Bad back or a Bad case of the Sodas?

So yesterday, I am walking around my office and all of a sudden, I doubled up in pain. Terrible pain in my lower back. I could barely walk. Now you all know me as a 'rough and tumble', 'greek god-ish', 'tough as nails' kind of guy, so it would probably surprise you to know that I was basically in the fetal position in my office. As co-workers teased me, I just sat there groaning and moaning about my fate. For about 10 minutes, I was in bad pain, but I finally picked myself up and hobbled to the car. My lower back was in terrible pain, I felt like I was going to puke and it felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. Trust me, that is not a trifecta that anyone would want.

I got in the car and started to drive home. Still in terrible pain. I had broken out in sweats (windows open, air conditioning full blast). On I-15, I finally had to pull over on the shoulder of the freeway so that I could get out and puke. I dry heaved a few times and got some nice honks from cars passing me. I got back in the truck and continued driving home. On my way home, all of a sudden, I felt my back loosening up and it was gone. Gone like the wind.

I got home, got out of the car and felt great, like nothing was wrong. The good thing about my family is that I had a dad that has had back problems, a brother in law that has had a bad back, a brother in law that is a doctor/surgeon, another brother in law that is a family doctor and a father in law that is a pediatrician. So, I had all of the advice and knowledge at my fingertips.

The diagnosis--probably a kidney stone (the ones pictured at the left are not mine, though that would be pretty cool to save one of those bad boys). A freakin' little rock wrecking havoc on my insides. My back feels great now...but kidney stones can feel like a bad back but with the presence of the need to puke and go to the bathroom as well as it disappearing after less than an hour seem to point to it not being a back problem but a kidney stone problem.



Now you can read the research about soda drinks causing kidney stones. I still have a hard time believing that Tab could cause some of these problems. Tab is so toxic that it is probably eating away all of my organs, not contributing to forming little rocks in my body. With that said, maybe I should cut down on my diet drink obsession...I will probably get fewer kidney stones, but I will definitely get more headaches and be angrier. Not sure which is the best option.