Last week, I went to the doctor about some pain in my elbows, neck, and shoulders plus numbness in my hands. I’ve had a new doctor for less than six months, my previous one decided to close her private practice, and my new one wasn’t in for a few days so I had to see an alternate. The doctor I saw wasn’t able to tell me anything I hadn’t already figured out on my own, but I figured while I was there I might as well mention the recurring pain in my nether regions.
Sometimes there’s this burning sensation down there when I take a leak but lately it’s been hanging around when I’m dry too. A day or so ago, I noticed some lumps there; when I checked them they seemed to be in my urinary tract. I guess they are kidney stones on their way out, and I wish they would hurry!
BTW: I did provide a urine sample after the doc was done with my arms. Haven’t heard anything back.
There is new evidence that coffee, both caffeinated and decaffeinated, helps prevent the formation of kidney stones. Two ten-year studies of men and women found that those who drink just one cup of caffeinated coffee a day reduced the risk of developing kidney stones by 10 percent, while decaffeinated coffee showed a 9 percent decrease.
Caffeine may stop kidney stones from forming by increasing the flow of urine and decreasing its concentration. At the same time, the positive results for decaffeinated coffee indicate that the beneficial effects in coffee may come from a factor other than caffeine.
i win this one. I had kidney stones whilst pregnant with first child. No drugs, no nothing – just had to pass them. And (just an aside) since I have experienced both kidney stones and childbirth - childbirth is definitely more painful.
Ahem - back to the OP - those systems of non-specific pain and numbness in the hands make me think of Reynauds syndrome. My cousin had this - brought on by stress.
Talk to your doctor - keep talking till find one that will take you seriously and help you find the problem.
Most of that problem seems to be gone now. I think I just had a pinched nerve in my neck.
In regards to my other problem, I’m not really certain if the lumps really are stones that have become lodged or if it’s something else. The sample I gave should give the doc an indication of what the problem is. I haven’t had anything like this since the time I somehow managed to transfer some canker down there from my mouth so maybe I really have just one lump and it’s a developing canker sore.
Kidney stones are painful!
I passed two kidney stones in a month, the second time I knew what it was, loaded my kid into the car, and drove myself to the ER. They couldn’t believe I had done that.
I’ve had two childeren, and the second pregnancy, I had serious gall bladder problems.
Each has their own twist of pain, the kidney stones were more of a oh my God lose your breath kind of pain.
The Gall bladder was a Help me, theres an alien inside of me trying to come out through my ribs.
And childbirth? Childbirth is the Mother of all pains I’ve known, Its the two above, plus you lose your mind, you’re completely senseless, you lose all body functions except one, scream.
I hope you find out whats ailing you. And if its kidney stones, I’m sorry.
Don’t grin and bear it, pee and pass it.
Just because I’m a geek, and an epidemiologist, I went and looked at the site referenced above, and looked at the citations this group provided. I only saw the abstracts, because that’s what’s available online. I used PubMed to search medline.
First, I noticed that the coffescience web site is an industry-sponsored site. Hmm. Then when I looked at the studies, I saw that the conclusions for both studies cited (same first author, credible institution, appropriate-looking methods, one study in men, one in women) state that fluid intake is associated with decreased risk of kidney stones, and that beverage type may have an impact on this association. Both studies show an effect of coffee consumption, along with effects of other beverage types. Neither study was able to conclusively pin the effect down to coffee.
Sorry for the hijack, but I hate to see good science distorted for industry-advertising purposes. If anyone is interested, we could go on to discuss what a reduction in risk of 10% actually means.
No offense taken… I’m not purporting it to be a cure all. I did a search on Google, trying to help a friend who suffers from KS frequently. I found the aforementioned theory several times (WebMD too). I don’t know if it works or not, I was passing it on FWIW. Maybe it’s only the “placebo effect”… All I know is my friend says he hasn’t had kidney stones since drinking two cups of coffee a day & he swore that even if it was only a 10% chance, it was worth a try to prevent that Misery.
<B>SlightDistrurbance, KinSaba</b> - My three sisters have given birth to 10 babies between them. In none of the deliveries did they have epidurals or pain meds. Basically they said it wasn’t any big deal. One sister put her son to bed, went to the hospital at 11:00, delivered the baby around 1:30, sat up talking to the doc on duty between deliveries and left at 7:00 that same morning, saying she felt fine and there was nothing they cuold do for her that she couldn’t do for herself. She got home before her oldest was awake. My mother had 7 babies in six years (2 sets of twins included). She always got aggravated at the scenes of childbirth on TV, with women screaming and stuff. She said it only served to scare mothers-to-be, and that it wasn’t anything to scream about.
Well, that’s lovely for them, but not everybody is blessed with painless childbirth, and instead of making mothers who have normal childbirths feel guilty and inadequate for being normal, they should be thanking their lucky stars they have such a fortunate genetic disposition.
And for the record, I was my mother’s fourth child, and she said she had no pain with me…quick, easy delivery. But the first three hurt like heck. And the two I had were definitely not a walk in the park. And my sister’s life was saved by an emergency C-section during her second delivery, after many hours of pain…
Jeff, I hope you feel better soon. Sorry I was tetchy there, didn’t mean to ignore your pain. But mothers-to-be have enough to worry about without some people trying to make them feel bad about a normal amount of discomfort and pain. If they want to scream, I say let them. And you can scream to, if you need to.
I will now step down from the soap-box and go back to my basket under the diningroom table.
I think I found what’s been bothering my, um, you know. Not kidney stones, not another canker sore, but Peyronie’s disease. Guess I have to wait a year and see if it goes away on its own and try vitamin E in the meantime.
My pain is going away! It’s being replaced with another sensation, something I can only describe as numbness. Not like what I had in my hands, which was really just the old pins-and-needles feeling, but true numbness as if I had a shot of novocaine. The lump seems to be getting smaller, too.
Found this thread while searching, and thought I’d get an update. Jeff, how’s it going? Any improvement? Any changes to report? Ever get an official diagnosis?
My SO was just diagnosed with Peyronie’s, and neither of us know anyone with the condition. I’d be interested to hear from you (or anyone else here) regarding your experiences, problems, etc. If anyone has any hope to offer, please chime in, the SO and I are feeling pretty hopeless right now…
No, never got an official diagnosis and the affected area, under normal conditions, is down to the size of a grain of rice. It was about the size of a row of peas it its worst. All in all, a strange experience but I’m glad it’s pretty much over now. I still experience a bit of pain now and then but nothing to really compalin about. I hope your SO’s will shrink like mine did.
So far, I think his problem is still progressing, in that it has not diminished or stabilized, but continues to get worse. His scar/plaque is not in one spot, but actually encircles the penis in a band, making it contort into an odd, hourglass shape. This makes it painful to urinate, as it constricts the urethra. It also means that sex and erections are a thing of the past. Uuuuuhhhhh… yeah… that was TMI, wasn’t it? He’s still seeing specialists, but so far, no positive outlook or treatment options have been offered other than “wait and see.”
Thanks for the update. It’s good to see that it can get better over time.
Uuuuuhhhhh… yeah… that was TMI, wasn’t it? He’s still seeing specialists, but so far, no positive outlook or treatment options have been offered other than “wait and see.”