Living with Kidney Stones

My husband was diagnosed with kidney stones in November of 2006 at the age of 22. His family has a history of uric acid stones and gout so he knew what to expect when having a stone. No one thought anything of it until things started to get worse.

Whenever your doctor suspects you have a kidney stone, it is likely that you will be given a CT scan to determine the size of the stone. My husband’s first CT scan showed about a half dozen small stones which were determined to be uric acid after the first stone was passed. It was expected that he would pass these stones over the next 5-10 years of his life. This unfortunately, was not the case.

Over the next two months, not only did my husband pass the stones previously seen on the CT scan, but every CT scan showed more and more stones. By January of 2007, my husband had been hospitalized nearly a dozen times and passed many more stones on narcotics at home between hospital stays. He had also had 2 basket extractions performed when each kidney began to fail on separate occasions due to blockage of the ureter from large stones. Basket extractions had to be performed because uric acid stones don’t show up on x-ray which is required to be able to use the lithotripsy treatment.

My husband’s first urologist prescribed him Alopurinol, which is prescribed for gout and uric acid stones. This medication seemed to help, at least for a while. From January to November of 2007 my husband had no more kidney stone attacks. In November, however, things got worse again.

He was back in the hospital with kidney stones every couple of weeks. The urologist decided to take him off Alopurinol and try a new medication, Urocet K. This medication is used to alkalinize the urine and the side effects are unbearable for my husband. It makes him feel sick to his stomach, tired, and genereally terrible so he does not take the medication as often as he should.

So from November of 2007 until today, March 2008, my husband has been passing stones basically constantly. We joke that he is making sandcastles when he goes to the bathroom because he is always passing crystals that look like sand. None of the doctors in our area have ever heard of anyone passing so many stones constantly like my husband has.

If anyone out there has experienced anything similar or had luck with any treatments for uric acid stones, please post your story. I’m afraid that my husband’s body won’t be able to take this for much longer.

Thank you.