middle of the night on the last day of our family reunion, Ken had some scary symptoms.  At least they were scary until he recognized them and realized, "Hey, I've been through this before!"  So started a two-week torture of Ken trying to pass a kidney stone.
He had his first kidney stone about fifiteen years ago.  He awoke in the night in terrible pain.  At the emergency room, they diagnosed a kidney stone and admitted him.  He stayed in the hospital until it passed.  It just so happened that on the very same night, I had gall stones.  We like to say we got stoned together. (I later had my gall bladder removed.)
This experience was much different. It started early Saturday morning of the reunion.  We were to go home that day.  He was miserable for awhile, but then the symptoms eased.  We were truly blessed as we had to pack up and get it all out to the car which involved a lot of stairs.  I'm not sure I would have been able to do it without him.  I'm sure the kids would have helped.
He was okay for a few days, and then in the wee hours of Tuesday morning it hit with a vengeance.  He was in so much pain.  He went to the emergency room where they gave him an IV with drugs that gave him relief.  They did an MRI that showed the stone (and that there were no more stones in the kidney.  Yea!)  But then they unhooked him and sent him home.  He was okay for a couple of hours and then it hit again.  By about noon, he was in excruciating pain.  I took him back to the emergency room.  They basically said, "Good luck." and sent him home (with drugs) to pass the stone.
It was on and off pain for TWO weeks!  The intense pain usually would hit during the night, but it also hit while he was serving as an ordinance worker at the temple one day.
One middle of the night, the pain was so severe.  He was walking the floor in horrible agony.  He finally felt he couldn't stand it any longer and knelt in prayer for this cup to pass.  Unlike our Savior, almost immediately the pain subsided and he was able to go back to sleep.  A couple of days later, the stone passed.
It was not a pleasant trial, but it did give him greater love and appreciation for the suffering and pain of our Savior.