#15 Phoenix Open
July 12, 2025
6am, I’m laying in an emergency room bed and I’m supposed to be on a plane in 12 hours to compete in Phoenix tomorrow...this tournament didn’t go exactly as planned.
I woke up at 4am Friday morning to lower back pain that was shooting down my leg. I rolled over a few times thinking I was just in a position too long, but no relief came. As I became more awake, I realized I recognized this pain. Lower back, on one side, constant pain that isn’t getting any better with stretching or movement. I have a kidney stone. I have a kidney stone and need to sit on a 3 hour plane ride tonight...that sounds impossible.
I get out of bed, try to walk it off but nothing. Yep, definitely a kidney stone. I pull myself together and have my son drive me to the emergency room. Normally, I’d wait it out longer, but with the flight later that night, I need to get the pain addressed asap. It’s 5am when I stroll into the ER. It’s dead, they take me immediately back and start tests. Confirmed blood in my urine and CT scan shows a 2mm kidney stone on my right side. At least it’s a little one. I should be able to pass this on my own. Pain killers to get through the rest of the day and 2 prescriptions immediately filled. 1 for oxycodone, which I’m not taking, that stuff is way too strong for me. The other is for ondansetron to help with nausea caused by the pain, probably won’t need that one neither.
Feeling pretty good with the pain meds, I decide advil should be enough to get me through the weekend and pack for the tournament. The tricky part is, I’m barely going to make weight. I went down a weight class for this tournament and it’s going to be close. You need to drink a lot of water to pass a kidney stone and the dry heat in Phoenix is a lot for this rainy PNW girl, so water consumption is going to be vital, but making weight will be tricky.
In addition to getting down to a lower weight class, this is also my first brown belt division! I was promoted just a couple weeks prior to the tournament and I really didn’t want to miss my first chance at competing at brown belt.
I make it to the airport and through the flight with minimal pain. It’s only a 3 hour flight, so not too bad. I land in Phoenix at about 11pm and it’s still 99 degrees outside. I’m sweating, good for making weight, bad for kidney stones. I start downing water and by the time I get to my hotel I can feel the kidney stone pain set back in. I really need a good night's sleep. I take some advil before going to bed and hope for the best.
I’m woken up in the morning to more kidney pain. More advil, which means more water. I have one opponent and we aren’t fighting until late in the day around 4pm. I grab a small salad for lunch before heading to the tournament. With a couple hours to wait I check my weight and I’m 0.2 lbs overweight. Stressful, but should be easy to knock off. I do some jumping jacks and take the spats under my gi pants off. That is enough. I hit 152.6lbs exactly. I weigh in and immediately start drinking water. While I’m in the bullpen I can feel the ibuprofen wearing off and the pain in my back is coming back. I’m able to push that out of my mind since I have bigger things to think about. My opponent weighs in and we’re escorted to our mat.
Kidney stone or not, I was out classed in this tournament. My opponent was Brazilian and way taller than me. She pulled guard which surprised me and pulls me into her closed guard. She sweeps me over and gets into technical mount. I felt comfortable and was working to bring my knee up so I could reguard, but she was pulling on my collar enough that it hurt my neck. I wasn’t willing to push my neck mobility, so I tapped. Not too exciting for my first brown belt match.
2 hours to wait for our open class match, which again will just be the two of us.
We walk on the mats again and she pulls guard again. I do a better job at anticipating it this time, but she’s able to pull me into her close guard again. When she opens her guard I’m able to get a knee up, but she stiff arms me over and I’m on my back again. I play open guard longer than I’ve ever been able to in the past. My open guard is just awful, but I’m working on it, and slowly it’s getting better. She finally does pass my guard and gets into side control. She looks to be setting up an arm triangle and I defend it well. I think she gets tired of my defense and instead commits hard to her shoulder of justice and I hear my neck start to pop so I tap. Her shoulder pressure was very good. Luckily I think it was a good neck crack because afterwards my neck is sore, but moving a little better. Not a great showing, but nice to have my first brown belt tournament done.
Key Takeaways
- Still need to get to a smaller weight class. I also need to put more muscle on. My body is still pretty weak and my weight isn’t functional.
- 108 degrees out is way too hot. I won’t be returning to Phoenix in the summer.
-BJJ is good for kidney stones. I had no pain after the tournament at all. It seems the jostling that comes with BJJ helped pass my kidney stone during the tournament.
Current goals
Win a bracket
Score a takedown
Places I visited
My son joined me for this tournament. We kept the trip short because Phoenix in July is unpleasant so we really didn’t have much time for any extra activities.
Sea Life Arizona - We found an aquarium in the mall! It was a pretty good aquarium. We were going to go to Lego land next door, but ran out of time.
Restaurants I visited
Carlsbad Tavern – New Mexican food. After the tournament we wanted to find something we can’t get up in Seattle. New Mexican food was the perfect fit. We started with a hatch pepper queso dip that was the best queso I’ve ever had. Ender had the cowboy meatloaf and I had the lobster enchiladas. These weren’t as exciting as the queso but still good.
