With all the rain we've had, I've done a considerable amount of reading! I just finished one of the most amazing books I've read in years. Its called "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage", by Alfred Lansing. First written in 1959, it recounts the unbelievable tale of survival of an Antarctic expedition that went bad. I was mesmerized from the first pages.Lansing tells the story of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, and his plan to cross the continent of Antarctica with a team on foot. Leaving England in August of 1914 aboard the ship "Endurance", they sailed for South Georgia Island down near the Antarctic Circle, headed from there for the Weddell Sea off the Antarctic coast. Bound for Vahsel Bay, they were to have put ashore to begin their overland journey. In January of 1915, after battling through thousands of miles of ever-increasing pack ice over six weeks, the Endurance became locked inside an island of solid ice. For ten months the ice-bound ship and crew of 27 drifted west then northwest before the ice finally crushed the ship and it had to be abandoned in October of 1916. Shackleton and his men then had to endure life on the ice floes for 2-3 months, hoping currents would move the pack ice close enough to land for safe crossing. That never happened. Surviving on limited rations and whatever arctic game they could catch, Shackleton and his men were ice-bound for almost seven months before the drift began to break up and they were forced to take to the 3 boats they had dragged free of the Endurance before she went down. The men then endured a freezing, violent sea journey across some of the most dangerous waters on the planet, the Brasfield Straits, finally reaching the remote Elephant Island after five days. It was the first solid ground they had stood upon in 497 days. On this harse, barren, storm-blown island, Shackleton left 22 of his men, while he took 4 with him to journey back to South Georgia Island, some 650 nautical miles away, back across the storm-tossed South Atlantic seas. Miraculously, they found the island and after several near-death attempts, made shore after 15 days at sea. Exhausted, frost-bitten, weak with malnutrition and various ailments, they then proceeded to cross the previously uncrossed island over 36 hours to a whaling station on the other side. Finally, after several failed attempts, Shackleton himself returned for his men left on Elephant Island August 30 1916, bringing the rest of the crew safely home.

Incredible, beyond imagination- to have survived months on the ice, then so many miles on deadly seas, twice, then to have crossed a previously uncrossed island with little more than the tattered clothes on their backs, then to return for his men at Elephant Island, who themselves survived against insurmountable odds - courage doesn't even come close to describing this. British explorer Duncan Carse in 1955, after making the first overland crossing of South Georgia Island since Shackleton did, wrote, "I do not know how they did it, except that they had to." What Shackleton and his men did defines heroism and determination. Surely, the name of their ill-fated ship described the men across their whole ordeal- Endurance. I look at my momentary, and at times trivial, trials in a new way. When all else is stripped away, who we are inside, our true character, comes out. May my life be one day defined by courage, determination, compassion, wisdom, and an unshakeable faith in my God, who will see me through any trial, as He did the men of the Endurance, nearly 100 years ago.

I spent the end of the week, and most of the weekend, struggling with a kidney stone. Words cannot describe the pain of one of those! It started Thursday night, with a little discomfort in my lower right side, but I dismissed it as a cramp or something. Suddenly about 1:45am I woke out of a dead sleep, feeling like someone had stuck a long blade knife right through me, just above my right hip. I felt it all the way through to my back. I spent the rest of the night doubled over in agony, with only brief periods of minor relief. The pain was so severe, I thought I would black out a couple of times. Man, I wish I had! Lisa kept a cold pack on my head, kept me pumped with Advil or Tylenol 3, but nothing helped much. We thought it was my appendix first, and were preparing to drive to the hospital, except that something tipped Lisa off to the possibility that it might be a stone- I felt this painful urge to pee all night in between waves of agony, but nothing came out. She said, "I think I know what this is..."
She arranged for me to see Dr. Abraham first thing in the morning, who suspected kidney stones as well, but wanted to be sure. They sent me to a CT/MRI imaging office, and the pictures they took of my insides confirmed it. In fact, I had a severe episode right there in the imaging room, and almost fell off the scanner bed, doubled over in pain.
The doc put me Lortab, a heavy pain killer, and told me it was not big enough to get it "blasted", so I'd just have to drink tons of water and try to pass it. Great. That could take days, even weeks! Needless to say, Friday was miserable, and I sweated through several sets of clothes and sheets wrestling with this tiny object inside me. Friday night the pain and its waves seem to let up some, and I began to be able to urinate better. Believe me, that was a welcome feeling!
Lisa thinks sometime on Saturday I may have passed the tiny tormentor. I had a couple of painful times peeing in the morning, then suddenly I was pain-free throughout my affected areas. I did, however, deal with the after effects of the whole ordeal the rest of Saturday on into Saturday night- fever headaches, sweats, and a bloated abdomen, likely from spending days gasping for air while in the throws of pain.
By Sunday morning, although I felt weak and tired, I went to church and led 2 hours of RockiTown children's church. Honestly, I felt better when the morning was over than when I began- I think my strength was just gradually coming back. I've felt pretty good most of the day today. But I still wonder- did I pass that little pointy pebble?? I certainly hope so. I don't want to have to endure THAT kind of pain again anytime soon!
If that's the closest a man will ever come to experiencing childbirth- ladies, I now have an even deeper respect & admiration for you!