Going in for Surgery on the 12th of This Month.
(96 posts)
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A few of you know that I have been dealing with back issues for a while. This will be my second back surgery in the last 2 years. The last one went great and I was back on the tennis courts about 6-8 weeks later. This one is more involved so I am hoping to be hitting them again in about 10 weeks. If this does not work then the next surgery will be a spinal fusion and the titanium cage which I am hoping I do not have to go for. That one could really screw up my serve.
Friday I also had confirmed by my doctor that I have kidney stones again for the 20 something time. I will have to get another lithotripsy to break up the stones, once I am recovered from the back surgery. I have had 2 of those in the last 3 years. Sometimes life just bends you over and breaks one off in your ass. lol
Harris
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Good luck Harris... I hope everything comes out well... and you never have to have surgery again.
I carry a gun... because a cop is too heavy!
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Good luck with it brother I'll be sure to light up the medicine pipe for you on the 12th
The true measure of a mans worth is how he chooses to chance his mortality
Junior Member of the Black Bloods
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Best wishes on the procedures, Harris. I'll include you in my prayers. You're such a tough bastid, I'm sure you;ll be fine though. Do hospitals have wi-fi? If not, I suppose you could always plug into the phone -- someone said cell phones/smart phones have to be turned off in hospitals.
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allan
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Harris
You know that my wishes are with you. As Roth said, 'you are a tough bastid'.
Hopefully your children will be there to help you and give you the family ties that are oh so critical in life, especially at these times.
Meantime, just make sure you have wi-fi wherever you are. I have so many questions...
All the best
Allan
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Best of luck on the 12th Harris.
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Best of luck and hopefully you won't be off the boards or the courts very long. When it rains it pours.....but what the hell, we need the rain.
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Hope all works out well with you, pal. I have disk degeneration combined with scoliosis and the nerve pain can be just be debilitating. Keep us posted! 
Russ
Smoking a pipe is true relaxation. Everything else is work.
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Good luck! I hope all goes well.
As long as I got a pipe full of baccy and a nose full of snuff, I'm a happy camper
Cigarettes are an addiction, cigars are a hobby, pipes are a religion
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Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. Also, my advice is to drink heavily.
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Best of luck with surgery and procedure to bust up those stones. Let us know hot it goes Harris. We will be praying for ya!
"I run a craftsman's shop, not a factory, my pipes are works of art, fruit of expert hands, heart and fantasy" ~Carlo Scotti
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yadan
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Best wishes for a successful surgery. I sure identify, since I'll be having disc surgery myself in the near future.Get better real soon! 
"I'm always easy to please since I'm always satisfied with the very best." - Oscar Wilde
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Best of luck Harris, I"ll entertain smokeing your pipes while you are laid up, I don"t mind I"d do it for you friend, might have to be paid in some tobbaco you have stashed, won"t take much you"ll never know I was there LOL. The old cajun 
The Old Cajun
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Speedy recovery, hardest thing is following Dr.s orders afterwards.
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Just recieved your samples Harris, I'll smoke one in your honor!
"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
Mark Twain - Eric (taerin): nickname (username)
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Ouch! Kidney stones are not fun. Best wishes on your surgery. Your expertise and good humor will be missed while you are gone.
“Apples for walking, and a pipe for sitting.”
― Samwise Gamgee
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mctrav
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Good luck Harris! I had 5 back surgeries in 2011, and a spinal stimulator. What kind of surgery are you having? I did everything to avoid a fusion..scary stuff! Hope all goes well. -Mike
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Good luck my friend. My prayers for successful surgery and quick recovery.
"The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected..."
-William Makepeace Thackeray, from The Social Pipe
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Harris I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers so that all will go well for your operation and also the kidney procedure.
Doig
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Harris - have a speedy recovery. Any chance there will be a side effect, like getting a taste for Latakias?
hp
les
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Best of luck Harris. You are "da man". I hope you get a sexy nurse with a short skirt to tend to you while you mend.
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I hope both the back surgery and kidney stone procedure go well and are successful! Praying that no more back surgeries are needed too!
God bless, and take it easy!
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I hope it goes well. As a fellow back (and neck) sufferer, I feel your pain.
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Speedy recovery Harris, I’ve gone under the knife so many times, thankfully in the last five years it’s been Arthroscopic. I’ve been getting injections in my back for the last couple years every three months and when they stop working their going to fuse me up. Not looking forward to it 
Sure you’ll be back smacking the ball soon! And thank god they can now bust up the stones…
Craig
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” Patrick Henry
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Hope everything goes well for you.
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Good luck Harris, I'll be looking forward to seeing you back in action. I'll be smoking a tin of Escudo in your honour while you are recovering, for sure! 
Keep us updated...
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Good luck and a speedy recovery.
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Good luck, cigrmaster. We'll be praying for the best. Hope you have a speedy recovery and back on the court in no time.
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Our prayers are with you Harris. Good luck!
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God speed Harris and a quick recovery.
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Good luck Harris. We are all hoping everything goes well.
Midwest Wood Creations
Be sure to check out Gecko13's handiwork when in the market for any of your pipe accessory needs such as tampers, cabinets, pipe racks etc.
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Good luck Harris! Get well soon and hope to see you back on the forum pages.
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Good luck to ya.
U.S.M.C. (SEMPER FI)
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Hang in there bro, we'll be thinking about you.
There is nothing like being left alone again, to walk peacefully with oneself in the woods.
To boil one's coffee and fill one's pipe, and to think idly and slowly as one does it.
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Thanks everyone for the well wishes and prayers, it is really appreciated.
I was woken up this morning at 4:15 with some serious pain. One or more of the stones is stuck in my Ureter and I am going to have to deal with the stones sooner than I thought. Imagine someone putting your balls in a vice and just cranking it down, that is what it feels like when they get stuck. Luckily I have pain meds on hand or I would be in the hospital right now. I am going to wait out the day and if I can't piss em out, I will go to the hospital tonight. I really hate going in and having my pipe smoking interrupted. I remember like it was yesterday when I had stones for the first time back around 1982, they shot me up with Demerol in the ER and I was high as a kite chain smoking cigarettes in my bed. Those were the days.
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Wishing you a speedy recovery Harris.
I passed a kidney stone a few years ago. I'm not a pushover but I was damn near rolling on the floor in pain. I just laid there sweating and rolling on the couch for an hour and a half. Felt like a piece of glass when I passed it. Wife whose a nurse, said it was a small one stone. So I for SURE don't want to see a big one.
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jah, Thanks, isn't it amazing how such a small piece of stone can cause that kind of pain. The smaller ones are the ones that can be passed. I usually produce much larger ones that have to be blasted by ultra sound before they can be passed. When they do that it takes a few days of pissing glass before they are all gone. Usually mine are uric acid stones, but sometimes they are calcium. The last time they were a combo of the two which was a rare event for me.
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Stones suck! I'm so glad I don't have to deal with them anymore. When I was crushed in a car in 1979 they had me on massive calcium doses to help knitting. No breaking them up then, one of the most painful things I've ever dealt with. Harris you know that almost every operation preformed today there's a video you can watch of the procedure, look it up and see what they do. Actually it's awesome.
Craig
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Good luck!
Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close
Rudyard Kipling
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Good luck and I hope that you're pain free when its all done Harris. We'll all be thinking of you on the day!
Be careful what you wish for, as you just might get it.
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Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Wow. Wishing you the best of luck on the sugery.
As a fellow tennis player I hope your serves are kept in tact.
"I was born to lose. So I'll die to win." -Breaking Benjamin
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Harris, I was in pain just reading about your kidney stones. Can't imagine what it's really like. Take care.
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Sounds like a lot of fun. By fun I mean a royal pain in the @$$!!!
Here's to a speedy recovery!
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
-C. S. Lewis, English essayist & juvenile novelist (1898 - 1963)
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mctrav, I am having a Laminectomy on my L2,L3 and L4 for severe spinal stenosis,plus while he is in there he has to fix a bulging disc and a tear in another.
I ended up in the hospital last night after trying all day to manage the kidney stone pain. I was eating the 10 mg oxy's like mm's and they were not doing it. I had eaten 9 of them by 4 and I was getting little relief. So I had my oldest boy drop me off and they did a cat scan and found a 7 mm stone stuck in my ureter which is why all the pain. They shot me up and told me that I have to see my urologist to get the lithotripsy and they cannot do it there. It is a fucking hospital and they said they cannot do it. It is obvious to me there is a scam where the urologists have it worked out so that no one can just walk into a hospital and get a lithotripsy done. So now I have calls in to my neurosurgeon and urologist to figure out which one I need to get done first. I am sure they are going to say I need to get that stone out first.
Peck imagine someone taking your balls and putting them in a vice and cranking it down, that is what it feels like. I am sure you were hit in the nuts playing sports as a kid, well it is that type of excruciating pain that does not go away. It takes massive amounts of narcotics to just take the edge off and the only thing that will take it completely away is a 150 ml shot of Demerol in your ass. Unfortunately hospitals no longer use Demerol they use a cocktail of stuff that works pretty well, but not like the old time stuff.
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Yikes! Sorry to hear that Harris.
Think positive thoughts.
Get well soon.
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Harris I wince in pain just reading your last post. I have may severe back issues as well and "manage" pain on a regular basis. I can only imagine the pain you are going through with the stones and the back issues. I hope you feel better soon.
Just don't go smoking any of those beautiful pipes in our collection at the moment. You may bite through the stems in pain. Have your son get you a Grabow to chew on till you are through the worst of it.
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Lawrence
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If this does not work then the next surgery will be a spinal fusion and the titanium cage which I am hoping I do not have to go for. That one could really screw up my serve.
Harris, I sincerely hope you don't have to go that route.
The War Department had that particular surgery and she has been paying for it ever since.
Good luck man...
AND DO WHAT THE DOCTOR TELLS YOU TO DO!!!!!
"Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put." Winston Churchill
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Hang in there, cigrmaster. This too shall pass...
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Thanks guys. I just got off the phone with my neurosurgeons nurse and she reminded me that lithotripsy is not an option once the stone has moved into the ureter. If I cannot pass it myself then it is going to be med-evil torture time. This is a whole other level of pain when they have to go in to get the stone. I have had that done in the past twice and after the last time I swore I would never let them do that to me again.
They go through your dick with tools and a camera, find the stone, yank it out and then leave a stent in there for up to a week depending on how bad your ureter collapsed. For as long as that stent is in you pray you don't have to piss because it is like torture every time. Once they say it is time to remove the stent, they hold you down on the table with no anesthetic and yank the stent out. No amount of pain meds can keep you comfortable through this. I am so fucked.
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Harris. I hope the doctors and hospital can help your kidney stones pass without the pain or procedure being super painful.
The hospitals sometimes do procedures without using pain medication and I do not appreciate that. When I was in the hospital in 2008 for stomach bleeding I had a tube put on my nose to pump out the blood in my stomach and they just shoved it in.
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Harris, that truly sucks. I hope for the best for you.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
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My neurosurgeon called this morning and put off the back surgery until March 5th. He says I need a clean bill of health from the urologist before he proceeds. I was at urologist yesterday talking about options, and there is a procedure where he can go in from the side and try to get it that way. I am going to choose that method even though the odds of getting the stone are not as good as going in the other way.
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Sounds like a pretty poor deal Harris. Hope everything clears up for ya soon, we're all pulling for ya man!
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Thanks bubble, I appreciate it.
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Really sorry to hear it Harris. Sounds like you're upbeat, so glad for that. Here's hoping you can keep your serve!
"Be seeing you" —Number Six, The Prisoner
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Thanks six. I have my kidney stone surgery set for this Monday. I am going to be so glad when this thing is out of me, it has been the second worst kidney stone incident I have been through since I began with these things over 30 years ago.
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hanks six. I have my kidney stone surgery set for this Monday. I am going to be so glad when this thing is out of me, it has been the second worst kidney stone incident I have been through since I began with these things over 30 years ago.
Man, that is got to be the worst.
I haven't experienced it, but I recall Regis Philbin having them, and saying it's got to be worse than child birth. 
Here's wishing you a speedy recovery Harris!
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phred
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Good luck to you and your surgical teams, Harris!
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the wife is a retired nurse.. I was reading her this post and she told me about a time years ago they had an older all american Ohio State football player come in with a stone and he cried for days.
I Enjoy Aromatics
I Enjoy Peterson Pipes
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the wife is a retired nurse.. I was reading her this post and she told me about a time years ago they had an older all american Ohio State football player come in with a stone and he cried for days.
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I got home a couple of hours ago and the urologist got the stone out but had to leave a stent in me until Thursday. This is what I dreaded, pissing with one of those in is like pissing out glass. The good thing is I have lots of pain meds and I just got in 6 100 gram tins of Solani 633 from 2002 and 8 tins of 2008 Escudo,so I have some nicely aged tobacco to smoke while I have this thing in me.
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Once they say it is time to remove the stent, they hold you down on the table with no anesthetic and yank the stent out. No amount of pain meds can keep you comfortable through this. I am so fucked.
You gave me a good laugh bud. I had a hellish time in a hospital when I came in for severe pain (internal bleeding) got some very serious pain killer shot which made it so I couldn't move a muscle, and then made me lay in a bed without any food for 3 days. Not being able to eat for 3 days was so incredibley painful that I nearly yanked the cords out and took my chances on my own (surgery standby). Didn't need any surgery and it healed on its own, the cause was never discovered. I hate how scared hospitals are about handing out pain meds now, they wouldn't give me anything better than a tylenol and I was suffering from the worst pain of my life. Now I stay away from hospitals, Harris, I feel for ya!
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I got home a couple of hours ago and the urologist got the stone out but had to leave a stent in me until Thursday. This is what I dreaded, pissing with one of those in is like pissing out glass. The good thing is I have lots of pain meds and I just got in 6 100 gram tins of Solani 633 from 2002 and 8 tins of 2008 Escudo,so I have some nicely aged tobacco to smoke while I have this thing in me.
If that isn't a case of "I've got some good news and some bad news"
Sorry to hear it Harris. Here's wishing you good meds and happy smoking!
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Thanks six, that was the classic case of good news bad news. Before the operation I was begging him not to leave that thing in me, but he explained if he didn't I would be back in there later today with even worse pain when my ureter closed up so I have to do what he tells me.
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mctrav
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Hang in there Harris you sound like a tough s.o.b. and I'm sorry you have to go through all of this. Good luck tomorrow!
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Best of luck with the stones Harris, people think I'm crazy when I tell them I'd rather have my finger broken. But if you've never gone through it, you really can't relate. Bummer they pushed the back surgery, the waiting is usualy the worst part. PLEASE let me know how you score some aged goods.
Well munch the meds and ignore the writing on the bottle, it's just a guideline lols.
Craig
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Hang in there -- Here's hoping you're back on the tennis courts soon, Harris!
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Glad you're hanging in there Harris. To cheer yourself up, I think you need to pull the trigger on this baby, which has been calling out to you and crying for a home where it will feel loved and cherished for some weeks now ("Harris . . . please buy me . . . I have no where to live ... ):
http://raddavispipes.com/store.cfm?R=0.712469607794
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