Kidney Pain Diagnosis Mystery

December of 2010, I had a UTI that turned into a kidney infection. After multiple courses of antibiotics I was finally free of infection, but I still deal with chronic kidney pain. I was sent to a urologist to see if he could find a source for the blood and protein in my urine. He could find anything wrong. Because the high pain levels made me nauseated, they had me on anti-nausea meds. I finally jumped through all the hoops to get Medicaid and was referred to a nephrologist. We have run just about every test we can think of over the last year, some of the multiple times. The only thing we haven't done yet is a kidney biopsy.
My mom, my brother, and I are running out of patience. All I want to know is why I hurt and what we can do about it. Anyone have any suggestions for what I can say to the nephrologist to help me convince her to do the biopsy? My family and I are desperate for answers!

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

The most common cause for this type of severe pain which starts at the back just below the rib cage and radiates to the front and goes into the pelvis is 1. Renal colic. It occurs as episodes of pain recurring in nature. The pain is spasmodic in nature as the ureter is trying to push through the obstruction, which is usually a renal stone. The ureter is the tubular structure that connects the kidney to the bladder. So each time the urine tries to pass through the obstruction it causes severe pain. It can be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, sweating and sometimes blood in the urine. The other causes for the pain are: 2. Pyelonephritis (infection of the kidneys) and Glomerulonephritis (inflammation of the kidneys), here you are likely to have fever.

In addition to blood tests and urine analysis an Intravenous pyelogram and a CT scan may further help in evaluation.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.