Living with Kidney Stones

I’m 19 years old and I have had 6 kidney stones within the past 3 years. None of them have been huge, but they certaintly suprised me.
I got my first one when I was 16 during summer and had no clue as to what was going on, but the pain was severe enough to the point where I completely overcame my fear of needles and was actually asking, or more begging for the doctors to give me pain relief. Of course, they gave me morphine, which I must say was interesting, since I was quite tired and saw weird stuff whether my eyes were open or not.

I had never felt such intense pain before this kidney stone, and I was told by most people I talked to that “most people” only get one kidney stone in their lives. That turned out to be very inacurate for me next summer, when I got three more within two months. One happened the day after my birthday party, the next happened a week later on my boyfriend’s birthday, and the last one showed up while I was at a friend’s party. That last kidney stone was the biggest, I can say with certainty. I was writhing around on the floor screaming while I after taking a full Vicodin! I saw the kidney stone when I had passed it, and it was the size of a BB. Not fun. And I didn’t know that I was supposed to grab it out of the toilet either, so I didn’t get to save it.

My last two kidney stones occurred this week. I was way up in the Boonies, in the snow, hours away from any hospital, when at 4 in the morning I felt the familiar pain. I only had advil…and every time I got up to do anything, I threw up. Even if I talked more than a couple words I threw up. So I had to get a two and a half hour car ride home, curled up in the back seats of the car. Luckily, I was able to fall asleep once I got home and the pain had subsided when I woke up. I passed the stone and I even caught it this time! It was quite small, about half the size of my last one, but it dealt its share of pain none the less. And, just as a fun stab, I passed ANOTHER one a couple hours later, so I fell asleep again. What a day, what a day. So I’m taking in my stone to be analyzed this week, so I may finally know how to keep this from happening again.