Living with Kidney Stones

I am at home recovering from surgery to remove my 9th kidney stone. I told the doctors over 3 weeks ago I knew that the pain on the right hand side and back must mean I have another one. I did a ct-scan and it showed a stone but not in a place to cause pain is what the urologist said. I told him I know my body and it never takes this long to pass one so he sent me back to my regular dr. to find other reasons for pain, more bloodwork and then 5 days later there I was in the ER wit exactly what I thought it was- a kidney stone. Was admitted because I could not control the pain at home anymore and I knew something was wrong this time. They made me wait and do xrays to locate the stone, which was stuck in the ureter and not budging. They finally made a decision 38 hours after arriving in the ER to do the surgery to remove it and I now have a stent.

The surgery took about 1 1/2 hours and afterward I felt like I wanted to burst and told the nurses which told me I should only feel a little pressure and I cannot get up. I finally convinced a nurse to let me sit on a potty chair and I was there all night. Since mostly blood was coming out I think this is why I had the terrible painful urge. I have been home for two days and I still have to go the restroom about every 20 minutes. This is not what I experienced with the lithotrypsy I had 10 years ago at all. I was fine after 24 hours.

The stent has to stay in for two weeks. I am not a happy camper as I feel this could have been prevented if I was taken care of on the first visit to the urologist instead of waiting several more days for the test to come back and still having to go through this. I am starting to think there were two stones because the pain started awhile ago. I am a pro at this and have an extra pocket on my right kidney which I was born with which seems to be the perfect place for stones to form and I had several kidney infections as a child also which they are telling me also means something. This is pain you do not want to endure for long. With men it is even worse. I am hoping that I have none left to pass as I am exhausted at this time and the healing process for this procedure seems to be longer than with the other lazer procedure.

If you think you are having kidney stone problems- stay on top of the doctors and dont let them tell you its something else unless they can prove it.