Okay I know you’re thinking why in the world is Kristine writing a blog about urination, well let me start from the beginning.
Anybody who knows me know that I’m terrified of heights. When I went on the race I decided I was going to leave my spirit of fear behind and fully trust in the Lord.
Well today I climbed a mountain, in full…in Romania! It took us a little over 4 hours, and I’m not going to lie it wasn’t easy, but it was so worth it. God has been so faithful in his promises to me. In fact, one person who was with me heard that I was scared of heights, after we had boulder climbed to the top, and looked at me so surprised. She said that she never would have guessed that I had that fear, which was a total fist pump in the air type of moment for me. It’s just so cool to see what God can do when you fully trust in Him.
Okay so it’s been an awesome day, right? Full of accomplishment and stunning backdrops, I mean I was on top of a mountain both figuratively and literally. Well we’re in the last 20 minutes of our hike down the mountain and I started getting some stomach cramps. Thinking maybe I was dehydrated I started chugging some water. Once we were done we get in the taxi to go back to the community center where we are staying and I’m starting to hurt a pretty decent amount.
Well we get back to the community center and now I’m having trouble standing. I spend an hour trying to chug some more water, go to the bathroom, and eat a snack, really anything to try to relieve the pain and figure out its source. At this point I’m lying in bed trying to find a comfortable position and it’s just not working.
An hour and a half in I’m like okay something is really wrong because now I can’t move. So someone grabs our squad mentor Teresa, who’s a nurse, and after talking with her and the doctor we determine lo and behold…I have a kidney stone! Cause you know climbing a mountain in itself wasn’t hard enough, let’s also throw in a kidney stone. It’s like someone changed the level for the day from beginner to beast mode and your girl was not prepared. For those of you who don’t know, I only have one kidney so a kidney stone for me can be very dangerous. So not the best situation especially while in another country.
Okay so Teresa sits with me for at least an hour and I’m like legit on the floor, praying hard for some relief. Finally I get like a minute of relief and am able to go to the bathroom and I pass my kidney stone. Woo hoo! Guys I’m not kidding it was the most magical moment ever! I went from writhing on the floor, couldn’t stand kind of pain, to being more than fine. I could not stop smiling and laughing, honestly I probably looked like a crazy person. I was just so amazed at the change and I was literally like man today is a good day! Funny part is for the next day whenever I had to go pee I’d get these super encouraging comments like “Yea you do!” or “You go girl!.” I never really knew how to respond to those though haha.
So all in all it was a pretty interesting and full day, but a good one! I mean I didn’t have to go to the hospital, for a kidney stone it passed fairly quickly, and I had a good support system praying for me while all of this was going on. Oh and not to mention that this didn’t happen while I was on the top of the mountain, praise Jesus, so not as bad as it could have been for sure.
Honestly it was just really awesome to see how present God was throughout the whole day, He never left my side. It’s incredible to see what God can pull us through and how much stronger we are with Him in our corner than on our own.
