Kidney Stones

[leah31]

I have a question - my daughter has been to the ER and two urgent care visits in the past week for a 5 mm kidney stone lodged in the upper ureter before she was hospitalized. They did a lithotripsy and sent her home 2 days later. Since she's been home, she's begun to have severe pain again although the urologist swears that he got all the pieces out. My question is, in the ER, they did a CT scan where they found the first stone. Then at the second Urgent Care visit, the doctor was hesitant about doing another CT scan (this was a different hospital and they didn't have the records from the ER) because he said too much radiation could affect her reproductive system/ovaries in a girl her age (she's 24) - they did another ct scan right before her operation and now that we're faced with going back AGAIN, i'm wondering if they can do an MRI instead (less radiation?) to prevent too much radiation to her ovaries. Any ideas?

[critta10]

They told me the same thing. How did it work out?

[Blevings]

I have had 5 CT Scans since September. I too was worried about so much radiation and I was told that "they" (whoever they may be) cannot say for sure what kind of effects this kind of exposure can have on a person.....I suspect I might grow gills in the coming year. The pain your daughter is having though is definately not related to the scans, it is just the joys of kidney stones........my stone was apparently all taken out but I am having more pain than before now (thankfully going to see a Nefrologist in 2 days).

In all seriousness though....read below

"The radiation dose from natural background radiation (radiation that we all are continuously exposed to from cosmic rays, radioactive materials present in the earth and building materials, and radioactive materials normally present within our own bodies) is approximately 3 mSv per year. Therefore, in every three-year period you receive the equivalent of a CT scan from natural background radiation. At age 33, you have received the equivalent of 10 CT scans from background radiation. There are no clinically detectable effects from such low doses of radiation.1 Will you develop bone marrow cancer from this radiation dose? Not likely. Will the radiation dose affect your ability to have children? No. Is there anything that we can say for certain about the level of radiation that you received from the CT scan? Yes. One can say, "It is impossible to predict what, if any, cancer risk might exist from this low dose of radiation. If there is a risk, it is extremely low."
Kenneth L. Miller, CHP, CMHP

1Editor's note: The Health Physics Society has also released a position statement that says in part "Below 10 rem (100 mSv) . . . risks of health effects are either too small to be observed or are non-existent."


I too though would like to know if there are any other more effective procedures to check out stones....ultrasound maybe or MRI like Leah31 mentions.

[melonie13]

I know that my stones do not show up in an xray. I would not worry about the radation at this point. The most important thing is figuring out where and how big the stones are. They are just trying to make your daughter better. That should be the top priority.

[Blevings]

Totally agree with melonie31 and my stones never showed up on X-Ray either.