Living with Kidney Stones

I just experienced my first kidney stone yesterday on the 9th of May 2008. I am almost 40 years old. I have never had any serious health issues ever. I woke up yesterday morning and my lower left side of my back hurt pretty bad. But I thought I must have slept on my back wrong. I also started the day before my monthly visitor. Since I have endymetriosis ( spelt that wrong sorry) but lets just say really bad cramps during the first two days of a period each month. So I started to think thats what it must be. I send my son off to school and within ten minutes I am on the floor and crying with pain I can not get rid of no matter how I turn or lie, or sit or stand. Nothing is working or helping to rid the pain. So I call my hubby and he comes home to rush me to the ER. I then have to sit in a wheel chair in the middle of the ER room at St. Luke’s hospital in Iowa. Waiting for my turn to be seen. I could not believe that they would humiliate me like that. Can you imagine being in extreme pain and you are being stared at by strangers as you are trying your best to not cry out loud and draw even more attention??

Finally they come and get me and take me back. And after spending the entire day and a cat scan later. They tell me my body is trying to pass a kidney stone the size of a pen head. Thank God for the IV and the extreme pain killer drugs. As I was crawling out of my skin from the pain. The first attempt of shooting a pain killer into the IV did not do any good. It did not help the pain at all. But the second time they gave me something; it did the trick.

They also gave me that filter as well. And as of yet I have not seen anything at all. So I have no idea if I passed it or not. I just hope I never feel that again. The doctor told me from all the patients he has seen with kidney stones that they all have admitted to drinking soda pop every day. I said yes, I drink diet coke I have about two to three cans a day. He told me there you go, thus you have a kidney stone. Does soda really cause kidney stones???

What can be done to try to prevent any more kidney stones???