Revamping your Diet for Kidney Stones

Due to my recently discovered Kidney Stones I am going to alternate my diet. :( I am torn between the pain of more stones (which I currently have either way) and my extreme dislike of not eating things I love.

Some of these things are caffeine. I was told specifically no pop, coffee or chocolate. The other that is really hard is red meat and salt, they told me to limit red meat to 3 or less times a week. They told me lots of other things but these are the major ones.

A little background on me, I have been drinking coffee since I was at least 5 (my dad is not a good babysitter). This last Saturday 5 people in my family drank THREE pots of a 12 cup coffee pot. We LOVE our coffee. I must admit that I went to the coffee isle at the grocery store last week just to smell the aromas. :( Second, growing up my dad raised cattle so we ate a lot of beef and still do. If it was up to him we would have had beef with every meal. Third, my dad/family has a high salt content in everything they cook, bland food never came out of my parents kitchen. And finally fourth I LOVE Coca Cola! Just that alone makes me sad.

So in order to prevent more stones from forming I am altering my diet. I bought some flounder, shrimp, and a pork roast this week at the grocery store. I am going to switch to ground turkey for tacos, burgers, etc. so that I can still enjoy meals I like. I cut out Coca Cola completely, and I have decided I can have ONE cup of coffee a week. And I am in full agreement with myself that if more stones form than I am discontinuing my diet that is unless I lose like 20lbs. I have one more stone in my kidneys at this moment but if I get any beyond that this plan is going out the door. Sadly that is mostly because of the coffee.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the 100+ lbs of steaks/hamburger/roasts/other beef in our freezer that my husband can't eat alone.

Today has Been Looking Brighter

So I still hadn't shared my photos of my new couches so I thought I would. The room isn't arranged in its final position until Colin gets the tv hung above the fireplace though. This week has been a little rough to get anything done.

First I had kidney stones, once that passed I started feeling better instantly.....but the second doctor I saw sent me to get a CT scan and gave me an antibiotic just in case me not going to the doctor early enough had created an infection. The pills she gave me did not go over well. I guess our insurance companies computers being down the first time we tried to pick them up were a sign. Anyways this medicine made me hallucinate, nauseous, and feel like I got beat by a bat. On top of that it counteracts the pain pills they gave me and made them useless. They were $40 a pill before insurance and I thankfully only took them 2 days. What makes that worse is my husband called the doctors office twice Friday morning to let them know of my bad reaction and they still (Monday night) haven't called us back.

This experience has not made me any fonder of doctors, I was bad about going in before this experience. I would rather suffer than feel like that again. I should also note that after looking this prescription up I shouldn't be exercising for at least 2 months because my tendons may rupture, I could have similar side effects that I had and my hair can fall out among lots of other issues. Neither the doctor or the Pharmacist mentioned any of these and my stupid self trusted them. Today I am not aching all over but I still am having problems breathing and don't have much energy.

At least 2011 can only go up from here. :) That is if I stop sitting in the kitchen by the coffee pot which is tempting me. I pray that everyone else had a wonderful start to 2011!