The Horror, the Horror: Stent Removal, Part II

So yesterday it was time for my stent to be removed. To refresh your memory, I had the stent put in early last week when the monster stone was obliterated. This stent, thankfully, did not have any drawstrings attached to it, so the removal needed to be done in the urologist's office.

I was called back, gave a urine sample, and was taken to the back room. This room has a small chair area for the patient. It reminded me of a birthing room. I was told to remove everything below my waist and have a seat. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?" I asked. "It won't hurt, but it certainly won't be very comfortable. Are you sure you don't want your mom back here with you? If this were happening to me, I'd definitely want someone back here with me," the nurse responded. Naturally, I came back with: "So it is going to hurt!"

I had some topical numbing cream, but it did no good. It numbed the outside of ... where they were. But they weren't sticking tools along the outside. The outside didn't hurt. What did hurt was the scope going in and coming out with the stent. The urologist asked if I had ever seen a stent after he had pulled it out. I curtly reminded him that I had one removed at home awhile back. I think he took the hint and realized how traumatizing this whole experience was. I can honestly say though that it was in fact much easier in the doctor's office than doing it at home. I had spasms again afterward, but percocet knocked them out yesterday, and they didn't return this morning.

It's funny, though; being on percocet is much more enjoyable when I don't have classes to attend, finals to prepare for, or finals to take.

One other thing: the urologist gave me a couple pills to ease the burning during urination. They have one weird side-effect though: blue urine. For some reason these pills turn your urine blue. I'm guessing most of you have never had the privilege of peeing in any color other than yellow, clear, or maybe a little red. Let me tell you, blue really freaks you out when the urination occurs. It's really weird.

On a different note, I had my orientation at the University of Akron on Tuesday. It was, in a word, fantastic. It was 100% better than Ohio State. When dealing with my academic advisor at OSU, I always felt I was more of an obligation that she wanted to deal with as quickly as possible so that she could get back to her research. At Akron, my advisor and I went through and scheduled all of my classes together right then and there. Later, an advisor in the Honors Department got hold of me and had me brought to his office. It turns out whoever was in charge of checking me in did not check "Honors" on my card, so my advisor did not schedule me for Honors classes. The Honors guy, the head Honors advisor, then rescheduled all of my classes with me. I didn't want to go back to the group and sit through a boring presentation so I asked a few extra questions, and he decided to take me on a tour of the Honors building. It was pretty great.

I know what you're thinking: "Hey man, how did this guy know you scheduled incorrectly after just a few hours?" As it turns out, he knew that one of the classes I needed was closing quickly, so he was registering me for it. Himself. Just to make sure I would get into it. The head advisor in the Honors department. How crazy is that?

It's good he caught me, too. As it turns out, Honors status gets me out of a lot of General Education classes that regular students have to take and honors students do not need to take. So my schedule is a lot better than it would have been. And my future classes are going to be a lot better than they would have been. No Intro. to Speech. No Western Civ. No Eastern Civ.

Good times, and Go Zips! -IW