Kidney Stones

[acidskye]

has anyone ever had a 8mm kidney stone in the upper kidney?? I have one in my right kidney, and ive had pain off and on for the past yr and a half..the urologist has said many times he does not think the stone is causing me my back back pain (even tho my pain is on my right side) and he doesnt think its causing the blood in the urine (visible and non visible). I have had many other tests and my family dr thinks its the stone. the dr also said that if they blast the stone since its in the upper part of the kidney all the pieces might not come out? I was going to have lithotripsy done in june, but when they got me in the room and tried to find it they said they couldnt see the stone....i kind of gave up..but the other day my back started hurting again really bad, im confused.
has anyone else had a stone in their upper kidney? and if so how did u get it out or what did u do? pls respond someone!

[Smiffy51]

I've just had a 1cm stone removed surgically by keyhole surgery via my back. If your stone continues to bother you, you could ask about this operation. My stone was causing me terrible one sided back pain, blood in my urine & the most dreadful frequency.

I'm so relieved it's out, although I still have to recover properly from the surgery. I was kept in hospital for 5 nights until a drainage tube into my kidney was removed, & the dressing replaced the next day. Your stone is not small; perhaps you need to see a different urologist?

[acidskye]

Thank you for responding! Was your stone stuck in your kidney?? The urologist I see says that mine should not be causing any pain, but I have had other testing and nothing has come back except for the fact I have a kidney stone..soo I dont know. I am going to see him again on Jan 8th I beleive and im going to tell him to do something abt it. Iam terrified of surgery!

[Smiffy51]

Obviously your urologist has never experienced the dreadful sickening pain of a kidney stone; the pain of mine kept making me vomit. Mine did not respond to lithotripsy & wouldn't have passed by itself as it was too big.

I was terrified of the operation too but it all went well & the nurses were very good about pain management whilst I had the nephrostomy tube in place. It's wonderful not to have the back pain now. Good luck with your appointment.

[majorpain]

Thank you for responding! Was your stone stuck in your kidney?? The urologist I see says that mine should not be causing any pain, but I have had other testing and nothing has come back except for the fact I have a kidney stone..soo I dont know. I am going to see him again on Jan 8th I beleive and im going to tell him to do something abt it. Iam terrified of surgery!

Please see another urologist. That is rediculous, I had a 13.9 mm stone lodged in my right kidney and it was removed by Ureteroscopic stone removal. This is a kind of surgery where they knock you out and use fiberoptic(spellcheck) , go inside the bladder and up to kidney and bust up stone to remove it...They have left stents because my kidney was so swollen from the stone.. Please see another uro, I had this stone for over a year, because the radiologist said last year my stone was non obstructive..It is ashame that we have to depend on radiologist before anyone will actually do anything...Go to E.R. get another xray ( in my case I have insurance so I got a cat scan) tell them your in excruciating pain and wait for results and request a different uro in your area...also blood in your urine means that the stone is definitely obstructive and the back and side pain ( that feels like muscle spasms) could mean your kidney is swollen...please go to E.R.again before your kidney stops performing properly.

[mary_in_pain]

I just posted a new topic similar to yours. Mine is 5mm in the lower kidney and I have seen 2 uros with no help, pain and blood in urine. Why do we get this run around?

[JenBerry]

You need to go to a new Doctor, this one sounds like an idiot. I have found out first hand that there are two major schools of thought in medicine today one is disease management - in it for the money, no desire to see a cure or explain much; and wellness - interested in getting to the bottom of the patients problem and seeing them return to good health as soon as possible.
I'd go shopping for a new MD and ask them point blank what kind of Doctor they are. It's also a good idea to go to the faculty clinic at a teaching hospital. The doctors there are usually wellness people the care is fabulous and they really care about helping you feel better. Just remember your doctor is a service provider and you are a customer - you deserve answers and a decent level of customer service.

I had a bad experience with my previous Urologist, I am 30, female, and in perfect health with no family history of any kind of disease. I started churning out Calcium phosphate stones three years ago while I was pregnant, after I had the baby everything went back to normal for two years, then I got pregnant again and within 4 months I was back in the hospital. I went to my urologist for a follow up after a hospitalization for kidney stones. I asked her what my diagnosis was and what was the cause of my asymptomatic stones... She told me she had no idea what could be causing them and then asked me if I was willing to take diuretics for the rest of my life. I told her that I was not willing to take perscription medication blindly for the next 50 years and walked out. Then I went across town to the teaching hospital. In my first talk with my new doctor he told me there were three possible causes for my stones and two of them were treatable with diet and lifestyle changes, but they couldn't get any definiative test results until I was no longer with child or nursing.

As far as the actual stones go you need to have ESWL done before it gets any bigger. Stones that size really don't pass on their own, and if it gets much larger they will need to do more invasive procedures. I have had ESWL twice and it is great. They break up the stones you go home and it comes out pain free and looks like sand in your pee for the next two weeks.
Stones in the top of the kidney come out a lot better than the bottom. I just had a 6.5mm one in my top right kidney done just before christmas and they were able to get the whole thing.

[gott1936]

Janberry,
In response to your comments, " they break up the stones you go home and it comes out pain free and looks like sand in your pee ". What if the stone fragments in the bottom of your kidney will not pass? Did the urologist do a bad job breaking up your stones? Any suggestions?

[gott1936]

Update: after researching kidney, bladder and prostate problems, for 8 months, I discovered the most important questions should be how many yearly surgeries a urologist has performed and how large is the hospital where the surgery will be performed. The more surgeries performed by your urologist and the size of the hospital can affect the positive results of your surgery or not! 150 surgeries and 150 bed hospitals seem to be the magical number. Just a thought.

[haylee_beutler]

I know it has been a while since you posted this, but i just found out i have a 22mm in my upper right kidney as well and our stories seem very similar. What did you end up doing???? My urologist is recommending a lithotripsy and im kind of leery about that considering my stone is very large. Please reply !