OT: Kidney Stones

[dc]

Anyone dealt with these little bastards before?

I experienced it for the first time last night, and outside of not having to watch the news, there was nothing positive about the experience. Still haven't completely removed the stone from the system, so I'm expecting the worst. It's already moved to the bladder, so much of the bad stuff was at least done under really heavy drugs in the ER.

Any advice on what to expect for the final passing of the stone?

[kflyer]

It's quick. Really not as painful as passing from the Kidney down. Drink a bunch of water if you haven't already. Catch that bugger if you can so you may have it analyzed. -Kevin

[ric baribeault]

Did you get an ultrasound to see if there's more?

[dc]

Did you get an ultrasound to see if there's more?

Yeah, had a CT scan that revealed a 3mm bugger 98% of the way into the bladder, and 2 or 3 more at 2mm still in the kidney. The doctor said those could eject tomorrow or 10 years from now or never, there is no way to tell.

[RobLav]

I have heard that cranberry juice helps prevent them. Good luck.

[Campbell Motorsport]

I've had them twice- not a fun time.

Mine passed in 48 hours from the initial onset of pain. Drink lots of water and keep moving, no matter how much it hurts. Your initial reaction is to roll into a ball and not move. I was told in the ER both times that movement helps the stone to keep moving. (I just about wore out the living room floor last time). The actual passing, for me was no big deal. If you haven't seen it already, you will probably be seeing some blood in your urine, it got worse for me during the final hours, but goes away pretty fast.

Good luck.

Larry Campbell

[dc]

It's quick. Really not as painful as passing from the Kidney down. Drink a bunch of water if you haven't already. Catch that bugger if you can so you may have it analyzed. -Kevin

Yeah, I have been fairly nauseated with extreme acid reflux since the ER drugs so drinking or eating hasn't been very pleasant today. It's getting better, and I'm drinking a lot more now.

[FVRacer21]

Doug,

Hate to tell you, but once you have them, you are prone for the rest of your life.

Some hints if you feel them coming on:
1. Go for a run
2. Ride your lawn tractor (passed a 5mm that way)
3. Drink lots of water. (dehydration is a risk factor) - don't know if beer counts, but it probably could not hurt?

A kidney doctor will analyze the stone (urologist also) and decide if you should be on medication.

There are two basic stones, one with smooth sides and one more crystal like - guess which one hurts more......

The latest story is a hoot:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/28/health...er-study-trnd/

Once you get over 5mm they say you have to have lithotripsy (ultrasonic blasting) to remove it, but I have passed a 6mm and it was not so bad - just lucky on the shape i guess.

ChrisZ

BTW - my first one I was on so much morphine that I slept for 2 days -but since then very little real pain - if you go to an ER they will just probably pump you full of fluids.

[HayesCages]

Welcome to the male version of child birth club.
I've had 3 bouts, all bad.
My "stones" are more like crystalline structures that absolutely rip the pi$$ out of that little duct running from the kidneys to the bladder.
First time I was getting ready for work. Intense pain, then after I was balled up on the floor for about 20 minutes and going to call 911 (I lived alone at that point) the pain went away suddenly. My lucky day.
The worst was when I had a migraine headache and high fever for 2 weeks, ended up in the ER, they didn't know what was wrong, did a CAT scan, thought I had spinal meningitis and did a spinal tap...argh. Sent me home on a really nice high though.
A week later I passed some stones that were about 10mm. Gave 'em to the Doc next visit. Actually almost threw them in his face!
Lemon juice seems to do the most good for keeping them away.

[jim morgan]

What about a stiffly sprung formula car at sebring?
That should break any of them up.

[dsmithwc04]

Sorry to hear about your stones. I had to have my gull bladder removed due to it being filled with gull stones. I thought that was the most painful 3 weeks of my life. Then I had a kidney stone 2 years later. I've always taken Calcium supplements ever since I broke a few bones playing football in high school which kind of became a habit. The hospital told me that the calcium supplements were a main contributor to the stones.

I was also recommended to try a good chiropractor. That advise sounded weird to me at first, but I will never argue against it ever again after getting adjustments from time to time. Call me crazy...

Once the stone left the kidney and entered the bladder I never even knew when it fully passed. The painful part is definitely leaving the kidney.

[dc]

Whelp, this one just came out. Shockingly tiny considering how much pain it created. Nurse asked, "On a pain scale 1 to 10, ten being the worst, where are you?"






I answered, "12."

[ric baribeault]

Most of my female patients that have had children and stones say the stones were worse. Been stated here already. Fluids. And cranberry juice tends to help prevent them

[rickb99]

Sorry to hear about your stones. I had to have my gull bladder removed due to it being filled with gull stones. I thought that was the most painful 3 weeks of my life.

Curious, have not had kidney stones (yet). But I did have my gall bladder removed about 9 weeks ago. Never had any real pain just a mild pain across my chest which told me not my heart, it was a horizontal pain and about 10 minutes of feeling like I was gonna vomit. So I went to the emergency room. What did hurt was when they put a tube into the gall bladder to drain it before the surgery (OUCH). Then to do the surgery the put a flash light in directly through the middle of my belly button. One off to the side of my stomach to put the instruments in and one slit about near my right nipple to pull it out once they got it loose.

Glad you passed the stone Doug. Medical issues are such a pain.

[Ed Womer]

That was not a fun thing! I was back from work and washing the race car off after racing that weekend and started to feel sick to my stomach. Ended up trying to throw up but not much since I was drinking a beer and just wanted to curly up in a ball. Called doctor and went over and he asked me if I had to pee which was a yes but not much would come out and he said you have a kidney stone and actually took me to the hospital.

It is amazing how quick you can be admitted when your doctor brings you in. Anyway got good drugs and the pain went away and the next morning I had to do an x-ray and they gave two giant needles of some drug to highlight the kidney which I had to sign away my life to get and while waiting for the results I passed it in the bathroom.

Latter at a follow up visit my doctor asked if I drank cola sodas which I did and he recommended stopping since a chemical in all colas helps stones start to collect. So I switched to Sprite from Coke and I fortunately haven't had one for almost 20 years. I really don't drink sodas much at all since then but do drink some coffee in the morning and water then beer in the evening. Hopefully it will be a one and done for you.

Ed

[dsmithwc04]

.......It is amazing how quick you can be admitted when your doctor brings you in.....

Ed

Nothing is more fun than waiting in the emergency room for almost 2 hours in absolutely obvious and debilitating pain only to be given an ER room and then wait 45 minutes for the doctor to see you and then another 45 minutes of observation and blood pressure monitors only to be inevitably given an IV of some sort of wonderful substance that kills the pain within minutes. I wish they could have ran that in reverse order.... Right after they spend a total of 10 minutes in the room with me they mail you out a nice letter in the mail with an invoice for $3800. Luckily a $200 prescription (8 pills in total) helps get the stone to pass within a day or so in my case.

So no, I'm not bitter at all at the current state of the health care system.

[Northwind]

Yeah, I have been fairly nauseated with extreme acid reflux since the ER drugs so drinking or eating hasn't been very pleasant today. It's getting better, and I'm drinking a lot more now.

Doug,

Get a blood serum calcium test. If you're above 10.1 mg/dl you may have an issue causing the stones. Hypercalcemia/Hyperparathyriodism. Other symptoms are nausea and acid reflux. It's about a $30 test and a doctor visit. It might be worth it to not revisit the pain index of 12 that you had felt. Drink more water to flush out the minerals in your kidneys.

[dc]

Yeah, I'm seeing a urologist on Monday, and we'll go through everything, including the analyzation of the actual kidney stone, which luckily wasn't one of those medieval weapon-looking things (mine looks to be a type of Calcium Oxalate).

The nausea/heartburn were 99% caused by the drugs from the ER. I have pretty low tolerance to narcotics, and have a history of throwing up on people in ERs. It's all gone now, and other than Flomax, no other drugs in my system.

[dereklola]

Not directly related but on same subject in general - I had two "kidney stone" attacks about a decade ago - quite painful but not a '12' as Doug said or even a '10'. One was measured while still in me as 9mm - which sounded BIG to me. Pain went. No further problems. Recently had an MRI for a different reason and report mentioned a 9mm 'stone'. Oh really! It wasn't actually a solid stone but some calcium coated organic matter. Doc said "Leave it alone". He did use a medical term which I don't remember (we rarely get written medical reports in Canada).

[stonebridge20]

I call dibs on any race car parts. It was nice knowin ya doug!

[stonebridge20]

Seriously, I hope your feeling better Dude. I "passed" one of those freaking things a bunch of yours ago and it gave new definition to the saying "like a bowling ball through a garden hose"

[rickb99]

....... Right after they spend a total of 10 minutes in the room with me they mail you out a nice letter in the mail with an invoice for $3800. Luckily a $200 prescription (8 pills in total) helps get the stone to pass within a day or so in my case.

Geez you got off lucky. Gall Bladder removal - - $96,000 for the surgery and 3 day hospital stay. Thank GOD for Medicare.

[10rmotor]

I had two of them about five years ago. Had pain near my back which I thought was some back aches that would come and go with no warning. Finally I'd had enough and went to the doctor. She had me move in a few positions, asked a few questions, and determined I had kidney stones. MRI showed one in each kidney, but one was much bigger than the other. I had them blasted the following week after not passing them over the weekend with outpatient "surgery".

A few weeks later I mistakenly was sent the bill for my total five hour stay. 48 grand!

[sccadsr31]

Ok, so slightly off the kidney organ, but I had stones in my prostate. Symptom, bleeding during intercourse, that sent me off to the doctor. The search for the cause, the stones were not obvious, resulted in a biopsy, the stones were found during the biopsy when the needle hit them, oh yah right through. My PSA was 2.1 and thanks to SCCA's medical I had a 15 year excel spread sheet graph showing the rise from 1.1 to 2.1 over 15 years. Also thanks to the SCCA's physical I had had the really fun DRE a month before this colorful event and my prostate was not enlarged and I had no BPH problems. The biopsy also found aggressive prostate cancer, that was 7 years ago. Those little bitty stones saved my life, let's hear it for stones!!!

David

Edited. too graphic

[formulasuper]

So what's the deal with blasting them? Is blasting dangerous and that's why they do not blast all stones instead of suffering thru this process?

[dsmithwc04]

Ok, so slightly off the kidney organ, but I had stones in my prostate.

Dear Jesus man! There's a visual I hope therapy will eventually scrub out of my head.

[openwheeler37]

I've had 3. 4mm to 6mm in size. The very first one I thought I was dying. Worst pain in my life. Since then I've learned to spot the symptoms and start medicating with pain killers.

Stay hydrated! Water or Gatorade or whatever

Definitely try and catch it so it can be analyzed.

A coworker of mine has had several a year for the past 6 or so years. The past 2 years he was been drinking lemonade like crazy and they have stopped. Just a thought.

Sent from my SM-N920R6 using Tapatalk

[dc]

So what's the deal with blasting them? Is blasting dangerous and that's why they do not blast all stones instead of suffering thru this process?

They blast them when they get larger than 5 or 6mm that they deem too large to pass naturally, and they know that they are there.

I was lucky mine was only 3mm. Knowing my luck, I'll probably be on a plane to Japan or Germany when they come around again.

[pepperbowe]

Scott - no big deal. Called Lithotripsy procedure. In my case, I spent THUR at Road Atlanta (MAR 2015), procedure done on FRI as outpatient at Northside Forsyth, back at the track SAT-SUN

So what's the deal with blasting them? Is blasting dangerous and that's why they do not blast all stones instead of suffering thru this process?

[quartzracer]

I too have had both Gall stones and Kidney stones. Often when they blast the stones they don't all break up into small little pieces. A Stent was needed in my urethra to make the passing of the now broken stones easier. I have to say a very unpleasant ordeal.

[10rmotor]

So what's the deal with blasting them? Is blasting dangerous and that's why they do not blast all stones instead of suffering thru this process?

The blasting wasn't really a big deal as you're obviously asleep. The real drag was the catheter that was in for two days afterwards. And holy crap was it long when it was removed!

[HayesCages]

It's easier if you just give it a yank.

[Steve Demeter]

Something I hope never to experience.

[Offcamber1]

Man, this is a tough crowd!

[glm34]

I tuned 50 last March and 3 days after my birthday I passed my first kidney stones.

I woke up around 1:00am with lower abdominal pain. It first felt like real bad gas in which I thought the runs were on the way! I sat on the throne, but nothing. As the pain increased, I got up a few minutes later started the impatient painful pace and sat on the throne once more. At that time the deep breathing of a woman about to give birth set in.

At that point I asked my wife to take me to the ER. My wife is Latina and she began to panic like Gloria on Modern family. All I heard was "mi amor"..."mi papi" I don't want you to die! I just rolled my eyes. So I finally said lets go to the ER.

It is now 2:00am and I am in some of the most pain in my entire life. I had one foot pressed against the floor and the palm of my hand pressed against the head liner with the other two extremities flailing like a bull rider! She said mi amor I am driving as fast as I can. At that time I turned into the typical guy and had to look at the speedometer. I look over and thought "what the hell". She as doing 37 in a 55! Thanks Mario for getting me there quickly.

But I the eagerness to get me there quickly got even better! We get at the left hand single turning into the ER. No one in sight and crickets chirping, she decides not to go thru the caution light and slowly come to a stop and wait for the left hand arrow to turn green once more. I tell here to turn, and her response....."I don't want to get a ticket". Ok! 2:30 am, the sound of crickets in the dead of the night, and nothing around!!!!

The f'n light finally turns green and she obeys the 5mph sign to the ER canopy! But wait it only gets better. She gets to the canopy and sees the HC parking and patient drop of sign. I tell her to stop and drop me off. She sees the $500 dollar illegal parking sign and decides not to stop!!! Wtf!! I even told her to drop me off but her Gloria kicked in and she indicated she wouldn't leave me alone. Ok!

Now remember it is 2:30am no one around and an empty parking lot. She decides to park 4 miles away on an empty lot because she was worried about someone hitting her car!! Really!! So as I took my never ending journey across the deserted parking lot and I finally got in.

The staff at Akron General was great, took me right to the room, started an IV and gave me the wonderful pain meds! My never ending journey was over. The good news is the IV they started made me pee within an hour and I passed my stone.

[rickb99]

Thank god I'm single. I just call 911 when ever one of these things happen and expert care and a driver are here within 10 minutes.

For the Gall Bladder deal I wasn't that bad off so, I met them down at the bus stop in front of my apartment.

If I take one of my falls out on the street and crack my head, somebody else calls 911. Did that again about 3 weeks ago.

[Michael Rand]

This thread is bringing some really painful memories flooding back some 25 years since my one and hopefully only experience with kidney boulders.
Motel when moving back to CT to take over GM at LRP, lying on the bathroom floor, unable to stand or walk or hardly speak.
Call 911 NOW !
The wondrous woman who ultimately lead my EMS squad at the track, at subsequently VIR, lived across the street and the volunteer gang and bus got me to Sharon Hospital pronto and the IV and meds, as many have mentioned, did as expected.
Passed the thing and had the docs analysis, uric acid, same as the reason for my at times rampant gout !
Education and respecting what you need to avoid as far as food and drink [sadly red wine is a rare drink for me ever since...].
Mom always said, "son, getting old ain't for sissies...".
She knew of what she spoke !
Man, that was a not terribly pleasant trip down memory lane.....

[stonebridge20]

They blast them when they get larger than 5 or 6mm that they deem too large to pass naturally, and they know that they are there.

That's only for non Italians.

[sauce_racer]

I'm a little late to this.. Sorry. Hope you're feeling better.
Make sure if this happens again you drink plenty of water. Dehydration makes it worse to pass and harder to get comfortable. Cranberry juice does help prevent them. Also avoid carbonated beverages, any sodas or energy drinks. The sugar crystalizes and can make the stones bigger or worse, make more stones start to form.


Ironically, you get kidney stones and I have a baby. I'm sure your pain was worse than mine. I think my c-section got me better drugs.


Meg Sauce-Hutton
SowDiv FF10

[BeerBudgetRacing]

..... and I have a baby....

Congrats!