My sister’s boyfriend was taken to the ER yesterday with what turned out to be kidney stones. He has a doctor’s appointment on Monday. Until then, however, we have some general questions we were hoping someone could help with.
It runs in the family - his father has had them, but his first and only attack was when he was in his 40’s. Josh (the boyfriend) is only 19. Any reason it could be hitting him so early?
What is good to eat and drink to prevent them?
The ER doc said he would probably be prone to having more. Is it possible to predict how often they will occur? Will they get worse?
Also, just any good general info that could be provided would be great.
IANAD, but I had my first bout with kidney stones earlier this year; I’m 48 (with time off for good behaviour).
I learned that kidney stones come in different flavors. Treatment options will depend on the type of stone, but I can almost guarantee that he will be told to drink lots of fluids. Lots and lots of fluids. In my case, I was told to avoid spinach, rhubarb, and “poke” (whatever that is)-not much of a sacrifice- and drink lots of fluids. Since beer is a fluid in my book, it’s a win-win situation.
Well, except for the part about whizzing blood and writhing on the floor.
Yeah, lots of fluids. If there is a lot of pain and nausea he could get meds for that. As far as getting the stone out there are a few ways it can be done. One is to let it pass. Another is to use lasers or sonic waves to break it up. A third option is to go up and get it.
As to why they happen, that depends on what they are made of (as previously stated)
I’d just like to add that I’ve just passed my first kidney stone, and I offer my condolences. I was a week and a half of on and off level 10 pain (which would only last an hour or so) then I’d be fine for a day. Finally, one day the pain came back with a vengeance. But instead of diminishing after about an hour, it lasted 5… then 6… then 7… until I was in mortal agony. I went to the ER, and was given some pain killer in an IV, and 10 mins later, i was at the top of the world. I went home (3 hrs and one CAT scan later), then 3 days later i pee’d it out.
What an experience. I turned 32 yrs old the following day. As painful as it was, I was kind of fascinated by the process of my body passing a rock. Doc says I have 2 more still, one in each kidney, poised to attack whenever they feel like it.
I asked him why I have them, but he gave some non-answer.
It’s probably nothing to be alarmed about, that he’s having them so young, but definitely nothing to be happy about either.
I’ll keep eating like crap, regardless. Can’t wait for the other 2 stones to rear their ugly heads. If I’m lucky, they’ll both go at the same time.
Another thought: Is he more active than his father? I am a guy who is either chained to his computer or the couch, and the weekend before I felt pain, I went skiing for the first time. My guess is all the falling on my ass, dislodged the damn thing.
Drink. Drink a lot. Get a water cooler on wheels and drag it around. The exact things to avoid will depend on the composition of the stone, and the doc will probably give him the details. But you can’t go wrong with water. Stones don’t build up well in dilute urine.
It seems as though they most often hit in your 40’s, although I heard once of an *infant * having them. As far as why it’s happening to him now … bad genes? Diet conducive to forming stones? Does he live in the South? His gender isn’t helping him, either.
Another thing that he should look into is the possibility he has hyperparathyroidism. It’s tricky to diagnose but it causes excess calcium in the blood, which causes kidney stones. It can be genetic, but most of the time it’s not. (My uncle has it and I’m pretty sure my mother has it, but her doctor couldn’t be bothered to look into it.)
What is good to eat and drink to prevent them?
It depends on what kind of stones he’s having, which can only be determined by dissection. Sometimes they can be caused by too much calcium, but not always.
Seeing as he’s had his first one, he’ll know if another one is coming on if he ever has one again (apparently the pain is unforgettable). Have him drink a beer or two the next time he starts getting that feeling. It pushes the stone through faster.
The ER doc said he would probably be prone to having more. Is it possible to predict how often they will occur? Will they get worse?
Hard to predict, but from what I’ve read, summertime is the big kidney stone season. He may never have another stone again, or he may be like my grandfather, whose body just wouldn’t stop making them, so they had to remove about 1/3 of a kidney. There’s just no way to know — but yeah, they can be genetic. My mom, uncle and grandfather have all had problems with them, but so far they’ve eluded me.
I’m 20, and the doc found 2 kidney stones last summer (when I was 19). My mother has had a few. According to the x-rays, I have a little pouch (diverticulum) in my right kidney where calcium deposits accumulate into a stone. IOW, I’m a kidney stone factory.
My doctor (I had my first when I was just a month shy of 22) said that they were once relatively rare in younger people, but are steadily becoming more and more common.
I’ve had six. I still have two, one in either kidney.
People talk as though it’s the worst pain ever (even my doctor was most confused why I wasn’t taking my Percocet), but really, mine weren’t at all that bad. They hurt when they first leave the kidney, and there’s a disturbing “no comfortable position” while they’re moving in the ureter, but once they find a nice place to get stuck (I’ve never managed to fully pass one on my own, they’ve all needed surgery), the pain is over. The stent left in after surgery is much more unpleasant, and getting a pre-surgery blood test is the worst of all (but then, I’ve never been able to stomach blood).
No family history of them, they just popped up in me.
“Drink lots of fluids” is the standards response, to try and flush them out. That doesn’t work for me, they always get stuck and no amount of liquid will un-stick them, but it apparently does for some people. If you get a kidney infection (as I did on my first one, before switching urologists and going to a better non-filthy hospital-- I swear, in the future, if CMMC isn’t an option, I’ll do it myself in the kitchen with a spoon before I go back to Saint Mary’s), go ahead and get to the doctor, it’s not going to clear up on its own.
While kidney stones have traditionally hit older people, 19 is not unheard of. I was 19 and 3 months when I had my first one, my mother has had them and stones seem to run in her side of the family.
It all depends on the type of stone, while fluids in general are suposed to be good, in my case, I can’t drink sodas or whatnot with caramel color, the color contains oxalates, which would help form stones in me.
The only way they might be able to predict when he’ll have more is to probably x-ray him on a regular basis, I get one a year of my kidneys and bladder since mine seem to grow at a slow rate.
Veteran of 40 kidney stones here, up to 13 mm in diameter, starting at age 19. I went through a weeks-long diagnostic program without finding a cause. I have had one lithotomy, several lithotryptsies, and more cystoscopies than I can remember. But I have passed most of them on my own.
All the ones I have had tested are calcium oxylate, the commonest kind.
I find there is a characteristic flank ache that is deep and throbbing, painful enough to cause vomiting, when they move through the ureter and stimulate renal colic. There is also a crazymaking urgent stinging feeling in the penis and elsewhere when they pass through the ureteral bladder junction (UBJ). And there is a variety of other odd feelings whose cause I can’t say.
But I have not had one in the last several years, because my new urologist - bless him - started me on “Polycitra”, which is a blend of citric acid and two citrate salts in a heavy syrup. As a side effect, mosquitos leave me alone, too. Someone who didn’t know about the Polycitra asked me if I was taking citronella. Made me wonder…
My husband gets them every so often, and his are made of calcium. His doctor always tells him to drink more water and watch his calcium intake, but he loves milk. When he was getting them a lot, he was also eating Tums (which are just calcium) like crazy for severe acid reflux, but he has that under control now with Nexium. I think it’s been about two years since he’s had any.
My mom got calcium stones. She and her doctor figured out she was eating too much tofu! Lots of water didn’t quite cut it, and after a particularly bad attack she got shock wave lithotripsy. She found the procedure mildly unpleasant, but nothing too traumatic. What she didn’t like was peeing blood for a couple days afterard, but apparently this is normal. Anyway, she passed the pulverised stones no problem, and has since laid off the bean curd a bit, with no recurrence of stones.
I had shockwave treatment on mine, and it was a lot more pleasurable than your mom’s. I had to fast for like 18 hours or something crazy like that, which sucked. But I was asleep for the procedure, and when I woke up I had a small bruise but no pain. I didn’t pee blood at all.
FWIW, the shockwave treatment only broke up part of my stone, since it’s hidden way up in my kidney. So when I come back home from school in a month and a half, I’m going to have to meet with the urologist to figure out what to do.
I had my first at 18. After that I didn’t have another until 22 or so. The funny thing is that I didn’t recognize the second, or in fact the third or fourth, as stones until looking back several years later. You see, they come on feeling similar to a muscle cramp in your side that gets worse and worse and worse, but if you immediately soup yourself up on pain killers and sit in a hot bath ALL DAY you can be in minimal to no pain.
As soon as you stop forcing those muscles to relax, though, BAAAMMM! Just something for him to keep in mind for the future. Go to the doc the day after the pain, nothing is as bad as having to sit around a waiting room while writhing in agony.