Life moves along so nicely when everyone in the family is healthy.  The problem is, we don’t notice it until someone gets sick.  Last Tuesday night I found myself in the emergency room with intense pain in my lower back.  After some morphine and a CT scan (in that order, mercifully), I was diagnosed with a kidney stone.  Several nurses and doctors who came across my path asked me with a wide-eyed, child-like curiosity, “Is a kidney stone really as painful as childbirth?  That’s what I’ve heard.”  Although I wasn’t particularly in the mood to be cast into their latest kidney stone anecdotes, I would have to say that yes, it is in the same league as childbirth.

As a result of this medical hiccup, I’ve lost my appetite for the most part and I haven’t been able to keep up with the meals I had planned for this week.  Somehow my husband has been able to keep up a semblance of real food on the table, while also working and carting the kids around to their various activities.  He humored me today by making the lentil sloppy joes I had planned for dinner several days ago.  And I have to admit that when I got some energy this afternoon, I made a good old fashioned batch of chocolate chip cookies, sugar and all.  I’m not getting enough calories in my body with this darn stone, and I just needed a quick, yummy calorie fix.  Since I’m off my game, the cookies came out flat, but they tasted good.  I’m glad I still had some sugar in the house.