Kidney Stones?

[paladin]

I'd bet a lot of you brothers have dealt with some of the harshest pain know to humankind... :eek:

yup, and that INCLUDES CHILDBIRTH, ladies ( solicited from sisters who have given birth & also developed kidney stones)... :eek:

Well, I had my first MAJOR ATTACK Friday 3AM, and it:
1. sent me to the floor to my knees in tears :eek:
2. sent me to the ER
3. caused me to get injected with Morphine, Dilaudid?, & Tramadol? before temporary relief was found...I couldn't even keep still
4. still is causing lower back pain & bloody urine

CAT scan results show 2 stones in my left ureter 3 & 5 mm.

I have passed black "pieces", but no whole stones, yet.

How long will this go on? The pain is nowhere near as bad as at the onset but it feels like someone's giving me a kidney punch from time to time. :eek:

Please share some experiences and advice if you're moved to. BTW, the ER doc. made me a urologist appt. for this Monday...Thanks in advance :)

[kbuzbee]

Sorry to hear brother. My wife had them a few years ago and will corroborate "worse than childbirth" Her experience exactly mirrored your own.

If it's any consolation, she has something now (Docs can't figure out what) in her upper thigh she says is even worse! Only hits 1-3 times a days but she is shreaking in pain for a minute or two. We need to get a handle on this thing. It's terrifying.

Ken

[RanCoWeAla]

Dr. Oz said the other day that Lemon juice is the best thing in the word to prevent kidney stones. Then I was telling a waitress where I eat about that and she said yeah my Doctor told me that if I had to drink iced tea all the time to make sure it had plenty of real Lemon juice in it. Something about all the residue left in your kidneys forms the stones but Lemon juice causes these particles to have a negative attraction to one another and not form anything solid

[MacLaren]

Dude....... Dude........
I am so sorry.
Never had em and sure as **** don't want em.
Therefore, I empathize with you.
I truly do. Get better fast!

[paladin]

Ken, so sorry about your wife...she's suffering for sure if it's worse than her kidney stones :eek:

Sounds like a suspect area for blood clots, have the MD's checked that out? :confused:

Thanks for the advice brothers and the empathy, much appreciated... :)

There's several reasons behind stone formation, but I'm 90% sure mine is caused from underhydration...

I live in a pretty humid area of America & because of the nature of my job I can't drink & use the bathroom as much as I should...

[kbuzbee]

Ken, so sorry about your wife...she's suffering for sure if it's worse than her kidney stones :eek:

Sounds like a suspect area for blood clots, have the MD's checked that out? :confused:

Thanks brother. Yeah, we saw her GP Wed. She had no idea what this could be (and she had an episode rigyt in front of her) Ultrasound came back clear.

We were on our way to dinner at the kids tonight and it hit so hard I drove her straight to the ER. 7 hours later, on all kinds of drugs, they sent us home with a "theory" it's a muscle tear/spasm.

Xrays were clear, ultra sound was clear, bloodwork looked good. No clots... I guess we'll see...

It's SO FRUSTRATING!

Ken

[The Mastiff]

I've been there. I recall it causing my body to fold in half from cramps. It's amazing how the kidneys can begin doing what they do. I do know that kidney punch feeling.

Mine came with a kidney infection. It went from nothing to 104 degrees in about 2 hours. I would have lost that kidney and maybe my life if it wasn't modern medicine. I didn't feel that much in peril the couple times I was stabbed. Those were easier to understand and I knew if I didn't bleed to death I'd come through fine. Some things are not so cut and dried though.

Good luck. Take care. Any damage to the kidneys isn't good. If you get a fever go to the doctor as fas as possible. One of my kidneys is smaller than the other from the infection and begins hurting when I get dehydrated or if it gets cold.

Try to prevent when possible.

Joe

[bh49]

paladin,
I am very sorry to hear about this

[paladin]

Joe, it definitely is not something we want to go thru again, eh?

I agree about modern medicine, for all its problems it's still the best game in town...also makes us aware of just how tough & resilient our forefathers were-- cause if they weren't, you & I would not be here, would we?

Thanks to all the brothers expressing sympathy & empathy alike... :)

UPDATE, urologist performed an Xray & the stone has not moved much since my attack, he said it must not be obstructing urine flow anymore or else I'd know it...probably the convulsions my body & kidney were doing during the spasms moved it into a sweet spot & restored "flow." At any rate, he said it is ok for the very short term, but we can't leave it there long term or else I will go thru what Joe described at any random moment. So I'm set up for a "lithotripsy" (literally "stone breaking") this Thursday. Some kinda quasi-surgical procedure using sound waves. Good news is I won't have to "go under the knife" as such. Bad news, "little Paladin" will be violated by some sort of flexible, small bore :p medical probe :eek: that will snake thru my bladder up to my kidney during said procedure. I will have general anesthesia and I've had it before and tolerated it really well. But being "put under" is dangerous even in hospital circumstances, I know that. Pray for me & my family, I know you guys will!

[kbuzbee]

Pray for me & my family,

Already done, brother. Best wishes through the ordeal.

Ken

[me2]

Had one when I was 12. Hurt so bad I was throwing up and pacing the floors for 3 hours before going to the ER. Finally passed the little thing, 2mm or a little less. It might have hurt less to be shot with a 2mm bullet.

[JD Spydo]

Dr. Oz said the other day that Lemon juice is the best thing in the word to prevent kidney stones. Then I was telling a waitress where I eat about that and she said yeah my Doctor told me that if I had to drink iced tea all the time to make sure it had plenty of real Lemon juice in it. Something about all the residue left in your kidneys forms the stones but Lemon juice causes these particles to have a negative attraction to one another and not form anything solid

I can vouch for what Brother "RanCo" is saying because I have a wonderful lady friend who is a very experienced herbalist>> she has studied it for 40 years plus. She also said that real, fresh squeezed lemon juice does indeed have benefits for eliminating kidney stones. She also told me that if you can find it because it is hard to find in my part of the USA>> she said that fresh, non-sweetened cranberry juice also has extremely good benefits for kidney stones as well.

But I will emphasize that she said that both of them are optimal if they are fresh squeezed or in the case of the cranberry juice it is important not to use commercially available sweetened stuff like you get in grocery stores because it's just not potent at all she said. She also said you need a high quality juicer to produce fresh cranberry juice and do not add any sweetener at all. Her Juicer that she uses costs her about $400 but it produces great quality juice because I've drank her carrot, beet and celery juice concoction many times and it's incredibly delicious.

One of my old bosses I worked for was retired MD Doctor and he said that the worst pain he ever dealt with in the hospital he worked at was indeed kidney stone pain and certain types of gun shot wounds were bad too. He told me that the pain killers they have to use to control kidney stone pain were the most powerful you could get.

Hey Brother keep us posted and you have my prayers this evening too. I've had 2 radical knee operations in this past year and believe me I know pain in the worst way>> it's no fun being on those pain meds either because the side effects can sometimes be brutal as well. Keep us posted will you please>> and PM me if you need me to ask my lady friend any other questions that might be of help. JD :spyder: O

[pmel018]

Sorry to be a bit late to this but I am a repeat kidney stone sufferer. There are a few things to know
1- once you have had a stone, the incidence of a repeat event is about 50% higher than normal
2- there are at least three different general types of stone, if you can capture one it can be analysed, to determine its make up and lifestyle and dietary changes can be proposed.
3- most of what you read or hear about kiney stones is B.S. except for the pain thing! I typical throw up continually for about two hours, then howl like a banshee for another two, the wife is tired of the whole thing by this time and calls an ambulance.
4- herbal remedies and other things MAY help but the only thing I have found to work at all is to drink at least 2l of water each and every day. Because the water around here(SW England) is very hard, I only drink a, low mineral, bottled water from one of the supermarket chains. We used to have a distiller but the mineral content in the water killed it, I fully intend to replace it at some stage.

Good luck with the procedure, it works pretty well in most cases, but can take a day or two to recover from.
Phil

[JD Spydo]

4- herbal remedies and other things MAY help but the only thing I have found to work at all is to drink at least 2l of water each and every day. Because the water around here(SW England) is very hard, I only drink a, low mineral, bottled water from one of the supermarket chains. We used to have a distiller but the mineral content in the water killed it, I fully intend to replace it at some stage.
Phil

Hey Phil good to see you back here in Spyderville again :) If I remember correctly it is you who has that great collection of Spyderco POLICE models>> I used to chat with you about a few years back>> good to see you again Sir :)

Phil you've hit on a great point that I did neglect to point out that my herbalist lady friend also told me about and that's the importance of drinking a lot of good, high quality drinking water. Personally I have a gravity fed, AQUARAIN ceramic water filter to gets everything down to 0.02 of a micron but leaves the important trace minerals. It's been a GOD-Send for me. I've pretty much quit drinking soda-pop of any kind except about once in a blue moon I might have a Mexican made COKE ( made with real cane sugar like back in the 60s/70s).

I too drink a lot of purified/filtered water during the day>> I don't hardly drink any tap water at all. The Tap Water we have here in Kansas City MO USA is horrible. Now I do like my good organic coffee and my white tea and "rooibos tea" as well>> but those are the only beverages that I drink other than purified/filtered water.

Good quality water has so many healing and life giving properties. For all of you who think I may be wacky just sit down and think about this for a minute>> WATER> and I'm talking about good quality, pure, filtered, mineral rich water is truly the essence of life itself. Good water is truly our body's motor oil when you get right down to it. Most people here in the USA eat and drink so much toxic food and tainted water it's a wonder any of us live past 50 the way we here in America treat our bodies.

Phil is absolutely right!! Good quality water is essential to good health. And for GOD sakes don't drink any of those diet soft drinks whatever you do. That Aspartame (Nutrasweet) crap is a methanol type poison!! No human being should drink that crap at all. But unfortunately most of the tap water we have here in the continental USA is truly liquid garbage :eek:

Keep us posted and let us know how you are doing Palladin :) You'll beat this I know you will

[kbuzbee]

You guys are spot on regarding water. The "common wisdom" is 'the body knows when it's thirsty' but that is not most people's reality, today. They have been so severly dehydrated for so long they've lost their sense of thirst. By the time they actually do feel thirsty they are SEVERLY dehydrated. You need to over hydrate for a couple months to allow your body time to recalibrate. After that you can indeed trust what your body is telling you, as long as you keep listening to it.

I personally think deep source spring water is the most healthful (in glass, not plastic) and we keep a 5gal crock in our bedroom. We use an RO in the kitchen but I'll add a few drops of Concentrace to it to replace the minerals that get filtered out. Our tap water in Northeast Ohio isn't "too" bad in the winter months but in summer, when the algea blooms in Lake Erie the chlorine smell is overwhelming so, year round, we stick with the bottled and RO.

While drinking water is your best source, foods like soups, stews, fresh fruits and vegetables and herbal teas can be valuable sources as well.

Ken

[pmel018]

Hi JD yes 'tis I, :) don't do much collecting here in the UK since Ebay went all anti-knives . We can't even buy off other Ebay sites and the poxy Border agency have been seizing folding knives left, right and center. :mad:
As to the water thing, I purposely avoid high mineral content water because many of the minerals touted as health giving, actully go to making kidney stones. So the distilled water I formerly used was the absolute best for my situation. I eat a diverse diet and take small amounts of vitamin supplemets so don't feel I am missing anything there. The urologist was quite clear, 2l of water on top of whatever else you may drink, more if you exercise . After the last episode, about a year ago, I have managed to do this about 95% of the time and have had no further issues. Hears hoping.

Some basics from The National Health Service, here in the UK
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/kidney-sto ... ction.aspx" target="_blank

[paladin]

update for whom it may concern...Thanks BTW!

Lithotripsy performed @ 4 PM yesterday...I don't think it worked ( purely my opinon ) cause I've passed no gravel or sand...NONE :mad:

Surgeon said what appeared to be 2 smallish stones on initial CT was actually one oddly shaped jumbo sized stone-- in other words, no way was I going to pass it naturally... :eek:

My kidney was in distress, but the Doc ran some diagnostics & injected dye and said "no permanent damage"... :D

To help maintain flow and decrease "stricture" he inserted an 18" long "stent" extending from my kidney, thru the ureter, emptying into my bladder...

BTW there's a black string hanging out of the business end of "little Paladin" that's attached to the stent's terminal end for "manual retrieval"...sounds fun, right? :eek:

I felt pretty good last night, but I am quite sore today, as expected, and the the stent & lanyard is a presence that can be felt internally & is very annoying, but I'll adjust given time for the short term at least.

Overall I had a great group of pro's helping me last night at the hospital and things went very well so far, I believe...but it's hard to tell since I have no baseline to reference... :confused:

The positive energy you brothers shared with me tangibly helped to lift my spirits and I feel improved my outcome...Thanks for everything!

So the care of my faithful wife, fine sons, friends in Tenn., and brothers here combined for a true "synergistic" positive effect, I experienced it :)

I will let you know how the "fishing trip" turns out on my next uro. appt. Monday

[JD Spydo]

You guys are spot on regarding water.
I personally think deep source spring water is the most healthful (in glass, not plastic) and we keep a 5gal crock in our bedroom. We use an RO in the kitchen but I'll add a few drops of Concentrace to it to replace the minerals that get filtered out. Our tap water in Northeast Ohio isn't "too" bad in the winter months but in summer, when the algea blooms in Lake Erie the chlorine smell is overwhelming so, year round, we stick with the bottled and RO.

While drinking water is your best source, foods like soups, stews, fresh fruits and vegetables and herbal teas can be valuable sources as well.

Ken I've been divinely shown just how good quality water can play a role in superior health. About 2 years ago myself and my recently deceased best friend took off on a fishing trip to southeast Missouri i.e. Carter County to be exact to go fishing out of one of my favorite fishing holes of the entire planet and that being the Current River in Southeastern Missouri.

One of the Current River's biggest tributaries is rated as the biggest known fresh water mountian spring in the entire North American continent>> I've also heard that it might be the biggest fresh water spring in the world as well. The spring which is a state park here in Missouri is appropriately called BIG SPRING close to Van Buren, Missouri USA. While we were there fishing in the CURRENT RIVER we took a couple of #7 grade, 5 gallon water jugs and filled both of them. We also filled some water bottles ( stainless) that we were drinking out of as well. My late best friend Richard immediately told me that it was without any doubt that it was truly the best tasting and cleanest drinking water that he ever endulged in. And he said he just couldn't drink enough of it.

While we were there we drank that spring water constantly right out of the main spring itself from BIG SPRING. That water tasted so good and refreshing that it made tap water seem like mud puddle garbage. Other than drinking my high quality, organic coffee that I'm hopelessly addicted to :D I had no desire to drink anything else while we were there. You could just sense how pure and healthy that water was. When you drank it you could tell that it was the real deal.

Good quality spring water just like what Ken is referring to is literally "Nature's Champagne". Most of us rarely ever drink real high quality water from deep in the earth. I love the taste of good mineral rich water and it makes great coffee and orange juice and the best white tea I ever drank. I'm convinced that like Ken said most of us are dehydrated and don't even realize it>> and the reason most of us don't drink enough water is because our local tap water most of the time is pure garbage. If any of you are even in that area of Missouri then by all means check out BIG SPRING and drink some of the water :cool:

[paladin]

Update...

The soundwave lithotripsy procedure I underwent last Thur. is effective in 80% of the patients...I'm part of the 20% it fails on according to my uro. today on my follow-up visit today... :mad:

So we are keeping the stent implanted to see if the stone will migrate naturally, I'm betting it won't, for another week...

If that doesn't work, the next prescribed treatment for my particular case will be another general anesthesia procedure-- laser lithotripsy with cystoscope assist....ie. a laser will bust up the stone while a little endoscope will "scoop" up what fragments it can...this treatment is 99% effective barring complications :eek: ...thanks for your support, writing about it here helps me a lot! :)

[eidah]

Give this a try. Some people swear by it even with doctors skepticism
https://youtu.be/IIZjowyxJCg" target="_blank
https://youtu.be/8LB4cgp3i0I" target="_blank
https://youtu.be/bVjLdBw ... w&index=42" target="_blank