Living with Kidney Stones

Hope this isn’t too long, boring.

Male, 49yrs, 192lbs, 32″ waist, best bench 275lbs, in good shape. So I thought. Feb 3 ‘07 I hurried to the urinal to pee; nothing. Hmmm. 10mins later, bent over, mild pain. Drove myself to ER in bent-over pain. 3hrs pain, shot of Dilaudid, wonderful.

What is it with hospital ERs and pain meds? It’s a veritable mountain of pain meds and they dole them out like sacred tablets. A person’s in pain, give them pain meds, duh! Ask questions, collect the money later, for gods ask. What’s wrong with you ER people? Very annoying.

On-call uro (somebody guessed) finds two monster (his term) 22mm stones in L/R kidneys. So big kidneys were swollen. Rarely get that big. Says I’m lucky kidneys still work. He sticks in a stent, 2 days antibiotic IV, I’m out of there.

5 lithotripsies in 2007 (5000$ each), I still got a cluster of 10mm stones in R kidney. So, stupid me, I said go for perc nephro to suck ‘em out. Feb08, recovery was aweful. Pain, sweats/ shivers, dizziness, nephro tube stuck in your back for 3 days. There’s a 15mm hole in your back, like a bullet wound. They don’t suture it closed, so it drains all day. Do PERC as last resort. Not to mention it cost ~45K$ and didn’t work all that well. I still have stones.

Stent removal: I had 4 of them. I’d recommend removal only in ER. I had two pulled out in the office. I was shaking so bad they had to get extra nurses to hold my legs down. Not pain just uncontrollable shaking. They inject you with CO2 for some reason. Have you ever pee’d foam before?

Blue urine: Never saw that before. One of those drugs they give.

PERC surgery: Idiot uro nurse said “no laxative required”, and nobody checked her instructions. I didn’t defecate the entire week. Guess what day 8 was like? We got her fired.

Fighting insurance company: I bless my poor wife. Ok, it’s not as bad as 8day constipation and 15mm hole in your back, but it’s close.

Lithrotripsy: I’m an expert. 5 in one year, maybe a record. Easy. Do it first.

Today? I’m down to four 5mm stones. No big deal.

I’m on K-citrate and thiazide last 2yrs, no issues. Started allopurinol, making me dizzy. I’m wondering about that.