Mr Kidney Stone drops in uninvited. Again.

It was only a week and 1/2 ago (June 14th) that I spent an early morning in the hospital because of Kidney Stone pain.  Now, only 11 days later, I’m suddenly feeling that old familiar pain come up again.  This time it was around noon on Sunday, June 25th, when the dull ache of a stone began to appear.  This time, though, I know it is a small stone and don’t have to go to the hospital (to possibly have it removed surgically if it is too big).  While I was in the ER last time, they took a CT scan and said, “Bad news… you’ve got 4 stones!  But good news is they are all small… 1 centimeter or less.” 

So I knew I could just pee this one out eventually.  It would only be a nightmare living with intense pain until it passed.  That turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated – approximately 12 hours!   It was 12:30 p.m. (Monday morning) when the pain finally casually faded away.  The stone had moved (I’m guessing) from the Ureter tube and dropped into my bladder.  That’s a good thing because the pain stops.  But it means it still needs to pass through the Uretha tube… or in other words, you still need to piss it out.  That could be painful.  Or sometimes you barely feel it at all.  

At this moment, I don’t think I’ve passed the stone completely out of my body.  Why?  Because I’m still feeling a little uncomfortable and nauseous… symptoms possibly caused by this stone still rolling around in there.  Not sure.  We’ll see… 

I’ll update this post in a day or two.  

UPDATE: 

Okay, it’s a month later, not a day or two.  But, yes, I can now say I’m kidney-stone free once again.  I went into Hermann Memorial Hospital on Monday July 17th and went through Lithotripsy again.  It’s a procedure that uses shock waves to break up stones in the kidney and parts of the ureter (tube that carries urine from your kidneys to your bladder).  It was a success!   So now, as of July 20th, I’m still recovering and dealing with the usual painful after-fx of surgery.  But I’m feeling better each day.   

I return to the hospital Wednesday July 26th to have a stent removed and (hopefully) a conclusion to this adventure.  Also, the doctor said he would do a study on these stones and try to figure out exactly what is causing them.  Maybe he’ll have some answers next week.  I hope so.