Last night, the pain in my back grew to a very uncomfortable level. I walked in from the car and hugged Mr. S. I sat down at the computer and looked up “kidney stones” on webmd.com. I fainted.
The next thing I know, Mr. S is hovering over me and I’m on the floor (the bruises today are the lovliest shade of purple, BTW). I am shaking violently and hyperventilating. He calls 911 and the nicest, funniest, most wonderful guys show up to stick me in the hand and take me to the hospital.
We sat around. They drew my blood, they took my pee, and like, every other person asked me if, when I fainted, I “lost control of myself”. I was happy to say no. Oh, so happy. Especially since the ambulance drivers were all cute and whatnot.
Ok, so we were at the hospital until four in the morning. I had to be diverted to a hospital out in East Jesus since there was/is a bit of an anthrax scare at the place I wanted to go.
The doctor didn’t catch the raging urinary tract infection (“off the scale,” said the nurse practioner I saw today at my GP’s clinic) or the blood in my urine.
Consensus: I passed a stone last night, probably.
Thoughts: I had a bad doctor at the hospital. And, passing kidney stones is not a fun thing to do, really.
Also, I thought it was kind of strange that I was given Cipro. Aren’t they trying to bogard that stuff right now or something? Or shouldn’t they be?
You are lucky, you only had one stone. I had 12. The difference being that my ureter was blocked so I couldn’t pass them. That doesn’t meant they didn’t try though. I finally had surgery to fix it all, Afer about 3 years of suffering. At least I have an extremely high level of pain tolerance now. I’d be willing to bet that you do too.
My sympathies to all. I am still undergoing treatment myself, and I can honestly say that passing stones is the worst pain I have ever felt. My urologist said he had had female patients tell him it was worse than bearing their children.( and I once had a coworker tell me that labor was like trying to sh*t a watermelon)Anyone else had threelithotripsy treatments?
Ouchie Sophie, sure hope you’re feeling better. I’ve seen people go into shock from the pain of passing kidney stones. Personally, I’d much rather have another baby than have to pass a stone.
I also used to get some nasty UTI’s. Now I avoid baths, pee immediately after sex and drink lots of cranberry juice-it must work because it’s been years since I’ve had any more bladder infections.
Oh, Sophie, my condolences. That sounds awful. I second shell’s mention of cranberry juice. Back when I was prone, it really seemed to help. I also feel bad about saying that I beat you in the Atkins Diet thread. I was just kidding around, but now it feels like bad karma to tease the sick person. I also wonder if you and your nurse practioner think the stones are related to your diet. I hope not.
Hey, what were you doing hugging Mr. S? He said he was going for ice cream.
Oh, wait, you mean mine’s not the only one? Oh.
Anyway, commiseration on the kidney stone. I’ve had three myself, and I had to call my Mr. S out of class to come and take me to the clinic for the first one. Not fun. No sirreebob, not fun at all.
You know, cranberry juice isn’t really that useful. Unless you drink about three gallons of it a day. My doctor said that I should just drink lots of fluids. I guess cranberry juice could work for that, but I don’t think it tastes very good. Water works just as well for the same purpose, and it doesn’t taste bad.
I’ve actually developed a taste for cranberry juice since I began having my attacks. If you buy a store brand, it’s not really any more expensive than tea or pop, certainly cheaper than coffee.(Good coffee anyway)
Sophie, I had a bout with kidney stones in February-March, 1999. The initial stone blocked the ureter, so the docs put a shunt in to allow my kidney to drain. During the five week long ordeal, I passed 7 stones. All but one dissolved in my bladder (I was drinking at least a pint of water every hour, which helped dissolve the stones, but the shunt also made ‘holding it in’ downright painful at times).
The first stone was made of uric acid, or so said the docs because it didn’t show up on x-rays. The one that emerged was made of calcium oxalate; it was a little smaller than a watermelon seed and had little spike-like things on one end.
I hope this will be my last experience with renal calculi. I remember sitting at the admission desk in the ER, and feeling that I could have ripped the counter right off the desk to get my mind off the pain.
My wife’s friend, who had four kids, told me she’d rather give birth to quintuplets than go through kidney stones again.
So, you have my sympathy and my empathy. I’m glad to hear you’re on the mend.
Elenfair, my handle just-so-happens to come from a pooch. My favorite pooch in the Whole Wide World.
Ok, guys: is it normal for me to feel so sick to my stomach? I feel like puking. Is it the Cipro or the UTI? My right neck lymph node is all kinds of swollen and my kidneys still hurt.
I don’t know anything about Cipro, but my wife gets severe nausea when she has a UTI.
I felt nauseated when my kidney stones started, but the nausea went away rather quickly (replaced by the intense pain). I wasn’t sick to my stomach after passing any stones.
If you have a really nasty and strong UTI Sophie then yeah, it’s possible to feel nauseated ( I sure did ).
However, if this is the first time you are taking some form of sulfa antibiotic you may want to be aware that some people do have allergic reactions to it. Sulfonamides are great drugs for knocking out UTI’s, but check the package information about the symptoms of a reaction. If you start to show any of them, get back to your physician asap.
Yeah, Cipro will make you nauseated, bigtime. The good thing about it is it’s a great broad spectrum antibiotic -meaning it kills all sorts of bacteria, rather than making you wait until they get a definitive ID on the bacteria and treating you with another that’s more specific to whatever it is you have. The cultures take 2-3 days to get an answer on what exactly it is and what antiboitics work best for it.
It works quickly… I had a nasty UTI a few months ago and I felt nearlt 100% by the end of the second day on it.
Other side effects - dry mouth, drowsiness, headache, uh, also, not to be crude, but you may wanna stock up on monostat as well…
(checking to make sure you’re female before sending that last bit of advice out…)
Sophie, I know I have had nausea when having stone episodes. I got rather dehydrated once because I couldn’t even keep water down. But when the stone passes so does the nausea, at least for me.
I’d be willing to bet that you do too.
I also wonder if you and your nurse practioner think the stones are related to your diet. I hope not.