Kidney Stones

[Timestepper]

Long and short of it: I've been fighting a damn kidney stone since last Monday morning. Spent 3 hours in an emergency walk-in clinic Monday, then a total of 7 hours between that clinic and the E.R. at Park West on Thursday. I've been doing everything the docs and common sense tells me to do and I still can't pass the little 4mm son of a bitch! Got an appointment with a urologist next Tuesday, but I really can't afford any more time off than I've already taken.

So, since I am now officially at the end of my rope - I must be, I'm posting about it on a gun forum, for Christsake - does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get rid of this damn thing? At this point any suggestion, serious, funny or down right mean will be appreciated. I've had kidney stones in the past (last one was 8 or 9 years ago) and none of them has kicked my butt like this one. And I am so freaking sick and tired of being so freaking sick and tired that I'm about to come unglued.

Help?

[PolePosition]

Have you asked your doctor about ultrasound therapy? I've seen some patients that have had it with some success. It breaks the stone up into smaller pieces.

[TrickyNicky]

A friend of the family's suffered from numerous stones about five years ago. She had it BAD from my understanding. She's a pretty tough lady and it had her damn near bedridden.

You may try a few homeopathic remedies after consulting your doctor.

Remedies include, olive oil and lemon juice, cranberry juice, and red apple vinegar.

Hope this helps, let us know how this comes out. Pun intended.

Edited May 19, 2012 by TrickyNicky

[TrickyNicky]

Forgot instructions. Mix two ounces olive oil with two ounces lemon juice and chug it down following with a large glass of water. Cranberry juice you just drink as normal, and honestly I have no idea about the vinegar just read that it helps.

Good luck buddy.

[Timestepper]

Thanks. I've drank so much cranberry juice since Monday that I'm starting to dream about Ocean Spray commercials. I'd read about olive oil/lemon juice thing, but since I had my gall bladder yanked a few years back, I get a little leery of ingesting that much straight oil at one time.

Might try the vinegar. And I'm sure that if I haven't passed it by Tuesday the urologist will pretty much demand I do the ultrasound therapy.

Just kinda' sucks. Always just more or less muscled my way through before, but damned if this little bitty chunk of calcium oxalate hasn't just kicked the crap outta' me... and it hasn't had to anything but just sit there to do it!

Edited May 20, 2012 by Timestepper

[jcj]

Go to the nearest veterinary clinic. The family pet cat had a stone and almost died a couple of weeks ago. Three days and $800 and they fixed him right up.

Seriously, I just wanted to wish you luck for a speedy recovery. I know kidney stones are seriously miserable to deal with. I hate dealing with doctors as much as the next person, but it sounds like the ultrasound therapy might be your best bet at this point.

[Sam1]

can also try to use some AZO, think you can get it at any walmart or other store with a decent otc stock. supposedly that helps ease it a bit, even though azo is for uti's. I take that stuff for a couple of days once every few months or so, be warned though they put some kind of dye in it because it will mess with a urinalysis drug test, so your urine is orange/red for a while after taking it. guess it's just to keep the druggies away from using it for that purpose.

[Timestepper]

Well, after much further reading on da' interwebz about the olive oil/lemon juice thing, I decided to give it a try. No ill effects so far, so I guess that's a plus. If it actually does work, you can bet your sweet bippy that I'll be regaling the urologist with tales of how a plain old "folk remedy" saved the day. And if it don't work, what the heck, nothing else has either.

One of the docs I saw in the ER Thursday told me that the more jagged the stone was, the more it would hurt to pass and through the miasma of pain and nausea I told him, "Jagged, hell! I think this motherf*cker has claws!"

I'll make an admission right here and now: Screw peace on earth and good will toward men, after this the kindest thing I could ever wish for anyone is that they never have to deal with kidney stones!

[sbroomheadsr]

My urologist suggested TheralithXR to help prevent stones. I still have a 4mm that has not passed but no new formations. Kind of expensive but I have chemically perfect pee.

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[Karnage]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7fz0jpuLkM

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Edited May 19, 2012 by Karnage

[DaveS]

I've heard the ultra sound works well. Maybe a little 3F and cannon fuse if the ultra sound don't work. My other sujestion was "Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice"!

[Timestepper]

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7fz0jpuLkM[/media]

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Best (read almost the only) laugh I've had all week! Thank you.

[JeffsSig]

I have felt your pain. 8 times so far in my life.

I know its to late for you but I stopped drinking soda about 2 years ago and things seem to better. ( Knock on wood)

My last stone was 15mm long in size and 9 mm round.

I had to have surgery to remove it.

East Tn water an other parts of the state seems to have water that's just right to make stones with in some people.

I also stopped drinking tap water. In its place I buy bottle water and lemonade along with the no sodas as I stated.

I know many on the net say Uriflow is snake oil but it also helped me to keep the stones size down. I can now feel smaller stones around 2-3mm when they come out from time to time.

Also exercise will help.

I wish I had a magic quick cure for you as I do for myself as I know I will have another one day.

[Sam1]

My last stone was 15mm long in size and 9 mm round.

That's a boulder, not a stone

[nightrunner]

That's a boulder, not a stone

Honestly its real close to a .380acp round!

Think about passing one of those

[10-Ring]

I've been battling stones for a few years now. First time I ever got one I thought that I was dying. I hate going to see a Dr. but when I got that first one I drove myself to the ER. Now I know what it is and I don't panic I just prepare. When I feel one coming on and take this as you want, I start drinking lots of beer, as much as I can really. I usually go for Budweiser 55 because it has a low alcohol content so I can drink more of that than normal beer. Ingesting that much liquid and with the alcohol being a diuretic you will have a stronger and more frequent stream which can help push the stone out, the anesthetic effect of the alcohol doesn't hurt either. If you absolutely can't stand the pain you can always drink more as well, after all that couldn't be as bad for you as the morphine they give you in the hospital. The other thing that I've found that helps me sometimes is riding a dirtbike, it seems to jar everything around and can knock a lodged stone loose, if you don't have a dirtbike maybe try running or jumping rope, neither of which sounds appealing when all you really want to do is lay in the fetal position and scream. Take my advice as you want, I'm no doctor, just a guy that suffers from kidney stones. Oh yeah I've tried the olive oil and lemon juice thing as well, usually a shot glass full 50/50, seemed like maybe it helped a little. Best of luck, I feel your pain.

[10-Ring]

My last stone was 15mm long in size and 9 mm round.

What the crap man? I thought I was a tough guy for passing a 5mm. That is insane. You should sell the mineral right of your body to a mining company.

[Tncobra]

I had a 12mm stone stuck in my ureter tube, ( before bladder.) My kidney started to convulse and I went down like my spine had broke. They went up in me with something and made a basket. Busted the stone up and pulled out the basket. That's not the part that hurt. While asleep they thread a little rubber tube in your system with a knot in it. When that gets pulled out a week later, THAT HURTS.

Beer works for me flushing most of them out. Hold it in until your eyes float and blast away.

Pineapple juice is what some have told me, can't confirm that.

I feel for anyone going through this.

[DaveS]

Kind of expensive but I have chemically perfect pee.

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I guess that's a plus! LOL

Edited May 20, 2012 by wd-40

[Guest SpicyMchaggis]

This thread terrifies the #### out of me.

[Timestepper]

Wow, some pretty good advice! Thanks!

I've actually passed two stones prior to this, but the most recent (a 6X9mm) was 8 or 9 years ago. And I'll never forget that excruciating taxi ride from the Flying J truck stop in Oak Grove, Ky. to the ER in Clarksville, Tn. (or the $60.00 round trip freakin' fare!)

At any rate, when this one started in last Sunday evening, it didn't present quite like the first two. In fact, I'd commented to my wife, "This is weird, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm not nauseated and it doesn't hurt to pee, I'd swear I was trying to pass a kidney stone." Next morning I felt pretty good - even used the restroom a couple of times with no ill-effects - went ahead and unloaded in Alcoa then headed back to our yard in Knoxville still feeling fine. It wasn't until I used the restroom one last time just prior to hitting the road that things went to hell in the proverbial handbasket. By the time I got back out to the truck - which was only a hundred feet or so away - I was doubled over in pain and had broken out in a cold sweat.

Turned around, hobbled back inside and got the boss to take me to the ER clinic down the street and have been fighting the damn thing ever since. What I can't figure out is why I can't seem to pass the damn thing even though it's only 4mm. I've been pushing the fluids - drank so much damn Cranberry juice that you'd think I have stock in Ocean Spray - doing everything right, and then got hit suddenly with the big double whammy Thursday of not being able to keep anything down at all, which ultimately cost me a total of 7 hours (and God only knows how many hundreds of dollars) between the clinic and the ER at Park West.

The only plus of this whole ordeal is that at least I wasn't somewhere on the road unable to get home when it hit me.

So, thanks again for all the well wishes and for putting up with my whining. And especially for the advice and the chuckles!

...Don...

[robin48]

My wife has them and they put her on the floor. I feel for you buddy.

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[Guest Lester Weevils]

Only had one about 4 or 5mm a year ago. Took a couple of days to pass. I get sick as a dog from narcotics, so it was a tradeoff switching back'n'forth deciding whether [lots of pain + tylenol] was better or worse than [not much pain + oxycodone + "somebody shoot me" nausea from the narcotics]. Saw it in the toilet after it passed and it was a little round rock about the size of a BB.

A friend passed several stones not far apart in time and they said his kidneys had lots more waiting to drop. An ultrasound treatment cleared him up for years. They zapped all/most of the stones left in his kidneys in one epic operation. Friend said his whole back was black and blue afterwards, bruising from the ultrasound, but it was better than continuing to drop stones. That is some potent ultrasound I guess, to make sombody look like they've been mugged afterwards.

I wonder if I drop any more stones, if they are gonna want to do a catscan every time. People used to survive stones without paying $1000 for a catscan. Guess it is worth every penny to make sure it is kidney stone and not something else that needs different treatment. But now that they know I can have a stone, hope it ain't gonna be recommended to spend $1000+ every time to get new pictures made.

Edited May 20, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[Timestepper]

I DID IT! I FINALLY PASSED THE LITTLE SON OF A BITCH!!!!

It was only 4mm, but it was the biggest freakin' little 4mm chunk of sheer evil and misery I've ever experienced in my life!

Not sure what finally did the trick - whether it was the olive oil/lemon juice treatment or the beer I drank for supper or if karma just finally figured I'd suffered enough, but whatever it was... Damn! I'm so unreasonably happy, excited and down right relieved that I can't get back to sleep and don't even care!

Thanks, one last time, for all the well wishes, advice and commiseration!

Took 151 hours, 24 minutes to pass, but it's finally gone!

:woohoo:

Edited May 20, 2012 by Timestepper

[Spots]

Good to hear man. Glad your back on your feet