Here I am, Baker! My story in a nutshell: first kidney stone at 15. Worst pain I’d ever felt, didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me. I’ve had three kids, but all by c-section, so I can’t really compare, but everyone I’ve heard from that have had both, say the stones are worse! Until about five years ago (I’m 42 now), I had good luck with passing them, but in the last 5 years, I’ve had three removed by a scope guided up through the ureter (in three different procedures, two under general anasthesia and one under a spinal block), and 5 removed by a procedure called a “perc” wihic is short for percutaneous something or another; in this procedure, the doctor puts a needle through your skin into your kidney (under general anasthesia, of course), and then uses a series of tubes to enlarge the hole until he can fish the stone/s out through the hole. I’ve had this done with two separate procedures. My current stone, he wasn’t able to retrieve this way (he did get two others while he was in there, though), and says when it starts giving me trouble, he’ll have to cut me wide open to get it. I’m afraid I’m headed down Baker’s road: in the next few years, the kidney itself will have to go (all of this has been my right kidney; haven’t had a stone in my left one in years). I’ll tell ya, the pain is probably enough to make you wanna change your username from AwSnappity to ** AwFk.
The secret for me, when it comes to pain killers, is to not wait until the pain is at its worst to take the pills. If you don’t stay on top of it, it can be awfully hard to get on top of it without IV morphine. Thank Og I have a doctor who’s not afraid to do what it takes to control the pain!
