I had my first ever kidney stone on Nov. 30th on the right side. Now I’m working on #2 right now, left side. I am bad about not drinking enough water in winter months, so I’ve increased my water consumption. I have also cut out caffeine.
I went to the emergency room for the first stone after I puked and writhed in pain. I need to follow up with a urologist, and I plan to do so after the first of the year.
My question is, do any of you who have seen a urologist or have been through this have any suggestions for me. I sthere something I should be taking or drinking that could help prevent this in the future?
Thanks, Matt
Noticed you live in the South… sweet tea is a huge contributor to kidney stones.
Lots of water. You may need to be on a special diet, but they’ll prefer to know what kind of kidney stone it is to make specific recommendations, so strain your urine if they don’t already know the stone type (20% are other-than-calcium). In the meantime, lots of water. And more water.
As to your current acute stone, take the Flomax they prescribed, and drink plenty of water. If the stone doesn’t pass in a few days, you may need another CT scan or an ultrasound to look for obstruction, in which case they’ll need to go get the thing. Good luck.
I’m very afraid of a kidney stone. For the past 7-10 years I’ve only drank about a gallon or less of water per year. I drink nothing but pop and iced tea…as well as the occasional monster energy drink.
holy fuck.:eek:
Are there any symptoms of stone buildup or does it just strike at any moment?
Strikes at any moment, and hurts like a bitch. Women who have delivered babies and also had a kidney stone would rather deliver another baby.
The big contributor is the underlying bedrock. Caffeine really doesn’t have an impact on stone production, although there are other reasons to reduce caffeine consumption.
I’ve had bouts of stones every 2-3 years for last 10 years. It doesn’t get any better. The intervals have increased, but I still get them. I only produce in my right for some reason. Get yourself a 1 or 2 quart bottle or canteen and empty it every day. Reduce your SALT consumption. Your urologist will tell you the same. This is of course assuming you are producing calcium stones. They will have to test it because you could be producing stones for other, far more serious, reasons.
They are a bitch. Painkillers and lots of water dude. You might ask for anti-nausea drugs because I had the same problem with vomiting , made only worse from opioid painkillers. I just passed 2 stones myself and had 2 more busted with lithotripsy. That was the most I’ve ever had, every other time it was only one, really big one (always requiring surgery).
Even worse news, once you are a producer, you’ll always have them.
Lots of water mixed with fresh squeezed lemon.
Request a prescription for zofran (anti-nausea/vomitting) and a prescription strength laxative as well. Make sure they dont try and give you phenergan for the nausea its a shit med with a bad side effect protocol. The laxative is taken as needed for narcotic induced constipation. A kidney stone is not the time to be stopped up and straining on the throne.
I’m a calcium stone guy. I’ve passed more stones and pissed more blood than I care to remember. My trigger is dehydration so I pound the water and OJ. My personal best is a 7.5 mm stone that took about 30 days to pass. I would move every so often and then settle for a few days. Cost me two trips to the ER, three office visits and seven days of sick time. Suffice to say it was an interesting summer.
Strict diet, low salt and plenty of water. You should be pissing damn near clear when you hit the head. I usually have a good supply of pain meds on hand and pass them at home. Hot baths help and a hot tub is even better.
Yikes! 7.5mm for 30 days! I would have had that thing blasted long before that. Hard to imagine that thing would pass the urethra let alone the ureter.
Plenty of water and not too much of any one thing in your diet. Ad ninja medical said, zofran is good stuff for nausea if that’s a problem… consult your doc.
I had a 6mm that needed to be blasted out because it was too big to come out naturally. It took about a month and I needed a stint and three trips to the ER with one requiring so much pain meds the doctors couldn’t give me any more because they were worried my heart would stop!
Finally I was able to get in to have it blasted out and then had the stint removed (which is probably the worse part of the ordeal).
I hate those little bastards.
ESWL or Ureteroscopy wasn’t an option because of other issues. I can tell you I learned about a whole new level of pain. Especially when it finally passed. It was doing about 300 feet per second when it hit the strainer. Not to mention the other trailers behind it 
Typical way to do it these days would be a CT scan or an ultrasound of the kidney right away to look for signs of obstruction in the ureter. If there is, I wouldn’t screw around with it, I’d just get them to go right to to OR to go get the thing.
Not to nitpick, but for the sake of accuracy I’d point out that too much narcotics for pain doesn’t make your heart stop, it makes you stop breathing. THAT can make your heart stop, but it would require a significant level of medical incompetence for it to get that far.
Either way the result is the same 
I just wanted more because what they gave me didn’t seem to help. Of course at that point they wouldn’t give me any more so I had to suffer.
The result would be the same only if the ER personnel were incompetent…not able to recognize that you had stopped breathing, couldn’t read a pulse oximeter or know what the alarm meant, and how to deal with it (speaking of medical incompetence, insert Michael Jackson analogy here…). It’s pretty fundamental. But, they may have told you your heart would stop just because they didn’t think you’d understand the actual reason. I’ve long since given up trying to figure if ER personnel are actually telling people that kind of stuff, or the patients are hearing it wrong.
The pain from a kidney stone is hard to get on top of. That deep, colicky, visceral pain is notoriously resistant to narcotics. It’s a frustrating problem for patients and doctors.
I’ve had kidney stones 3 times and the very worst time they gave me Dilaudid which worked in the hospital and allowed it to pass w/o too much pain.
Thanks for the replies. Another member “groobash” has suggested lemon juice and olive oil. I may give that a try as well. I have the first stone in a container, and when I catch this little bastard in the strainer I’m headed to the urilogist. I’ve got zofran, oxycodone, and flo-max from the first bout. Not only do the help with the stone issue, but they do wonders for the in-laws :sarcastic:.
My urologist recommended water with a splash of lemon juice as well. I love the stuff now.
Big Mama said it was breathing they were concerened about (I was out of it) but that I was in good hands. She works at that hospital (in L&D) and the nurses and doctors were looking out for me.
She said I was pumped full of Dilaudid but they had to stop giving it to me because they wanted to put a stent in and needed to put me under. She said I didn’t know what the hell was going on until I woke up afterwards. :alcoholic: