The Kidney Stone Sympathy & Appreciation Thread

Go back two days and you had me complaining to family of an urgency to urinate with nothing much coming out—an annoyance for sure, but nothing big. Fast forward through the overnight last night and me you had me losing some sleep due to some flank tightness and I’m at the store when I double over in pain. I did finish shopping (somehow), got home and unloaded everything, and finally decided to head to the ER. Nearly had three wrecks getting there, but when I got there, I stumbled into the ER and they brought me back pretty much instantly (after my scribbling a few lines of intake papers and such). 10 minutes later, I was on the drugs. They helped.

Got catscanned and they found a five-centimeter stone working its way out of me. A cousin came to drive me home. Here I am.

My last one was September 17th, 2004 at 0334 in the morning (yes, I will never forget). As before, this I blame on a few too many Diet Dr Peppers. But the doc is saying this has a genetic component to it.

Anyone else had one? Post your story and share for the non-initiated the kind of pain that awaits (think: ice pick to right kidney + numbness and flaming cramps all around the lower back and midsection).

Have a buddy who has been around the stone bend a few times.
Once coupled with a unary tract infection. A UTI is a real doozie.
You hallucinate, talk to people who aren’t there, can’t understand simple phrases, stop speaking English, forget how to read…

When asked how to rate his pain on a 1 - 10 scale, he said 11.
And this is from a guy who had a finger crushed to pulp in a binding machine.
Not a lot of fun to be had. Even after blasting with the sonic thingy, you still have to pee out the chunks.
Like peeing a grass-burr he told me.

Hope things go as well as they can Joe.
All the Best,
Jeff

Thanks. Heavily medicated right now. Sheets feeling good…the hum of the fan… :weary:

Five CENTImeters…?! Holy wow.

I’ve never had one but have been around friends with them…everyone says it’s a terrible pain, all levels and all around, and especially excruciating when they pass pieces of them. And then there’s carrying around the little funnel to catch them for lab work.

I used to work at a testing lab, got to see…all the stuff. I have to say that the range of colors and textures and shapes of all the various kinds of stones and gravel is just amazing. Like almost the entire rainbow of colors can be produced in the human body. Some of the kidney stones were almost a dull cobalt color…probably would make cool jewelry.

Prostate infection can exhibit very similar symptoms minus the sharp ice pick stabs, but it may also give a classic shooting pain that travels from the spine down to the inside of the left knee.

Hope you feel better soon and can go another 15 years before the next!

This, too, shall pass….

Damm, I gonna start drinking more water now pronto! :+1:

5 millimeters is huge…abiut 3/16” in diameter. No way it could be 5 centimeters. That would be ammost 2” in diameter. Still, at 3mm, I feel for ya. I didnt know what was wrong with me at first, and it took me a while to round up somebody to drive me to the hospital (could not walk , just stayed curled up in a ball possibly crying- can’t remember).

Mine was only about 2mm, and gave me almost the worst pain I’ve ever had. Ive also crushed my finger to a pulp, where it had to be reconstructed. The only thing that hurt worse was a stomach bug (amoeba and cytotoxic e.coli)out in the wilderness that had me nearly dead from dehydration. Apparently, super enflamed lymph nodes fron dehydration are very very painful.

Things like these will reset your pain threshold much higher than you thought possible. Things that used to hurt and make you take notice barely make you notice now.

So? He swallowed a golf ball

My mom had kidney stones years ago, and was in serious pain.

I really hope that I never have them.

Five centimeter, you gonna need surgery :frowning:

Never had one but i lost both kidney’s due to failed microfilter. I can imagine the pain but mine came from both sides.

Now transplanted and drinking 3-4 liters of water daily does the job.

Hold on RJ.

Ouch, to say the least. Good that you know the drill... but man, couldn't get someone to drive you?? An ambulance would've been worth the cost for making sure you got there safely. Hope you mend quickly, RJ.

Yikes… are you saying that a failed microfilter in your water filtration system ended up damaging your kidneys so badly that they had to be removed? I hope you’re sitting on a cool few million for that one… unreal!

LOOL No sorry, I just end my night shift and wasn't reading what I'm typing.

The kidney microfilter failed, releasing only water and holding all the garbage in. In most of the cases this condition doesn't cause any pain but sometimes can be terrible.

While I was in postoperative care after transplant I met a few guys who end up with kidney's removed due to the stone.

DRINK WATER!!!!!!!

Yeah, twice. Or was it thrice? All the times I went to the ER, I knew instantly what it was, but I needed the meds for the pain.

First was like a metsican jumping-bean that I caught in the ER. Small, smooth, eh, no problems coming out. Brought my own 2L bottle of seltzer, plus the IV drip, pist it out right there into the little screen-thingy.

Second (third?) one was like a Cocoa Krispie. Brown, jagged, like meteor-rock. Was sent home, actually caught it mid-piss. Felt it coming out, wanted to catch it, and just stopped as it was… “at the exit”… and pulled it out. Talk about perfect timing…

Might’ve been one in-between, in fact I think there was, as that was multi-piece “gravel” that came out.

And I’m always drinking big buckets of limeade, lemonade, plus tea, coffee, etc. Learned long ago that by the time you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Still, if you’re predisposed to ’em…

And yeah, the pain. Oh, the pain! Already had, and still do, a supply of HC from various procedures, etc. When I went to the ER, I was asked if I took anything for the pain, “Yeah, HC.”. Nurse’s eyes got really wide. “Ummm, where’d you get that from?” “My old stash.” It was a prescription bottle from 5yrs prior. So if I were an addict, it would’ve been gone, oh, 5yrs before, no? She told me to toss the old stuff and actually wrote me a scrip for a new batch! :laughing:

5 cm, though? That’s a freakin’ golfball…

I could picture the equivalent of…

Someone I worked with had a big honkin’ KS about as big and arrowhead shaped, so nfw was it coming out. Lithotripsy was tried first, knock you unconscious, stick you in a hottub where you get pounded with sound waves so loud you need to be unconscious, that break up the stone into pieces. Still, only smaller chunks can come out, and bigger jagged ones can jam up the works just as easily.

Then I think only as a last resort do they actually cut you open, where it’s either that or lose the kidney altogether.

Not a kidney stone, but had my gallbladder removed yesterday due to a gallbladder stone. The pain!

Great! As if I don’t have enough to worry about. So now it’s Chinese world domination, collapse of the global financial systems, meteorites, Zombie apocalypse, and…Kidney Stones.

Sounds horrible, you have my sympathy.

Lots of input here. Thanks.

So doc says at a 5cm stone, I’ll pass it with a 93% likelihood. Have been referred to a specialist. Today is better. Peeing more normally and the xray showed it was about to head into the bladder where it can exit. I am still in pain, but medicated and not near as bad now.

Good to hear rusty Joe!

I also had a gall bladder stone that was the size of a ping pong ball, but it wasnt quite as painful as the tiny kidney stone. It was removed (as well as the gall bladder itself) with surgery. I wish I would been able to keep the stone as a reminder to lay off the soda.

I’ve had 2 kidney stones. Both were too big to pass, so I’ve had lithotripsy twice. My second one was 8x10mm. After the first one, the PA told me to drink 2 liters of water every day, so I did. 10 years later, I was back at the ER for drugs.

After the second one, they did some tests and decided I had oxalate kidney stones, and now I drink 2 liters of water, and take calcium citrate supplements. It’s only been 3 years since my second stone, so, hopefully the supplements will prevent any more.

Some women who have delivered babies without any pain meds have said that kidney stone pain is considerably worse. I believe them.

I could imagine poor Hank Hill with his narrow urethra trying to pass a golfball-sized kidney stone…

“Bobby! Get the pro-pane!”