Kidney stones

Parent Cafe
1

Yesterday I found myself in the ER with what turned out to be a 5.8mm kidney stone. I initially thought I had a uti. So after a miserable day, today I woke up feeling crampy and an uncomfortable pressure. The cat scan showed it was in my uvj.

I have an appointment to see a urologist on Thursday.

Any advice or tips or war stories? How do you know where it is? How long does it take to move along? I shudder at the thought of it taking weeks or months like I’ve read online.

I already drink a lot, I’m really kicking it up and adding a squeeze of lemon to a few of the glasses of water.

2

I have had them ~20 times. I have passed all of mine except for the very first time. There is really no way to predict with each stone. A stone of that size is likely to pass on its own eventually, without intervention, in most cases. Some of my stones have passed within a week or two after the first attack. Some have taken longer. My most recent experience was a bit different. I had a few attacks over the course of 2 1/2 months, then started having blood in my urine (something that had never happened before). After about a week of that, I had a worse attack and ended up in the ER.

For the first time, I had multiple stones. Two were in the right ureter, a 5.6mm and an 8.7. The CT scan during my ER visit showed that I also have several small stones in each kidney. Not good news. I saw the urologist the next day and he offered the laser option, where they thread a catheter up to zap the stones, which can then pass more easily in smaller pieces. Given my history of passing them myself, I asked if we could wait a week and see what happened. He agreed. I was given a prescription for Flomax, which relaxes the ureter muscles to ease passage.

Armed with that and my various pain meds, I was ready to wait a bit to see if they passed. In my experience, the most effective painkiller is Toradol/Ketorolac. I also have Tramadol which is acetaminophen based, and Oxycocet which I don’t take because it makes me feel awful. Fortunately, I didn’t have to take any of them and at my next appointment a week later, I had passed both stones. I managed to get one of them, as I had been screening my urine with devices given to me at the ER. I know that the analysis won’t show anything but my urologist sent it to the lab anyway.

One thing that made this particular experience even worse is that I developed a very bad kidney infection. I was put on Cipro which works well on the infection but really took everything out of me. It took a while for me to get my energy back and feel like myself again.

Now, with the remaining stones in my kidneys, he offered me the opportunity for lipotripsy but after a rough month dealing with this, I have decided to just wait at this point. There is no way to predict when any of these stones may decide to move so if/when I decide to do it, all I need to do is call my urologist and he will arrange for it within a few days.

I drink a LOT of water, constantly with my S’well bottle wherever I go. I will continue that.

I feel for you. The pain of an attack is worse than labor pains. If you want to chat further, or if you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I’ll send you my email address.

3

Oh no! Some have said that kidney stones are the worst pain known in the human experience, other than maybe being eaten alive by a shark or having your leg cut off without anesthesia. :open_mouth: Hopefully yours is a milder version.

Feel better soon.

4

My poor child has has dealt with kidney stones at least 3 times, including as a middle schooler, during rehearsal for HS graduation (sorry, he’s busy passing a kidney stone was an acceptable excuse to miss the mandatory exercise), and maybe another time that summer before college. He wound up having lithotripsy twice, because we were trying to reduce the possibility of him having to deal with that issue at college. As a freshman, he wound up going to the hospital in an ambulance because he had yet another episode. Since then he hasn’t had any problems, and the urologist said he doesn’t need to be checked out regularly any longer. I remember his urologist suggested drinking lemonade made with real lemons, and not drinKing much soda. There are many things on the “don’t eat” list, but try telling an 18 yo male to follow a special diet.

5

Been there 3 times since 1992. I won’t give you the whole rundown, but I hope you feel better soon @eyemamom.

6

I’ve had more than 20 also since my college years and eventually passed them all --even the ones larger than .8 .I get them all on one side and i can feel them move if they are larger than .4 and can feel them down my lower back and then move toward what feels like the front near my hip bone. I had only one infection, with the first one. Drink lots of water. Take the pain killers if you need them. 5 or 6 of mine sent me to the ER for stronger drugs like Fentanyl and anti-nausea medicine. in the ER the scan would always show alittle pile in my kidney, but generally i would pass the big one and then I’d feel a couple little ones moving in ensuing weeks. The pain is so bad from kidney stones I had all three of my kids without any drugs and hardly broke a sweat. if you are trying to catch it and can then you’ll know what kind of stones you have. I’ll take childbirth over kidney stones anytime. Good luck and my thoughts are with you.

7

I had one kidney stone when I was 35 weeks pregnant. I thought I was having weird labor. The kidney stone ended up sending me into early labor. They were able to stop that thankfully and I passed the stone while I was in the maternity ward. Good luck to you!

8

I suspect this will be more than you want to know, but here goes:

I have a condition called medullary sponge kidney. My kidneys have little pockets where urine accumulates and crystallizes into stones (renal calculi if you want to get fancy). The function of my kidneys isn’t affected, thankfully, but if you look at a scan of my kidneys it looks like a starry night, with each star an embedded stone. I’ve heard a bunch of "Oh my God"s and "Holy cow"s from medical staff looking at my scans for the first time because there are so many stones. Mostly they stay put, but every so often one decides to venture forth and see the world, and I end up in the ER in excruciating pain (much worse than natural childbirth, I can attest to that–one time the ER nurse begged me to quiet down because I was scaring a kid in the next cubicle).

I’ve almost always passed them quite quickly–several times while still in the ER. I did have lithotripsy once when my urologist spotted a large stone that seemed about to cause trouble and wanted to break it up first. That left me home for a couple of days passing the pieces, which were small enough to not merit an ER visit, but large enough to cause significant discomfort, so I won’t go that route again. At any rate, I never know when I’ll have another attack, and I just hope it won’t be when I’m away from home. It’s my own personal sword of Damocles, and I’ve just learned to live with it because I have no other choice.

As for pain relief, the med mentioned above, Ketorolac, a super strength NSAID, is truly a miracle drug, with none of the side effects of other pain relievers. I’ve gone from writhing in agony to chit chatting merrily with the nurse in a matter of minutes after having it injected into my IV. Unfortunately, I’m now on an anticoagulant for life (for an unrelated condition), which is contraindicated with any NSAID, so the last time I was in the ER they gave me ever increasing doses of morphine, to no avail. Turns out I’m morphine resistant–who knew? So I sure won’t ever develop an opioid addiction, which is nice to know, I guess. They finally gave me a half-morphine half-Ketorolac mix which did the trick.

I’ve been dealing with this stuff for many years and have seen the medical advice evolve. .Early on, I was advised to avoid calcium, which struck me as poor advice for a 30-ish female. Later I was put on Thiazide, a diuretic, which was supposed to fend off the formation of stones. Today my urologist says the only worthwhile approach is to drink lots and lots of water to keep the urine diluted, though in my case I already have so many stones lying in wait that it really doesn’t matter what I do.

So find a good urologist and drink lots of water, and feel free to PM me if I can be of any help.

9

Had my first one at age 22, have had a couple more since then. If you can “trap” it on the way out, they can analyze it and maybe give more specific hints on how to avoid them. And follow the dietary restrictions – my last one was probably due to a diet change a few months before to eat a lot of spinach. :frowning:

10

Well I’m sorry for all you have experienced. Right now I just feel pressure and urge to go all the time. I don’t know if it’s still stuck at the uvj or if it’s in the bladder. I hope I do just pass it but everything I’ve read online makes me think over 5mm is nearly impossible without medical intervention…yikes…

11

DH is prone to them. Has had only one ER trip though, with the first one.
He’s had maybe 4 lithotripsy sessions over 20 years …when the collection of stones pile up.
Otherwise, he drinks LOTS of water. Small stones he does pass.
He had his first stones analyzed and was told they were calcium oxolate.
He did modify his diet a bit also.

12

Hmm, this discussion is timely as I just found out I have stones in both kidneys. There were found via catscan because of a urine sample, otherwise I wouldnt have known they were there. I am quite nervous because the urologist said I had a lot of them in both kidneys. I wonder if I have the same condition as @MommaJ ? I have an appt with a nephrologist tomorrow, and I am quite anxious. Childbirth for all three kiddos was a piece of cake. I shudder to think of passing a stone.

13

DH had lithotripsy last summer after having severe pain but not enough to visit the ER.
Tests showed one large kidney stone and several smaller ones. He did need lithotripsy as the urologist said he would be in excruciating pain if it were lodged and could not pass. He did increase the amount of water he drinks substantially and modified his diet. Apparently dark leafy vegetables like spinach and kale that otherwise are good healthy choices are not when it comes to kidney stone formation. The other stones passed although his recent visit showed some fragments still there. He takes a specially formulated supplement that was recommended by his doctor. It was developed by urologists from Stony Brook Medical School and Duke University. The lithotripsy was same day procedure in hospital under general anesthesia and all went well.

14

@mommaj found out I have the same condition as you. My doc said I have to get more calcium in my diet, and give up dark sodas. This will be very hard for me, as I dont drink milk, never have, even as a baby my mom said I would do maybe a couple of ounces at a feeding. I absolutely hate milk, and yougurt, and I LOVE coke and dr pepper. sigh…He also said I shouldnt take excedrin for my headaches. Excedrin and coke are the only things that get rid of my headaches!

15

There are several kinds of stones; calcium, uric and struvite. There are tweaks you can do with your diet to try and control if you know what type of stones your body throws off. I’ve found that if I change my diet in any significant way I tend to throw off stones. Knock on wood i figured that out over 5 years ago and so far no stones. That’s the longest I’ve ever gone since adulthood for not getting stones.

16

The supplement he takes is Theralith from a company called Theralogix. The urologist wrote a prescription and it is sent from this company every 90 days. It is covered under my flexible spending.