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Question for my fellow kidney stone sufferers
So ive gotten contradicting info from my last x-ray and catscan. They were performed about 3 weeks apart. So my x-ray 3ish weeks ago showed 9 stones in my left kidney the largest being 4mm. Last thursday i had a catscan done at the er and it showed, according to radiology, at least 7 stones ranging from 1mm-7mm. Anyone know what could be going on? I would've asked the np but they were busy and just handed me the report and my prescriptions and pushed me out the door basically. I think they were a little frustrated with me bc they tried to tell me i had a simple uti and that was all bc i didn't have blood in my urine.... again. So as politely as i could in my by now constant state of discomfort and excruciating intermittent pain i explained that i didn't have blood in urine in june or last november and i did have stones then just as i have them now and can they PLEASE just scan me. So yeah i don't think they liked me too much after that. Im normally a very nice, polite, laid back person but I'm starting to get worn down :(. Anyway does anyone know why my 4mm stone would now measure 7mm? And does anyone know of any procedure that can be done on stones still in the kidney? Ive only got one in the uretur at the moment but I've passed at least 3 stones in the last month + a good bit of sediment. Im just so incredibly tired of this and feel like i need to do something. My urologist just referred me to a pain dr and told me all i can do is wait. Thats 3 ,ore probably god awful weeks away and i can't do this for 3 more weeks.
They can do Utererscopy or URS on stones still in the kidney... but, kidney stones have to be in the urine collecting part of the kidney, the parenchyma to be removed... other than if stuck in the ureter, bladder, and the junctions from kidney to ureter and the other one. I can't remember all of this. This is an intracorporal procedure... the source to break up the stone is inside the kidney. A utererscope is used with various attachments. Part of this is a long thin wand with a tiny camera to take pictures.
Also an ESWL can be done with the machine that blasts the stones apart. This is extracorporal shockwave lithotripsy or outside the body. These procedures are sometimes done interchangeably... i.e. either one can be done depending on the skill and experience of the surgeon.... one is not better than the other. Holium or something like that YAG lasers were used as the energy source to break up the stones.
You may not know if either worked, unless you see stones in the toilet... more likely some would be unnoticeable because they are more like dust and kind of blend in with the urine... for 2 or 3 weeks. I have been told some patients may pass stones up to 3 months later. You may pass stones and or dust with absolutely no pain or you might have pain, it depends on how pulverized the stones are to a large degree.
These procedures can be repeated because your urologist is trying not to do a PCNL which is more invasive... so more dangerous...percantaneous nephrolithotomy. A small hole is made into where the problem area is in the kidney and a tube similar to a catheter is put in. the tube is called a nephrostomy tube... your urologist puts instruments up the tube in order to get to the stones and get them out. These can be done outpatient or you may be hospitalized... it depends on how sick you are.
ER docs that say there is no pain with kidney stones, when people come to the ER know zip about kidney stones. You need the urologist or urology resident on call . Some doctors think patients will be addicted to pain medication and will hardly prescribe it... or the it is not strong enough, or they will not give you a reasonable # of pain pills. Kidney stones are as bad as or worse than childbirth.
Also you need to kind of keep track of how many CT scans you have if possible. They are important but have more radiation than regular old X rays.
I have not thought about this since 2008, so some of what I said may not quite be correct. If you do a search there is a kidney stone handbook by Dr. Leslie and Gail Saviz. She is deceased so I do not know if her name is on the latest edition,, but I think it is. Find the website and buy it there; it was $50.00 on amazon and should cost less than $20.00.. I think it is http://www.kidneystonehandbook.net or try .com if that does not work.
mctripat
Also an ESWL can be done with the machine that blasts the stones apart. This is extracorporal shockwave lithotripsy or outside the body. These procedures are sometimes done interchangeably... i.e. either one can be done depending on the skill and experience of the surgeon.... one is not better than the other. Holium or something like that YAG lasers were used as the energy source to break up the stones.
You may not know if either worked, unless you see stones in the toilet... more likely some would be unnoticeable because they are more like dust and kind of blend in with the urine... for 2 or 3 weeks. I have been told some patients may pass stones up to 3 months later. You may pass stones and or dust with absolutely no pain or you might have pain, it depends on how pulverized the stones are to a large degree.
These procedures can be repeated because your urologist is trying not to do a PCNL which is more invasive... so more dangerous...percantaneous nephrolithotomy. A small hole is made into where the problem area is in the kidney and a tube similar to a catheter is put in. the tube is called a nephrostomy tube... your urologist puts instruments up the tube in order to get to the stones and get them out. These can be done outpatient or you may be hospitalized... it depends on how sick you are.
ER docs that say there is no pain with kidney stones, when people come to the ER know zip about kidney stones. You need the urologist or urology resident on call . Some doctors think patients will be addicted to pain medication and will hardly prescribe it... or the it is not strong enough, or they will not give you a reasonable # of pain pills. Kidney stones are as bad as or worse than childbirth.
Also you need to kind of keep track of how many CT scans you have if possible. They are important but have more radiation than regular old X rays.
I have not thought about this since 2008, so some of what I said may not quite be correct. If you do a search there is a kidney stone handbook by Dr. Leslie and Gail Saviz. She is deceased so I do not know if her name is on the latest edition,, but I think it is. Find the website and buy it there; it was $50.00 on amazon and should cost less than $20.00.. I think it is http://www.kidneystonehandbook.net or try .com if that does not work.
mctripat
thanks for responding. The np prescribed 10 norco's for me after seeing that i did indeed have a stone in the ureter. It was only 2.5mm in size so she said that should be sufficient bc it shouldn't take long to pass. She was right but i think one of the others has started to pass. I called my urologist today out of sheer desperation and when i told the nurse my latest ct results she said i really needed to be seen. Ive got an appt scheduled for friday. I just am getting a little overwhelmed lately. Like i said I've really never formed stones this rapidly before. It is my local er and they've never treated me suspiciously, probably bc every time I've gone in over the years I've actually had a stone and or kidney infection. So luckily they never look at me sideways, although the last 2 times i got the distinct impression they thought i was just being a giant baby with a bad uti. Honestly I'm getting more and more panicky about the number of stones I'm forming lately. Im getting worried this may be my new normal and yesterday was an especially down day for me. thanks again for your response :)
kittens,
You've kind of answered one of your questions yourself as to what is going on. Some of your stones that were found in your initial XRay have passed and/or fallen apart and passed as sediment. Thus you're down from 9 to 7 stones. Regarding the other question, you either have a new, larger stone, or the one of the stones you had initialy has grown in size.
Let's understand here too kittens that after many years and well over 30 plus stones myself, I'm one of the biggest wusses you've ever seen when it comes to the pain of a kidney stone. I once had an ER doc tell me to just go home and "tough it out". I guess thankfully I was in a great deal of pain at the time or I probably would have grabbed him harder than I did because of the severe pain. After I got a shot of good pain killer, that ER doc apologized to me, stating that he never personally experienced a kidney stone and therefore wasn't personally aware how bad the pain could get. Apparently someone enlightened him and he had a change of tune!
I've learned that if I didn't take care of me and my pain when I had a stone attack, sometimes others wouldn't either, just like you're describing. I've had blood every time in my urine so there has never been a question about that with me. In your case, it would appear that with the lack of blood in your urine the ER docs are skeptical about the pain. From their perspective then, you possibly could be a person looking to score on a shot of painkiller. They get hit with the phonies looking for that too and must be careful in that regard.
If you do not have insurance, and you've been in a particular ER before, that could be the situation. Otherwise, I can't see why, after confirming that you have 7 stones now, that you would be left in the wind, so to speak. Do you have any prescription painkillers that they prescribed?
You've kind of answered one of your questions yourself as to what is going on. Some of your stones that were found in your initial XRay have passed and/or fallen apart and passed as sediment. Thus you're down from 9 to 7 stones. Regarding the other question, you either have a new, larger stone, or the one of the stones you had initialy has grown in size.
Let's understand here too kittens that after many years and well over 30 plus stones myself, I'm one of the biggest wusses you've ever seen when it comes to the pain of a kidney stone. I once had an ER doc tell me to just go home and "tough it out". I guess thankfully I was in a great deal of pain at the time or I probably would have grabbed him harder than I did because of the severe pain. After I got a shot of good pain killer, that ER doc apologized to me, stating that he never personally experienced a kidney stone and therefore wasn't personally aware how bad the pain could get. Apparently someone enlightened him and he had a change of tune!
I've learned that if I didn't take care of me and my pain when I had a stone attack, sometimes others wouldn't either, just like you're describing. I've had blood every time in my urine so there has never been a question about that with me. In your case, it would appear that with the lack of blood in your urine the ER docs are skeptical about the pain. From their perspective then, you possibly could be a person looking to score on a shot of painkiller. They get hit with the phonies looking for that too and must be careful in that regard.
If you do not have insurance, and you've been in a particular ER before, that could be the situation. Otherwise, I can't see why, after confirming that you have 7 stones now, that you would be left in the wind, so to speak. Do you have any prescription painkillers that they prescribed?
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