jducoeur

Hydrate constantly, too, and cut down on salt intake, believe it or not.

Huh -- hadn't occurred to me that salt intake was relevant. I'm already working on that one, for my blood pressure...

Yeah, that's one I've heard before, and may need to take seriously. My main concern is the amount of sugar in palatable cranberry juice. (My main liquids tend to be zero-sugar.) But I'll chat with the urologist tomorrow.

Hah! I'm a bit skeptical, but I'll live in hope...

I take cranberry pills to prevent UTIs. They aren't quite as good as straight juice, but they seem to work and they also give me extra vitamin C. If kidney stones are handled by the same acidifying effect, maybe those would work?

Possible -- something for me to keep in mind...

Very glad it is gone, and all on its own. With you and mom both getting kidney stones at some point, I will have to read up on how to avoid them.

Yep - they were saying consistently yesterday that it tends to run in families. Only answer I'm aware of so far is to remember to push water a bit, all the time. But I've got an appointment with the urologist tomorrow...

I glad it passed so quickly, and was so small! My kidney stone was the worst pain I've ever felt, so I can sympathize. And at least you could pee directly into the funnel. I had to insert a collector into the toilette and then pour my urine from that through the funnel.

Ick -- sympathies...

At least you could get rid of yours. They had to *shudder* go in the long way and get mine cut into pieces with a laser, and then I had to wear a renal stent for two weeks while the rest was flushed out. No joke.

Glad to hear you got through this quickly.

Ouch. Yeah, in the early stages they were warning me that that was a possibility, until they did the CT scan and determined the actual size of the thing. 3mm is fortunately small as these things go...

Mike went through a fun two-part kidney-stone episode about 15 years ago -- I have never seen him in that much pain before or since. Your residual ache is probably associated with some pressure-related damage in the kidney and ureter/urethra -- it should clear up.

Mike's stones were uric acid stones, which are chemically like the crystals that form in the joints when you have gout. (His family is predisposed to both.) He takes a cheap generic drug to control it, and hasn't had an attack since. If you had the more common calcium oxalate stones, you'd want to consider increasing your citrate intake.

Best thing to do is, at your leisure, get X-rayed to see if you've got any bigger stones lurking in your kidneys. The stone you felt could have broken off a larger one.

Yeah, I gather that this is why they asked me to pee through the funnel, and supplied me with a sample jar so I could hold onto it when it came out. I have an appointment with the urologist tomorrow, and he'll presumably do the appropriate analysis on it.

As for the x-ray, I believe that yesterday's CT scan checked both kidneys. My impression from reading the gobbledygook is that there are a few other stones in there, but all are "tiny", and they aren't in especially worrying places. But presumably the urologist is going to talk with me about what to do about them.

I'm glad you got rid of yours so quickly, and that they were able to give you the good drugs.

I had one when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Noah, which meant no real painkillers.... not fun.

Ow -- sympathies. I can't even imagine combining this with no painkillers *and* dealing with being very pregnant...

Glad to hear that this, too, has passed. Good luck for the future situations; at least now you know what the warning pain is like and can progress quickly to the good drugs, if it doesn't behave itself.

Thanks...

They say there is a certainly sympathetic fellow-feeling between people who have passed kidney stones—they have experienced a kind of pain that simply cannot be imagined from another's description. Like eating lutefisk.

I do hope the kidney has suffered no lasting damage.

Thanks -- tomorrow, I'll chat with the urologist about how to interpret the commentary on the CT scan...

Oh god.
My utter sympathies.

Thanks...

So very glad to hear it!

Sorry to hear you were so miserable, and glad to hear it's over (for now, and hopefully for the future)!

I've been there, twice. There really is nothing quite the same type of horrible. I would recommend taking it easy for the next 3-4 days even if you think you feel better.

Seconding the cranberry pills, especially if you're trying to avoid the sugar in juice. I use Target's generic ones which also provide a nice dose of C. Watch your calcium intake - specifically, if you are prone to popping over the counter antacids like Tums. I'm pretty sure one of my stones was helped along by the fact that I was popping Tums like candy at the time, while also taking a calcium supplement in my daily vitamin regimen. I'd say to watch your coffee intake as well, but you already do. Hydrate!!!

If the pain comes back or you start feeling UTI and/or flu symptoms, get to a doctor ASAP. One of my stones came with a kidney infection they didn't pick up on right away...

Egads. Glad it passed quickly, and may it never recur!

Had one myself a couple of years ago. I'm still not sure if I got morphine in the ER or a placebo; the original shift didn't want me leaving until 1:45a.m. since they didn't want me driving up 101 on morphine. But when the next shift came in at midnight, they had no problems practically pushing me out the door.

Was given vicoden to take home. At first, I thought it wasn't having any effects other than reducing pain. Then I went across the street to Target to get some cranberry juice. It being October, they had costume displays up, and it started occurring to me that maybe I did actually need a lifesize giant chicken costume when I thought "Maybe the vicoden has kicked in".

Never felt it actually pass, but the pain stopped so either it passed or moved elsewhere in the kidney where it's not bothered me since.

In my case, the morphine was definitely real. Took a minute or two after they injected it into the IV, and then it hit like a mule -- practically passed out at first, and was distinctly woozy on my feet for the next half-hour. But it did work wonders on the pain...