About a week ago, I went in for an ultrasound of my kidneys and scrotum (don’t mean to be graphic–but there is more on that too). My urologist says I apparently have kidney stones. He wants me to go in for a CAT scan now. (And as long as I’m telling–I also was diagnosed with gallstones a couple of years ago.)
Anyways, kidney or gall stones both have one thing in common–they’re excruciatingly painful to pass. And I have always had a very low tolerance for pain of any kind. So far though, I am not even aware of them, oddly.
Urologist says if need be, I will have ultrasound waves to destroy the stones. And my other doctors say I can have the gall bladder out with just a tiny incision (I forget the name of that procedure just now). FWIW, the sound waves will be immediate. My doctors are taking their time with the gall bladder for some reason.
And the scrotum. When I went for the ultrasound, they had a young girl technician scan my scrotum! Kind of embarrassing, don’t you think? I would have preferred an older, ugly guy. She was looking for a harmless lump in my scrotum. And at one point she asked me to point to it(!). As I said, an older guy would have been ideal. And they could have asked me, couldn’t they?
I would appreciate any advice or even words of encouragement any of you have to offer:).
BTW, not that it matters. But I meant to say I had the ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. I finally got ahold of the doctor and he gave me the grim news about a week ago (he told me not to leave a message on his voice mail–and he is only there a couple of hours and day or two a week).
Great that you have no pain. You did not say why you were at the doctor for all these tests to begin with.
If the kidney stones are too large to pass, they stay in the kidney and continue to grow until they damage that kidney. So you are well to know this and get them out. Same with the gall bladder. Then work on your chemistry to prevent more kidney stones.
My husband has recurring kidney stones. He is a very stoic person who will rarely even take an aspirin. I saw him suffering an attack and he was white as a sheet and was begging for percoset.
He has had the smaller ones “blasted” via ultrasound and that seems to work really well.
I’ve also witnessed my daughter having a gall bladder attack. I had no idea what it was and we called 911 to get her to a hospital immediately. About 9 hours later all the symptoms had vanished. The experts said that was common, but that the attack would most like return and return. The procedure to remove the gall bladder (and other things, too) is called laparascopic surgery. They basically make a couple of itty bitty incisions and guide the tools to the appropriate spot for the snip. I don’t recall if my daughter even stayed overnight after that. It’s nothing like the huge slice surgeries that were done in the “good old days.”
From what little I know, gall stones that are ignored can cause intermittent agony and interferre with digestion. As was said previously ignored kidney stones could eventually cost you the kidney.
IANAD, the above based on only on my first-hand observations.
Never had kidney stones, but I have had my gall bladder out. Not to scare you, but mine had to come out the old fashioned way. Still, all I have to show for it is a gnarly scar. Trust me, gall bladder attacks are a right bastard. If you can get yours out before you have one, you should. Healing vibes and all that.
I’ve no personal experience in this area but everything I’ve heard says that ultrasound treatment is definitely a thing to be thankful for in this area and are in every way preferable to the old-fashioned way. I hope and pray that it works for you.
I do too. When they first made thier ugly appearance I though I had appendicitus.
However on the positive side, after my last trip to the Doctor I came home with 100 30mg Codeine Phosphate tablets. These not only take away the pain ( but as I appear to be a codiene hyper-responder) get me high as well …
A few weeks ago when the pain was nasty I took two at work, which proved to be a mistake as I just sat at my desk and drooled for the next 4 hours. HR told me next time I felt I needed to take them to just go home.
I’ve had both kidney stones and gallstones. Had the gall bladder out with the lap procedure, had the roto-rooter job done for the kidney stone (back in the 80s).
I’m glad you are getting them fixed. No one should suffer that much pain.
I feel for you. A friend of mine had kidney stones and described a couple of the attacks.
One hit him right as he was stepping off a bus in Switzerland. He said he immediately folded to the ground and voided his bladder and bowels while vomiting. The fastidious Swiss were a bit taken aback.
Another time, it hit him while he was in the restroom at work. This was a single unit on a noisy shop floor, so no one else was coming or going, and no one could hear him screaming. He curled up so tightly into a fetal position that eventually the motion detector forgot he was there and turned out the light.
On the upside, whatever treatment he was doing had much reduced the severity and frequency of the attacks since then.
I had a kidney stone and thank goodness it passed and I haven’t been bothered with them since. I don’t wish that on anyone. Drink water, lots and lots of water, it does help it pass
I went to one doctor for a physical, and the normal dude was out so they had another doctor available. I said sure, and sat in the room with no pants. A fairly MILFish 40or so female doctor came in the room, which wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I guess for lawsuits sake they have a chaperon in the room when the do opposite sex ballsack review. The assistant was a hot 25 year old chick I had attempted to flirt with at the reception desk.
The situation did not turnout how pornos suggest, and it was one of the most awkward 5 minutes moments I have ever had.
I’ve had 3 kidney stones. With the first one, the doctors told me it was pretty big. Last one was about 10 years ago. I had heard how awful they were: the pain as they tore their way through your urethra, worse than childbirth, etc. Well, I’ve never given birth, but aside from some pretty intense throbbing in my lower back, I didn’t think it was THAT bad. I’d rate it about a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. Now on the two occasions when I had anesthetic injected into my big toe to remove an ingrown toenail, THAT was about a 12.
I’m not saying I want another one, or that I’d wish them on anyone, but it may not end up being as bad as you think.
Well, I’ve told you all so much, I might as well tell you the rest. I called my doctor yesterday for the results of a CAT scan I recently had. And according to him and the test, I apparently don’t have kidney stones. (I’m not totally in the clear–as I said, I still have gallstones though.)
I don’t know what led him to believe I may have in the first place. He is a good doctor, I should say. And of course I am not about to argue with good news.
My kidney stone story… I was about 25 and woke up in horrendous pain. Like someone had punched me in the right side/back of me for hours. I could hardly breath. I stumbled my way to the bathroom (I lived in a townhouse with two roommates at the time), waking up everyone in the house. I got in the shower, let hot water hit the spot until I ran out of hot water, and collapsed on the bathroom floor. Both roommates came to the bathroom door offering assistance, but I didn’t know what was happening, was laying there butt-naked, and for some reason, embarrassed. I somehow got dressed, left the house and drove myself to the hospital. To this day, I don’t know how I did it.
I get to the emergency room, and the sign in nurse says to me "ever have a kidney stone? I say no… he said that’s what his guess would be, judging from my pain and where I was saying it was coming from (I’m also doubled up with pain.)
Kind nurse gives me 50 pages of stuff to read/fill out while I continue to die, promises to get to me asap, but they had more important cases to tend to. (WHAT?!!?! Fuckers! I’m dying here! - oh, but it turns out there was a guy that was ACTUALLY dying from a gun-shot wound. He didn’t look good. Ok, take him first).
I go to the bathroom and realize something right away. 1) I have to urinate very badly, and 2) I can’t urinate at all - just small dribblets, and 3) This really hurts. I’m dying!
So, I finally get in to see the doctor, and he takes pictures of me, and can’t see kidney stones. So he thinks it’s my appendix. But he wants to get another opinion before cutting me open (Thank you!)
Turns out, unknown to me and my doctors, my kidney stone had just broken free and began it’s marvelous trip through my body, cutting up my urethra on the way.
For three days, they couldn’t tell if it was a stone or my appendix (assumed it wasn’t my appendix since I was still living), but wouldn’t cut me open no matter how much I begged. So, since I was considered to be going to surgery at any time, i couldn’t eat. Just drink water and chew ice. For a guy that couldn’t pee, this was a worst case scenario.
On the fourth day, they saw that I had quite a large kidney stone moving and would either let it pass or sonic boom it. Two doctors argued about the sonic treatment for two days (one thought the risks were too great), so I continued not to eat, drink water, crunch ice, and would get a morphine shot once every 4 hours. With that shot, I felt NOTHING. What a great pain killer. I could sleep. For about an hour. And then, I’d wake up with the pain overcoming the morphine. I couldn’t wait for that next shot.
On the morning of day 7, they decided to give me a cup of barium to color my insides and see how far it had moved and/or if it was somewhere that they could break it up with the sonic treatment. I drank the barium, dragged myself to the bathroom, and like Augustus Gloop stuck in the chocolate tube in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, the pressure of seven days of liquid, with the barium as the final straw, blew my kidney stone out and in the toilet, followed by about 2 gallons of what looked like Tang. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more painful (the cut urethra being the major cause of pain) or exciting pee before or after in my life. Dare I say it was close to orgasmic! Much to my doctor’s disappointment, I flushed the fucker. No way I wanted to look at that thing again.
I peed blood for a few days after that, and recovered well. What a nightmare. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. And for those of you that think childbirth is the most painful thing a person can go through, I had two women who had children and kidney stones tell me that they’d rather have another kid than a kidney stone. It’s THAT painful.
Remember, as much as a child hurts, a woman’s body is designed to deliver a child. The head is round, and changes shape as it passes through. The kidney stone, on the other hand, is full of jagged edges that cut you to ribbons, and your body is not designed to pass these easily.
Whew. I feel better just telling that story again!