Two words, Kidney Stones

[wa-chiss]

Holy mother of all things that hurt! I wouldn't wish this s*** on my worst enemy. Some say the pain can be compared to child birth. While I've never personally given birth (I'm not female), I believe them now. I can honestly say it's the absolute worst pain and discomfort I've ever felt. Most pains can be lessened just by adjusting your position or with pain medicine. Not kidney stones.

I walked into the ER at 4:00 am Easter Sunday fully expecting the doctor to tell me I was dying. They set up my IV and shot some morphine in there. Barely made a difference. I'm no slouch to pain either, but this was enough to bring me to my knees.

If you haven't had kidney stones, pray to God you never do. Start precautionary measure NOW so you don't get them. If you have had kidney stones, let's hear about it. I'd like to compare my experience(s).

[numbnuts240]

did you keep them?

[goody90q45]

Been there, done that. Worse pain ever. I was begging to be shot in the head to put me out of my misery. My attack came on during the summer after working multiple days outdoors in a heat wave and not drinking enough fluids. I seem to remember a home remedy drink of olive oil and cider vinegar that helped speed up the "passing". Never saw any stones in the cone but all was well in a week. Good luck.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

How does one prevent these?
I've heard similar stories about how bad the pain is.

[centralcoaster33]

Just the title alone was enough to make my groin sore. I have heard the child birth analogy. I'm very glad you weren't dying wa-chiss. I'm with numbnuts240 in the curiosity department. Did you keep them? Got a microscope? I'm going to have a tall glass of water... now.

[wa-chiss]

I have either not passed them yet or they were small enough not to be felt. The ER gave me a paper come screen (looked like a paint screen) to catch them in, it started to stain (dark color urine from the medications and blood) so I stopped using it. Just got a plastic one yesterday from my urologist and still haven't caught anything. I won't be keeping them when they pass. I'll turn them into the Dr to get analyzed to determine what kind of stones they are. That way I can work out a prevention plan.

80% (from my pamphlet) of Kidney Stones are Calcium Oxalate. If mine are found to be that, then I can cut back how much "Oxalates" I consume. By decreasing my Oxalate intake, I drastically decrease my chances of getting stones again as 50% of sufferers have a recurrence.

A simple Kidney Stone search will get you a ton of ideas on how to prevent them.

[frapjap]

I haven't had them, but my badass grandpa was too stubborn to go to a doctors office and he decided that passing them in the fetal position curled up on the comfort of his apartment floor staining the carpet in blood was the best course of action.

It was an interesting day when I was supposed to go meet him for lunch and found him in that condition instead.

[centralcoaster33]

So that's the 'cone' that was mentioned earlier. Well, I'm all for diagnoses, so hopefully you catch one.

It was an interesting day when I was supposed to go meet him for lunch and found him in that condition instead.

Hi Grandpa! Time for lunch... Ha ha! Poor guy.

[Dattebayo]

Huh. I don't eat any of the high "Oxalate" foods listed anywhere. *crossing fingers*

[ArmedAviator]

I had my first kidney stone in November. It started as a weird feeling in my lower back and inner thigh area for days. Eventually it became painful in any position. It never got to the point of crying, but I thought about it haha.

The night it was the worst, I just decided enough is enough and I chugged water like it was my job. I had a full bladder every 10-15 minutes for a few hours. Eventually the pain instantly was gone as it made it's way into the bladder. No pain after that and just heard it thud against the porcelain later that night.

Unfortunately, I get dehydrated often at my job. It's rather embarrassing plus extremely annoying to have to leave the flight deck and walk past passengers to go pee in flight. To combat this, I hardly drink until the last flight of the day and then chug.

[Jesda]

I heard some people get them and some dont due to genetics. Any truth to that?

[wa-chiss]

Yes. That can be true. There are 4 main types of kidney stones.

Calcium: formed from a high Oxalate diet (mostly)
Uric acid: low urine output, high animal protein diet (red meat), gout, high alcohol consumption
Struvite: come from chronic UTI or kidney infections (most are huge stones that require surgery to remove)
And Cystine: the hereditary ones. If your family is known to get stones, you're more likely to get these.

[jack4]

My father had kidney stones and the pain was so intense, as he was laying on the floor, he tore the rug with bare hands. Scary stuff, hasn't seen anything like it.

So how the docs treat them today? Back in the days, they used ultrasound to break stones in smaller pieces, assuming you can pee them out.

[centralcoaster33]

Damn! These sound so bad. The supposed risk factor is 19% for guys. That's 1 in 5! I hope I never get them.

[wa-chiss]

My father had kidney stones and the pain was so intense, as he was laying on the floor, he tore the rug with bare hands. Scary stuff, hasn't seen anything like it.

So how the docs treat them today? Back in the days, they used ultrasound to break stones in smaller pieces, assuming you can pee them out.

I'm not 100% sure of the current procedures. I know the only reason for the ultrasound before was if the stones were too big to pass. They gave me 3 routes since mine were small enough to probably pass.

1: They pass on their own, pain included (actually the preferred method for me). If they don't pass
2: A catheter is placed and a little flexible grabber chingadera is sent up to retrieve the stone(s) (SCREW THAT!!!) or
3: Last resort is surgery.

Just had my check-up Wednesday, the urologist says he didn't see any stones. I never felt anything come out or heard anything hit porcelain, but I'm not complaining.