Kidney stone

[alnhwrd]

I am a 53 yoa male, very obese, 5-9 360 lbs. About a year ago I spent two of the hottest weekends of the year painting the inside of the house. I was sweating profusly and drinking water throughout the day. The day we finished I treated myself to a lot of beer and Cheetos, and went to bed. I woke up very early the next morning with an upset stomach, vomited up the Cheetos and spent the next couple of hours on the toilet with an intense need to pee and poo, even after I had cleaned everything out. I had increasing pain in my abdomen which began to be centered more and more on my left side. The pain increased past the point of unbearable and my wife drove me to the ER, where they gave me a CAT scan. When I got up from the table the pain was gone, and they told me I had passed one stone and a second was still in my left Kidney. Fast forward to present day. I have been having pain in the same area off and on, nothing serious but enough to make me notice. Early this past Monday morning I woke up with the same nausea and pain as before, from a year ago when I had to go to the ER. It would come and go in waves or surges for about two hours, with nausea increasing. I was still able to keep water down so I drank as much as I could stand. Suddenly, the pain and nausea went away. There was a bit of pain left but it had gone from about a 7-8 to barely a 1. I thought I had passed the second stone and was free and clear, but later that day I went to the bathroom and saw fresh blood in my urine. I've been drinking lots of water and most of the time my urine is clear, but most afternoons it gets very dark and cloudy and tinged red, but no more fresh blood. The pain in my side has increased to about a 2 noticable but manageable most of the time. I guess the question(s) I have are, does this match anyone else's experiance and if so, how did it work out for you? How long can I expect it to take the stone to pass, or is it a 12 hours to two month spread? Is my stone stuck in one place or does the blood in my urine mean its slowly moving and just scraping the uretha as it works its way down? Do any of the home remedies for passing a kidney stone really work or are they, as I suspect, a load of crap? Also, I have no medical insurance or means to pay for add'l trips to the hospital, I still haven't paid for the last trip, so unless or until it becomes life threatening going to the Doctor is not feasible. Thanks for any tips.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Good to see you are doing well. Dietary changes may help prevent kidney stone formation if you are prone for it. Prevention strategies for kidney stones include - Increasing your daily fluid intake, keeping the urine alkaline and taking medications like allopurinol, if the blood levels of uric acid are high. Increase your fluid intake to the point where your urine volume reaches 2.5 litres a day. This may mean drinking up to 3 litres a day, if you live in a hot, dry climate or if you are involved in strenuous physical activity. Increasing urine volume decreases the concentration of minerals in the urine. This makes it less likely that a stone will form. Also, frequent voiding and drinking plenty of water can help prevent urinary tract infection.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[alnhwrd]

So, the final chapter of the story. The pain became so strong and persistent I had a scan done. It showed a 2 centimeter (3/4 inch) stone at the junction of the left kidney and the ureter. No way it was going anywhere. The kidney was swollen with excess fluid. I had a laser lithotripsy done to break it up. The doctor told me he spent over an hour "on the pedal" actually breaking up the stone. Lab tests showed it was a uric acid stone. I had to have a catheter put in because the blood clots had blocked things up. And I had to return to the ER the next day because the catheter was even blocked up. So now the catheter is out, the stent is out, and I'm just left with figuring out how to pay for it all. I'm taking potassium Citrate for the rest of my life to keep them from coming back.  

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

With lots of bleeding into your urine, you should check with your doctor. If the stone has passed or if there is a persisting stone or if there is an infection. The status needs to be monitored.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[alnhwrd]

Actually, I think the stone is moving and today may be the day it passes. Pain woke me up about 3 this morning and there is lots of blood in my urine. So something should come to head soon. I took a couple of tylenol 3 I had left over about three and it doesn't seem to be helping much. I read about an exercise online where you stand up on your toes and fall back on your heels to (in theory at least) help the stone move down the urether more quickly. It actually seemed to help for a while, but now the pain is back. I'll keep you posted.

[ChitChatNine]

Just saw your post. How are you now?  Was it a GI virus ?  Personally I wouldn't do any of those flushes.  Your issues can be worse v better using it.