Our Covid Adventure

The week before Thanksgiving, both Mike and Quinn woke up with a sore throat. It is really dry in our house, so this wasn't completely unusual. However, they both told me that it felt different than usual. Spidey senses were a-tingling! However, by mid-morning, they both felt fine and we continued on with life. That night, Mike started coughing after we went for a walk and by the next day, he decided to stay home from work - just to play it safe. Quinn seemed fine other than being unusually tired. But her practice schedule had been extra busy, so we assumed she was just worn out from that.

By Thursday, Mike was still coughing pretty frequently and the district had announced that so many people were sick that they were just canceling school for the two days the following week - ahead of the Thanksgiving break. I didn't like Mike's cough and made him take an at-home covid test. It popped positive very quickly. So no one went to school on Friday. Instead, we all headed to the airport to do family PCR tests. If anyone thinks getting five people to fill tubes with spit sounds like great family bonding, I'm here to tell you that we give it zero out of five stars. 

The wait for the results felt like sweet forever, even though it was just over 24 hours. We were sitting down to dinner Saturday night when I checked my email (for the 900th time) and saw Q's results come in. Positive. Then Fiona's. Positive. Then mine. Positive. Mike got his. Positive. And finally, Declan. Negative. What the what?!?! We very quickly determined that one cannot separate a 7-year-old from the rest of his family for 10 days ... so come what may. [There also may have been talk about just licking him to get the inevitable over with ... purely joking of course ...]

Declan eventually popped a positive a week later on Thanksgiving day (speaking of things taking sweet forever. We kept asking him if he was Ironman!) - the day before Mike and Quinn were released from quarantine. Everyone had symptoms, but we all only had 2-3 days of feeling unwell - and even that was no worse than a bad cold. We are incredibly grateful that our biggest complaint was being stuck at home for so long. A few notes about our time in quarantine ...

The good

- We figured it out! This Is How People Watch Movies - they don't have any evening activities! We watched a lot of movies together. Jungle Cruise, Yes Day, Night at the Museum, Home Alone 1 and 2. Watching Declan watch Night at the Museum may be one of the highlights of our year. 

- Mike framed in his shed. Other than a cough that just didn't want to quit, by the time we all tested positive, Mike was feeling much better. So he used his time at home to work on the shed and the rink. And I used the accessibility of the tools to get some pictures hung!

- We did puzzles and played games and erased everything from the calendar. It was nice to have a short pause in the crazy schedule. 

- Quinn and Mike were released to the wild in time for her to play in a Thanksgiving weekend hockey tournament. What a way to celebrate a return to health ... three games in two days with a 3-0 record!

The bad

- Quinn missed the night that her team was introduced at the varsity girls high school hockey game. They got to stand on the bench before the game and have their names read. She was pretty bummed.

- Fiona and I had tickets to go see the high school drama club perform Mamma Mia. We didn't have our test results yet, but both agreed that even though we both felt fine at the time, it wasn't the right thing to do. She was very mature about it and we were really proud of her. 

- Poor Dec was the only one who ended up with the vomiting symptom. Thankfully it was only a day and his appetite came back pretty quickly.

- The blog, despite my best laid plans, did not get caught up during quarantine. While things were manageable during the day, we were all simply wiped out by bedtime each night. Putting words together to form sentences was just too much.

- We had to cancel our Thanksgiving hosting plans, but are very glad we found out ahead of having our company arrive.

The ugly

- The thought of poor Dec having to quarantine for fourteen days after the rest of us were out of quarantine! That is what would have happened if he didn't end up getting sick. So thankful that did not become our reality.

- I had a headache for twelve straight days. While stuck at home with three children. And a husband using power tools to build a shed. And did I mention three bored children? My poor head!

October's Silver Lining

She will make friends with
literally anyone

I've mentioned a couple times that we haven't had a lot of "big bloggable moments" in October. That has been a blessing as there are a lot of things churning behind the scenes that have us all a little unbalanced. Some are things that aren't for the blog, some are things that we aren't ready to share quite yet, and some are just part of the season of life we are in (three young kids). But to say there has been a lot of adulting on our plates the last few weeks would be very accurate. It's definitely not all bad stuff - but it's all big stuff.

So as today's spina bifida clinic appointments* approached, our October really needed a win. And let me tell you, the day delivered. We started the morning with Fiona's 9 year well check. You guys, she is 47.5" - which is at the 2 percentile mark!!! We have been hanging out in the less than 1% area for years! So she doubled her percentile! Even more importantly, her growth velocity (which is what we really care about) was at its highest rate ever (2.7" per year). This is phenomenal news and F, Dr. H, and I most definitely had a celebratory moment. She weighs 44.5 lbs, which is still under 1%. But much closer to that first percentile than we have been!

Hospital cafeteria lunch

I mentioned to Dr. H that Fiona has been complaining about being extra tired the last few weeks and has been noticeably more rundown. We did a quick hemoglobin check to rule out anemia (totally normal) - and she feels fairly confident that it is a "pubescent growth spurt." Excuse me ... what?!?! Apparently that "p" word is rapidly approaching and I am not okay with it. For the record, neither Fiona nor the growth spurt seem to take my "not okay" into account.

Spina bifida clinic was the fastest we've ever been in and out (only 3+ hours). Bugs was a trooper and went in with just the best attitude. She paid attention, engaged in the conversations, and took an interest in her health. We were so proud of her. Everything is looking really good. All tests came back the best we can hope for and all the doctors were very impressed with how well she is doing. Her shunt looks good, Mike is planning to replace her button at home (he feels confident that YouTube can assist if needed. Bugs feels less confident), and her legs and feet are holding strong. We stay the course and go back in a year.

While we were all a bit emotionally exhausted post appointment, it was a great morale boost for everyone. If we had to pick something in October to be the silver lining, clinic day would top the list! We are grateful for every year of good reports - and don't take a single bit of it for granted.

*All health information shared was cleared with Fiona ahead of time. I told her that she is now in control of how much is posted on the blog.

Yesterday Happened

Clifford always comes

The girls were off of school yesterday for Presidents' Day (I think it was teacher prep day or something more official sounding. But it was Presidents' Day.) Instead of enjoying the day together with fun activities, we scheduled a minor surgical procedure for Fiona. She has a prolapsed rectum, which means that a small ball of rectum will come out of her bottom. Mike and I are quite adept at putting it back in - but it bothers her when it comes out. When we were in the Dells last year, she actually scraped it up in the pool. So not something that we wanted to ignore.

We had arranged for Quinn to spend the morning with the neighbors and had all our stuff stacked and ready on the table when we went to bed Sunday night. That was the last time that everything went as planned for the day ...

We had to get Bugs up even earlier than normal as we needed to be at Children's at 8:00am - and there was snow in the forecast. After I showered, I went to check something on my phone and saw a message from Dec's day care provider, saying she was sick and would be closed for the day. That should have been our first hint. Luckily, Ms. Katie was willing to take both Q and D, so we packed breakfast for each of them and dropped them off with their buddies

Meanwhile, back in the 'hood

The roads were fine on the way to the hospital and we made good time. Bugs was unhappy about the inability to eat breakfast and was pretty nervous, but overall in decent spirits. We got settled in her room and discovered a new Disney Channel Original Movie that we knew nothing about ... Zombies. So we watched singing and dancing zombies. As one does.

Surgery itself went well. We made it a "three for" as we did the procedure on her bottom plus got her button switched out plus drew blood for tests that endocrinology wants. She was pretty torqued that the IV was still in her arm when she woke up, but otherwise seemed to be holding her own. We got out of the hospital right around noon and dealt with snow-covered roads on the way home. Luckily they weren't too bad yet and traffic wasn't too heavy.

So miserable

Bugs wanted to go to bed, so Mike dropped us off and headed to the neighbors to retrieve our other children. I wanted to cath Bugs before she went to bed - and I'm glad I did. While we were doing that, the anesthesia aftereffects really got to her and she threw up all over her bedroom. We got her cleaned up and she came out to the living room to say hi to her sibs. And then threw up all over the living room. The carpet steamer was clearly going to get a workout. (Side note: two days later and I'm still steaming to try to get the smell out of the carpet!)

She did a lot of wandering around, wanting to sleep but not being able to, being hungry but having an upset tummy, and wanting to sit but having a sore butt. Meanwhile, Q and D were fighting cabin fever. And Mike was packing a suitcase to head for the airport. He wanted to be sure he wasn't late with the weather.

I made mac and cheese for dinner, but even that wasn't working for Bugs' tummy. About 5:50, she decided that she wasn't up for going to skating (Q's class). And Quinn told me how sad she would be to not go to skating. Lucky for me, Mike's flight was delayed so I sent him a text and he lined up one of the neighbor girls to come over at 6:15 and stay with Bugs while Q, D, and I headed to the rink. (Side note: it sounds a lot easier and less panicked than it really was. It was much more of 15 minutes of "will we, won't we" while I called half our neighborhood and then 10 minutes of "hurry and get your stuff on. Everyone go to the bathroom. Oh my gosh, I almost forgot the skates." But against all odds, Q was on the ice with skates and helmet at 6:29 for her 6:30 class. Whew!)

Feeling better today

As I drove toward the rink, I realized I had no cash to pay the sitter. So I brokered a deal for a loan from Quinn and her piggy bank. I don't have interest, but I did have to write "Mom owes Quinn $5" on the whiteboard and my repayment terms are "many days." She was very willing to loan me the money, but her terms and conditions would have made Gpa J proud!

Mike's flight ended up being delayed for over four hours because of the weather and he landed in Austin, Texas about 1:00 am. Fortunately he was the only Vanneste with a short night's sleep. Bugs got a good sleep and seemed more herself this morning. That is, until just before we were ready to head out the door. Luckily she has a tell and Quinn is wickedly fast. So we got a bowl to her just in time. And with that, she spent today home with me.

A six inch sub at lunch and the fact that she was bouncing off the walls tells me that she is back to herself and our wild experience may settle back down to the normal amount of chaos. Now I just need to find $5 to get the 5-year-old loan shark off my back.

That Day Yogs and I Pulled Up Lame

There was a bit of a blog hiatus here at the house of Vs. Not so much because I had nothing to say, but more because all.the.things happened in the last nine days. We had some injuries, a lot of company, a future kindergartner to round up, an Easter Egg hunt, the onset of allergy season, and a work trip for me to Florida (complete with sunburn. Hello, direct sunlight!). More to come on many of these, but I'll start with last Monday - when both Yogs and I got hurt.

I've been quietly working on my own secret resolution since January, when I finally started running again. I've been running 2-3 times a week and, while not fast or far yet, it's faster and farther than it was when I started. I annoyed my sciatic nerve (or something in that area ... I didn't actually go to a medical professional) a few weeks ago and my right leg has been struggling since. Some days it's fine and other days, it's really sore. Running had not been bugging it, which I was grateful for. Until last Monday. I got my first mile in and was feeling great. My stride felt smooth and I had a great split. Then about two minutes into my second mile, my calf went out. To the point that I knew I had to quit running instead of powering through. It was really really sore the rest of the day and I kept stretching it out to keep it from seizing up.

When I picked up Quinn, she asked if we could walk to the field that night to play. Walking sounded good to me as I was still annoyed that I hadn't gotten my miles in ... and I wanted to keep stretching out my leg. The girls rode their scooters and Dec biked - and F's friend Scott joined us too. Scott's mom had stopped by, so we were all standing there talking to her while Yogs ran around the field. We didn't see anything happen, but all of a sudden Mike noticed Yogi at his side, favoring his back left leg. He wouldn't put any weight on it and it was a long, slow, three-legged hop home for him.

We were really really worried that it was his hip, so when we got home, Mike did his best to assess. We [mostly] talked ourselves out of hip and figured it was maybe Achilles ($$$$) or ACL ($$$$). Neither was a particularly great option, so we hoped that maybe we'd wake up in the morning and he'd be fine. He was not.

Mike took him to the vet on Tuesday morning. The x-ray showed that it was his ACL, but that it wasn't ruptured as we feared. Very inflamed and possibly damaged. But not fully torn. It was about the best news we could hope for in this scenario. So he's on anti-inflammatory meds and pain meds for a couple weeks, plus limited activity, to get him healed up. Overall, he seems to be back to about 80% and is using his leg much better. As he improves, he wants to play so we are trying hard to keep him a bit settled to be sure he heals. (In other random news, his "good" leg shows that he probably did this same thing to that knee. Which is so surprising, given how graceful he is ...)

And my leg? Also much better. I've run three times since and it's doing okay. Just need to get that sciatic nerve back to normal.

Purple Foot, Popsicles, and Panties

Croup? Bah! I'm fine, Mom ...
until 3:00 am

Fine. Boring was not really in the cards here. But we did survive the week with slightly less chaos. Relatively speaking. Items of note for the week ...

Mike's left foot is purple. Purplish, greenish, black, to be more specific. Last week, during his hockey tourney, he blocked a shot with his foot. When he asks for an ice pack the minute he walks in the door, I usually assume the worst. He spent Saturday trying to convince his sister and me that his foot was not broken. We remained skeptical when they had to run to the store to get a wrap for it ... so he could fit it in his skate. My cousin Parker summed it up by saying #minnesotalife. A week removed, it's still colorful ... but I'm finally convinced that it is maybe not broken.

Declan and Quinn have croup. We've never had croup here before. So when Dec woke up gasping for air (or what sounded like gasping to the untrained croup ear) in the wee hours of Thursday morning, we did what any untrained-in-croup parents would do. Headed to the ER with him. Thankfully he is the only small V who has ever responded to nebs, so that helped open up his airway. They also gave him a popsicle. For a guy who is the messiest eater we've had and constantly uses dinner as hair gel, boy can eat a popsicle with zero mess! I was straight up impressed ... once I finished being straight up worried about the fate of his pjs with a red popsicle. We hung out for a couple hours until they were sure he was in good shape and headed home to "start" our day. By the end of breakfast on Thursday, he was as happy as could be.

Her "I'm wearing underwear" smile

Quinn woke up in the wee hours this morning to go potty. I could tell from her breathing that she had the same thing as D. She has a larger airway and was faring better. It just seemed like a cold. But as always happens, poor Quinn has it worse than D. No matter what goes through the crew, Quinn inevitably has the worst of it. She did great today, but was completely worn out by bedtime. Hopefully she can get a good night sleep and we can use the weekend to get her on a good path.

I saved the best for last. Fiona is wearing underwear. Successfully! You guys, this is so huge!!! That means that the surgery she endured is already paying off in a big way! And she knows there is a direct correlation. We can tell that she feels like the long surgery week was worth it. We practiced with underwear last weekend and have been transitioning to wearing them at school this week. We are still figuring everything out, so there have been a few accidents. But, like every new wearer of underwear, this is very normal. We keep reminding her of that. And she is so SO proud of herself. 

And thus our weekend to do list ... get better, buy underwear, and play outside in the beautiful spring weather. Without stepping on daddy's foot!

The Surgery

Heading to the hospital

We did it. We've survived the week of The Surgery. As we watched her run around the yard yesterday with her siblings (as one does five days after major surgery), we felt like we may be coming out on the other end of the experience.

Her surgery has been planned since she was born. She had an ACE procedure, which puts a "button" in her belly at the top of her colon that we use each day to flush her bowels out. (Mike is jealous and wants a button too - ha!) She has a "mickey" button right now, and in a few months, we'll trade that out for a Chait tube, which will be flatter and smaller.

Surgery was scheduled for Wednesday, but we had to go in on Tuesday for bowel prep. Mike was going to take her in that day and I was going to meet them up there after work. To avoid the undesirable two cars in the parking ramp scenario, I planned to drop them off on Tuesday, get them settled, and head to work. No one truly anticipated the horribleness of Tuesday. Long story slightly shorter, I worked from the hospital that day.

The Tube 

Fiona had an NG tube placed through her nose to her stomach and then had a strong solution run through it for 14 hours to clean her colon out. She hated the tube. We didn't blame her. And she was pretty stuck in her bed for the day, hooked up to the solution. We watched movies, listened to music, and played with her new iPad. Only two things made her smile that day - a visit from the pet guinea pigs that she got to pet and feed and a visit from one of the teachers at school. It was a really hard day on her. By late afternoon, she simply gave up talking because it was too uncomfortable (the silence was eerie!). So she communicated with me through a series of thumbs up and down, pats, and points.

Tube is OUT!

She was supposed to get her tube out at 2am; by midnight, she was over it! We tried to go back to sleep for a while, but eventually, I ended up in the bed next to her so we could watch Jimmy Fallon and the Roots clips on my phone. Nurse Claire must have heard us moving around in there, because she came in at 2am on the dot to remove that tube! The side effect was that poor Fiona threw up a couple times after the tube came out ... probably because of all the stuff they pumped into her. By the time daddy arrived on Wednesday morning, we were in the playroom, celebrating being tube free!

As we waited in her room for surgery to call us down, one of the volunteer dogs visited her room. Izzy was bigger than Yogi and happily climbed right up on her bed for a few pets and scratches. She's such an animal person that the pet visits just made her day! Once we headed down to the surgery center, we passed the time making a princess crown that she wore during her surgery. The actual surgery went very well. We passed the time by getting some food (since she was starving, so were we. It felt wrong to eat in front of her!) and about 90 minutes later, they called me back to the recovery area. She still won't tell me if she wanted me ... or just knew I had her Clifford.

On her way to surgery

Thanks to Auntie picking up the littles, both Mike and I were able to stay up with Fiona while she got settled. When I left at bedtime to go home, she had officially reached hangry (two days of not eating will do that to a girl). When I got back in the morning, she was still upset because no one had furnished food yet! Shortly after I arrived, Dr. Marker came in and said "let's eat." They are pretty much best friends now!

Thursday was recovery day. She was pretty sore in the morning, but we were slowly able to convince her to start moving around. The "eat and drink" part of her checklist to go home was no problem! A visit from Grandpa V and our friend Colleen lifted her spirits a bit. After lunch, I helped her get dressed in real clothes and sweetened the "move around" deal. If she would walk down to the playroom on her own, we would paint. Paint will always inspire our little artist!!

Surgery crown

Later that day, we got a short visit from her little sibs (we had to meet them in the lobby) and then her friend Makai from school came up. Since Makai is five, he came up to the playroom with us. Those two had SO MUCH FUN. They played around for almost two hours. She moved slow and steady, but having a buddy there was so motivating for her and helped her forget about all the yucky stuff. When she got tired, we headed to her room so she and Makai could play iPad for a bit. Once Makai left, she, Auntie, and I ate dinner together and watched ice skating. Other than the IV that was still in her arm - and a source of great distress to her - she was doing great.

Our night nurse on Thursday was nice, but not my favorite. She didn't try very hard to not wake Fiona up during the night. We were both a little tired on Friday morning! As we waited for daddy to come up, Dr. Glasser came in. He told me that her numbers looked great and that she was doing really well. I asked if he thought we could go home. He said that Dr. Marker is usually pretty conservative and would want to keep her one more day. I said that we would really love to go and Dr. Glasser went back out to his computer. He came back a couple minutes later and told me to go ahead and push when Dr. Marker wanted to keep her.

Out of surgery

Fiona and I headed down to the playroom to check out the Little People situation. Dad and Grandpa found us there. And then Dr. Marker found us there. As Dr. Glasser predicted, he said she was doing great but "it wouldn't hurt to keep her one more day." I pushed a little and we got the all clear to leave once she got one more round of meds and we learned how to work her new button. Luckily, her friends Ellie and Oliver were on their way - which would help bridge the time to the last batch of meds. We met them in the playroom and had a great time. It was wonderful to see her distracted by her friends and having fun.

I headed to pick up the littles after we got home on Friday afternoon. I told them that we had a surprise for them at home. Declan immediately guessed "football game." When I told him "no," he guessed "football." When he got a "no" on that, he guessed "basketball game." At that point, I told him he couldn't play anymore! Quinn asked many strategic questions. About halfway home, she said, "Mama, I think it's a person" and had the biggest grin on her face. It was a person (her favorite person!) and she did not stop grinning for the rest of the night! We were so happy to be back together and the kids were thrilled to be a trio again.

We are so grateful for all the words of encouragement and support during the week. Our phones and social media accounts were blowing up - in the best way possible. Thank you all for the love that you wrapped our family in during these days. It was appreciated more than we can say!

FINALLY - FOOD!

Painting in the playroom after surgery

iPad with Makai

Thank you note to her nurses before we left

SO HAPPY to be home!

Eight Plus Hours to Snow

Sad, carsick baby

I hung out with the kids on Tuesday and we had a great day together. We played and they also entertained themselves enough for me to get us partly packed up by the time Mike got home from work. We did a killer job on cleaning out the fridge and it felt very Grinch-like ... as I'm pretty sure the crumbs we left were too small for a mouse.

Wednesday morning, we got up and Mike finished loading the car while I got the kids ready. Quinn was complaining about her tummy and that she was hungry. I gave them each a bowl of dry cereal to eat while watching a cartoon as we finished getting packed. We had taken Q to the doctor last Saturday after a few rough nights to find that she had a sinus infection that was also moving to her ear. So she was on antibiotics. I gave her the pink meds, but she was still looking a little off. On a whim, I grabbed a bowl on my way out the door.

Dec rocked the
dress up bin at
Gma's

We were about 45 minutes from home, just going through Elk River, when Quinn said quite urgently, "I need to go potty." We were coming up on a McDonald's so I told Mike to pull off. I had barely finished telling him to turn when Q said more urgently, "I NEED THE PUKE BOWL." And yep, she did. She tried her best to hit the bowl, but her sweatshirt and the carseat took a hit as well. So we continued to the McD's parking lot where I handed Mike the pack of Wet Wipes, grabbed a Q, and headed inside to clean her up. (Also - worst place to deal with this ever. No paper towels in the bathroom and very little water pressure)

A stomach bug had been going around day care, so we turned around and headed back home. We didn't want to be the ones to bring the stomach flu to Christmas. Bugs was super bummed, but we had a quick talk about not making her sister feel bad because it wasn't her fault. I was also sad as I realized that I have never not been in GR for Christmas. 

We found snow!

Quinn did okay on the ride home and about halfway there, she started asking if we had waffles at home. I told her that I could make waffles if she wanted them. And she did. We barely got in the door before she was asking for a shower and then waffles. I got her cleaned up and tried to scrounge up enough ingredients to make some waffles. Quinn ate FOUR waffles - in record time. Then she headed down to the basement with her siblings and ran around like crazy for the next two hours. 

Without a crystal ball, Mike and I made the best call that we could - and that was carsick combined with mucus and antibiotics in stomach. So we talked to the gang and all decided to try again. We repacked the few things we had unloaded and headed back north. Eight and a half hours after our initial departure, we pulled into my parents' driveway. 

Bugs and Daddy made
snow angels

About 30 minutes before we got to GR, Q let out a big sigh (she was done being in the car. She has the hardest time with the long trips). I turned around and asked her if she was sick of the car. She looked at me and said, "No. I don't need the puke bowl." My bad on the wording!

There was a beautiful covering of snow up there (hooray!) and my mom really wanted to take the kids on a nighttime walk through the woods. It sounded like fun and the fresh air sounded nice, but it also sounded like a lot of work to wrangle three kids plus dog into winter gear. And then get all ours on too. But my mom and the kids were excited, so Mike and I suppressed our laziness and did it. You guys, grandmas are smart and we should listen to them! It was such a lovely way to end what had been a very long day. There was crisp air, snow, a few runs down the sledding hill, and one Declan sled crash into a tree. 

The trip north didn't quite go as planned, but we were all glad to finally make it up there!

Mike's New Hangout

So ... Mike has a new local hangout. The ER. He has been there twice in the last two weeks. And saw the same doctor each time. I've explained that there are potentially less expensive ways to make friends!

The first trip was not intended to be an ER trip. He had been working on the camper/ice house to prep it for a weekend of ice fishing with his dad. Somewhere in that prep was a need to shave down the shaft of the auger with a dremel. He did all the right stuff - wearing goggles and putting the shield on the dremel. Later in the evening - when we were putting the girls to bed, his eye started bothering him. When I was free from the girls, he checked it out in the mirror and could see a metal sliver in his eye. Best we can figure, it was on his hand and he rubbed his eye.

It was bothering him enough that he headed off to Urgent Care. Unfortunately the eye equipment was in the ER ... so he got routed there instead. Metal extraction went well and other than antibiotic ointment that he had to put in his eye several times a day, it was a pretty easy ailment.

His second trip was not quite so pleasant. Friday night, Declan spent the night in the kid room (and not in ours!). At 6:50 in the morning, I heard lots of giggling from across the hall. I whispered to Mike that I thought the girls had discovered the new roommate. He didn't answer so I asked him something else. Still no comment. I rolled over to find that my roommate was gone.

I found him pacing the basement in pain ... where he had been for a couple hours. The internet told us that it was probably kidney stones. The pain was bad enough that he decided to head in and verify our diagnosis - and maybe get some pain relief. His new friend the ER doc confirmed that he had "the stones" (as Q calls them. Bugs calls them "crystal rocks"). They were small enough that he could pass them on his own. So far, three have come out. He's doing okay, but still has some pain and discomfort.

The gang and I are mostly supportive ... except we can't stop saying "kidney stones" like one of my favorite clips from Friends. Luckily, Mike thinks it's funny too!