A Clean Bill of Health

Jan and I visited Eli and Katy at their home in North Carolina this weekend. Eli visited the urologist on Friday and was given a clean bill of health. The kidney stone has passed. I wanted to take a picture of Eli holding a giant rock with a caption "This is how big it felt!" Alas, as with most of my creative ideas, I didn't follow through. We did learn that Eli is not alone in his battle against kidney stones...apparently this is a problem with soldiers in Iraq.
The following is from an article by James Parker that I found on the Internet:
It was stated that kidney stones are uncommon in the people under the age group of 30 however, the studies have proved that the soldiers in the Iraq most of them in their 20s have an increased risk of developing kidney stones due to their unique lifestyle. Since 1991, Linda Massey, professor of human nutrition at WSU Spokane, has studied the effects of variables such as milk, meat, soy protein, caffeine, salt and vitamin C on the formation of kidney stones.

It is seen that here the soldiers are more reliant on caffeine to keep them awake for long hour duty. The high intake of caffeine increases urinary calcium, which contributes to kidney stones formation. Iraq Soldiers are more prone to get dehydrated, the main reason for this dehydration has been stated to be long working in the hot climate in Iraq and the protective clothing that keeps their sweat from evaporating. Moreover, it has been seen that the soldiers here take fewer calories in comparison to what they burn. Even the intake of water and other fluids have been seen to be minimum that results in urinating quite often.

Iraq being more war prone area the soldiers here have really required to work quite hard. Hence, it becomes really difficult for them to guard themselves from Kidney stones. Taking more amount of caffeine and less amount of water leads to more concentrate and acidic urine that leads to formation of kidney stones gradually. In all it can be said that the soldiers in Iraq are on higher risk of developing kidney stones from other people due to their working conditions and atmosphere.

Eli will be returning to Iraq this week. He will leave home on Wednesday to fly to Atlanta and then on to Iraq. He's hopeful that his trip back will be as quick as Seth's. I will be traveling to North Carolina on Tuesday evening to take him to the airport on Wednesday. Katy will be unable to take Eli to the airport due to her graduate program at Elon. The picture above is Katy and Eli in front of McMichael Hall at Elon where Katy takes her physical therapy classes. Wednesday, Katy will be meeting her cadaver that she will be getting to know intimately over the next several months. All things considered I'm sure she would rather be taking Eli to the airport, but given her need to be at school I'll be filling in.
This next statement is made with the caution that in the military nothing is final until it's done..........that said, it looks like an early departure from Al Asad is in the works for the Virginia National Guard.....they are now planning to leave Iraq in the early weeks of April and Seth and Eli hope to be home by May. I know for Jan and myself, May can't come quick enough!