Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Kidney stones and lithotrypsy

Had a kidney stone issue last Monday after work. Pain started as what I thought was poop pain and intensified from there. Got in my truck to head home and about halfway home did a u-turn on the highway and headed to the hospital. This all happened within ~ 1.5 hours. They quickly diagnosed a kidney stone and CT scan confirmed a 9mm football shaped stone in my kidney. Kidney stone pain is for real......

This is my first, and hopefully last, kidney stone. I underwent a lithotrypsy procedure last Thursday at noon. Its been 3 days and I've not yet passed the first fragment but the pain is gone. Apparently this procedure is common treatment for kidney stones. How long did it take for anyone else 'enjoying' this procedure to start passing pieces of stones?

My Daughter is a Chronic Stone maker and from what I understand lithotripsy can break them into pretty small pieces that might be hard to notice even if you try to catch them.

She compares the pain level close to having a child.

My only time (I think) was on the trip to Quemado last year. I lay in my tent almost the entire time in lots of pain, drinking a lot, trying to pass a stone. Long way to a Dr. but after I got home, feeling better but not good, I went to the DR. They did lots of tests and said no kidney stone, but they did not know what happened. I think that I passed it somewhere on the trip home, but do not know when. Randy drove me and His Son Allen was nice enough to follow and let me ride. From all the descriptions that I have ever heard, that is what I had. As soon as we got where it was available, I started drinking Cranberry juice. As much as I could. miles

Good advice on the Cranberry. My Daughter's Doctor told her to drink only filtered water and get in the habit of drinking lots of Cranberry Juice, Lemonade and Orange Juice, the Citric Acid helps to dissolve the Stones as they are trying to form.

My brother in law gets them on occasion. He reports now that if the stone can be recovered, they can analyze it, and possibly suggest ways to prevent forming them.

I have had that procedure done twice in my lifetime. It can vary how long it takes for the stones to pass. They do get broken up very small. If your not trying to actively look for them you may not see them. My one doctor gave me a strainer I had to pee into to collect the stones. This was so they could analyze them and see what they were made from.
The cranberry juice advice is a good one. I drink a big glass every morning. Good luck with passing them. Anyone who has had them feels your pain. Literally!!!

It was interesting for me to find out they are not all the same in composition. Just like in Geology, the composition of the stones can determine the source.

Stones are the worst, for sure. I got one last fall from drinking waaaaaay too much coffee and sweet tea and no water. In addition to cranberry juice, I'd mix a capful of lemon juice with a big glass of water. That helped a lot.

Last weeks, 2 children, I gave birth to.

Holy cow! Those pained me just looking at them. I guess the real bad ones are shaped like a "Goathead Sticker" thorn and can get stuck causing lots of scar damage and create even more problems later.

I've had Litho 3 times and they've gone in with the grabber/basket thingy a couple of times, so I'm familiar with being violated in this fashion.

Usually after Litho, I'll have some sand to pass almost immediately after the procedure. Then off and on over a week or two, I'll continue to pass fragments of busted up stone.

Water is also the key, you need to be drinking an obscene amount of water. The more water you drink, the better chance you have at flushing those fragments out. I'm talking like a gallon a day minimum.

One thing that can happen is for one piece of stone to get lodged in the ureter and other fragments will log jam up behind it. They'll probably take some more pictures in a week or two to see if there are any stuck in the ureter. Chances of that are low if you're drinking lots of water.

If they did a real good job of busting up the stone, you might not feel any pass. With me, there's always a couple pieces big enough to feel or hear go "ka-chink" when they hit the bowl.

Try not to fret about it, the worst part is over now that the pain is gone. Even if they gotta go in and get the fragments, it doesn't hurt compared to the "kidney stone pain" that you experienced.

I've been in as staff or observer on the procedure several times in my younger days... I've never had one, but have passed stones once in my life... was like pissing razor blades, that's for sure...

those pics of kidney stones hurt just to look at... but it hurt like hell to pass those...

funny how something little can bring even the biggest man down to his knees in pain...

Wowza! Ouch. I'm really looking forward to passing mine. Not.....

I'm passing all urine through a strainer with mesh so fine the liquid doesn't flow right through it - there's zero chance something is passing through. I had no pink urine after the procedure, no sand or other particles, nothing. I'm thinking I have an intact stone and a bruised kidney......

I've had them three times. The second time around the stone was too big to pass so they broke it up. I spent the next five days in the hospital passing five or six smaller stones that about did me in.

This is a guess, but if there's no pink urine, that probably means the stone was hung up in the upper ureter and that's where they blasted it. Usually, if they had to whack the kidney with Litho, you'd be peeing tomato soup for a day or two. When it's in the ureter, they probably don't hit it as many times as they do when it's in the kidney, so they might have just broken it up into a few pieces instead of sand. That means you might have a few pieces of 2mm-3mm stone to get rid of, and that might take some time. Even though they're smaller, they still catch on the way down and take their sweet time..

I've had them take weeks to make their way down the ureter, some take days. Every stone is different.

Now 72, I had two bouts with kidney stones. Toughed it out, both times, with no medical help. Put me on my knees, throwing up in the toilet. Now I make it a habit to force down a couple glasses of water, first thing every morning.

Same here, I'm a water junkie now....

It was in my kidney - I saw the CT scan. It was stuck at the kidney- ureter junction. I was told to expect blood/pink urine. I got neither. Curiously the pain is mostly gone. A very dull lower backache on the left side.

I'll call tomorrow to see what the good news is. I'm sure it will be great......