Tuesday, February 17, 2009

"Stone Soup" or "I Always Knew Diet Pepsi Would Kill Me"






Everyone should know the Grimm Brother's fable...in case you don't, I'll throw in a refresher here. It's a heartwarming story of how these travelers came to a village with just an empty pot; and since the villagers wouldn't give them food, the travelers decided to put a stone in their pot and insist that this was good soup - they just need "a little garnish" or a bit of this or that to make it perfect. The villagers fell for it, of course, and the travelers made something out of nothing. Ok...maybe it's not so heartwarming - more like a con, but hey, it worked and they were hungry! (and not as violent as some of the other Grimm fables!).

Some of the best learned life lessons are the painful ones - either emotionally or physically. In my case, these stones are turning my insides to soup. Not a pretty picture. Yup, I'm gonna say it, kidney stones. One night last December I thought I was dying, and asked my husband to take me to the ER. Usually I just take some ibuprofen or a pain killer if anything at all if I'm hurting - so it was a big deal for me to ask him (at 1:30 in the morning no less!). A few hours in the ER and they told me I had a small stone (felt like a boulder wrapped in porcupine needles passing through my body!). I'm not sure what kind of stones they are yet (I'm not even going to describe the discovery process!) so I don't know what first went into the pot. What led up to it though was a cruel trifecta of genetics, less exercise and poor drinking (water) habits. In my case I don't meet any of the other risk factors. Only approx. 5% of the population gets these foolish things even if they have the other risk factors.

When I was younger - even up to my teens we were not given soda to drink. It just was a luxury we couldn't afford. It was milk, water or juice. That simple. Once I got to college I learned of the joys of caffiene. My sister had introduced me to TAB (bleh....but don't laugh, I still like it!) which has an awful after taste. Once I discovered Diet Pepsi though, I was hooked.

Even so I still drank milk, juice and the like, but that dwindled as the years went on. Pregnancy made me drink more water, and less caffiene, but it was hard for me. I've read plenty of medical reports and contradicting statements on exactly how MUCH water to drink; and how MUCH sodas should/shouldn't count towards liquid intake. They all seem to agree that at least 4-6 glasses a day; many of them demand more. I think I'll go with the kidney expert from U of P - who published his findings; then reported them on NPR

Bottom line? I'm slowly drinking my way up to better health, one glass of water at a time.

No comments:

Post a Comment