Nasty few days with a kidney stone, which involved me in a few days in hospital. So long as I wasn't hurting it was interesting enough, which with the former property developer in the next bed with horror stories about not having an NHS in Florida where he'd lived for years (great if you can pay through the nose), and about how to get the best price selling the wife's jewels when there's a cash flow problem.

And the bloke opposite told how he drives the hare on the track at our local dog racing stadium - when I asked if his driving meant he could affect the result of a race he told me it couldn't be done. "The bookies are watching too close".

I think the conversations in men's wards might be a bit different from those in women's.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting is because I hope there might be a few Catters out there who've experience dealing with kidney stones and living with kidney stones, because the CT scan showed there's still a couple lurking in my kidneys.

The doctors seem a bit all over the place in their advice. One said drink lots - and beer's as good as anything. Another said keep off the beer. One said don't take pain relief till you're hurting. Another said don't wait till you're hurting to take pain relief.