Is it possible this is kidney stones ~~~~

[selmaS]

I have had UTI's for as long as I can recall, scar tissue in my urethra and lower back pain. Most recently my back would spasm on the lower left side right under my rib cage and would go non stop.....I did not have pain when passing my water, just the opposite when I felt the need to go....I had urodynamics testing and was told I had a neruogenic bladder....the flow starts and stops and I have to concentrate and push as if I was having a BM just to pass my water, and it was always a slow small stream. With the onset of this pain my Dr did labs and found trace blood in my urine and gave me cipro a few days later the pain increased and nothing I took OTC helped, I called and he said go 1 more week of increased water intake and the cipro...2 days later I was in the ER for the worst pain ever.....I had a US b4 the cipro I forgot to mention, no stones were seen, and in teh ER they said the infection was clear, and I had no stones, but did have some diverticulitis ....would that be the cause of this excruciating pain? Or could it be that when the flow was slow I had a stone and it passed?I am confused and have no answers.

I was told since they did not see any stones it was unlikely....and I did have a colonoscopy a few yrs ago and the diverticulitis was not detected then, but I did have a few polyps and do need to go back for another one...

Having IBS, bowel change is hard to use as a indicator and I had back pain not abdominal pain does that change ne of this?

[selmaS]

  Thank you, now I just have to figure out what is causing the pain.....

[David Rudnick, M.D.]

Your problem is complex, but there is a very easy way to know if stones are present.  An US (ultrasound) is not terribly sensitive for finding stones, but a CT scan done without oral or IV contrast (a "stone protocol") is about 98% sensitive, so if they don't see a stone on this study, it is almost certainly not there.