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kidney stones

Started by kaysixteen, June 29, 2020, 06:51:32 PM

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kaysixteen

So, ahem, well, I might have a kidney stone.  Friday I woke up with hard to pee/ blood obviously in wee.  I thought it was a UTI.  I had had several of these back in the aughties, but none since '08.  Still, it seemed a blast from the past, so to speak.   I called my doc, and he faxed a lab slip to get a wee wee test done here.  I did that, and was unable to work Fri or Sat.  It was not the worst UTI experience I had had, but I am much older and more tolerant than I was back  in the day.  Pain was not bad, but pressure, never able to empty bladder fully, etc., plus burning when weeing.  Doc gave me antibiotic prescription and told me to come in to see him today.  Friday wee was very bloody, some blood sat, clear since then.   I went to see him as scheduled today, with results from wee test.  Plenty of blood in Friday sample, but no signs of any bacteria.  None.  This means we gotta figure out why blood there, and most likely scenario is stones.  I now have a CT scan appt for next week.  Pain and wee difficulty is essentially all gone now-- there is a possibility, according to doc, that I actually passed a stone, though I never saw anything that looked like a stone, whatever that is supposed to look like, and I thought I had not experienced any pain (I did have a bad backache Thursday which I attributed to sleeping bad the previous night.  Pain was gone by Friday morning just as blood appeared in wee.  As I write this, I suppose I could have passed a stone, especially since before wee was bloody, it was very cloudy and brown-greenish (but I did not have glasses on and was not paying much attention, no reason to have done so).  Anyone have any thoughts as to what is going on or what I should expect, and has anyone any experience with CT scans done for any reason?

clean

Quoteand has anyone any experience with CT scans done for any reason?

I had a CT scan late last week.

It is not an MRI - no noise, and no tube!

You sit down. They help you get on your back and put something under your knees to get you more comfortable.
The table will lift up and they will move you inside the CT scan ring.  they may move you slowly out as the CT scan progresses.
My CT was for my lungs so I had to hold my breath a few times and I also had a contrast injected, so I had a bit more with that (It required that I have an IV started before the scan, but IF you dont need a contrast, you wont need an IV).

A CT scan is fancy xray, but much more comfortable to go through as the table is not stone cold, hard and flat.

I suspect that you will be in and out within 20 minutes. 

MRIs, on the other hand... well they are less fun!
"The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am"  Darth Vader

apl68

I feel your pain, so to speak.  For many years I had an undiagnosed upper urinary tract blockage that caused periodic infections and pain much like a kidney stone, without any actual stones.  Doctors on emergency room visits dismissed it as irritable bowel syndrome.  Eventually it put me in the hospital overnight, and I got a CT scan that showed that it was a kidney problem.  A specialist diagnosed the blockage and put me through a series of minimally-invasive procedures to fix it.  I haven't had trouble with it since.

My father spent some years dealing with multiple bouts of kidney stones.  Eventually he had surgery for it.  He hasn't had trouble since.

All of which is to say, you're doing the right thing to get this thoroughly checked out.  They'll probably be able to figure out a way to fix it.  Doing so can save you a lot of pain down the line.
All we like sheep have gone astray
We have each turned to his own way
And the Lord has laid upon him the guilt of us all

Parasaurolophus

#3
Twelvish days ago I went to the emergency room in excruciating lower right abdominal pain, which disappeared two hours later (and about five minutes before I got to the ER). It came and went over the next several hours, but at a much lower intensity and for shorter periods. Long story short, 4mm kidney stone. As far as I know I still haven't passed it, and I've been pissing into a filter ever since. It may have dissolved, or it may not have. I haven't had any pain in about a week, however.

I did have a CT scan, ultimately, although frankly it probably wasn't necessary to expose me to that level of radiation (confirmed in consultation with my physician parents). But shrug, that's what I get for going to emerg, I guess. It was quick and easy, nothing to write home about.

Have you gotten an ultrasound? That should be a step or two before jumping straight to a CT scan and the associated radiation exposure. It's also often enough to locate and diagnose stones (it wasn't quite, for me, but it usually is, apparently).
I know it's a genus.

sprout

Quote from: clean on June 29, 2020, 07:59:23 PM
Quoteand has anyone any experience with CT scans done for any reason?

I had a CT scan late last week.

It is not an MRI - no noise, and no tube!

You sit down. They help you get on your back and put something under your knees to get you more comfortable.
The table will lift up and they will move you inside the CT scan ring.  they may move you slowly out as the CT scan progresses.
My CT was for my lungs so I had to hold my breath a few times and I also had a contrast injected, so I had a bit more with that (It required that I have an IV started before the scan, but IF you dont need a contrast, you wont need an IV).

A CT scan is fancy xray, but much more comfortable to go through as the table is not stone cold, hard and flat.

I suspect that you will be in and out within 20 minutes. 

MRIs, on the other hand... well they are less fun!

The contrast agent gives you a warm flush in the groin region or, as the attendant put it, it makes you feel like you peed your pants.  But don't worry, you didn't.  That was the strangest part of the whole experience.

Anselm

Long ago I read a science news story about breaking up the kidney stones with ultrasound, allowing them to easily pass through your system.  Did that treatment ever become a reality?
I am Dr. Thunderdome and I run Bartertown.

Parasaurolophus

Quote from: Anselm on June 30, 2020, 12:41:50 PM
Long ago I read a science news story about breaking up the kidney stones with ultrasound, allowing them to easily pass through your system.  Did that treatment ever become a reality?

Yes, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is real. Apparently it hurts some, but frankly, now that I've experienced the agony caused by my stone, I'm ready to shrug off any lesser pains.

There's also percutaneous nephrolithotomy, where they stab you in the back with a tiny telescope and drag it out. Or a ureteroscope up the urethra (plus, typically, a stent).

Or, if it's small enough, you can wait to pee it out.
I know it's a genus.

Myword

I had the ultrasound lithoscopy done. Painless with anesthesia. You feel tired for a day or two afterward. Cannot drive home. It is done in a separate site or at a large hospital with a urologist, nurses, etc.  Its considered necessary "surgery"  but it is all electronic, as machine obliterates the tiny stone.

mamselle

Not a stone, but speaking of things renal.

My mom had a few serious kidney infections before they finally figured out that she had inverted ureters, that drained from the tops of the kidneys instead of the lower/middle part.

The kidneys would be so full they would get infected before draining. Luckily they never started to necrose.

When they finally figured it out (with dye, scans, etc.) they told her to tell all her female offspring since it might be heritable.

And she had to keep drinking gallons of water every day for the rest of her life, which she mostly did.

The worst year was the fall when I was 10 and my sister was 8 and my mom (who would by then have been c. 48) was directing us how to cook the turkey for Thanksgiving from her bed (not sure why my dad wasn't hauled in for that...but that was then, this is now.)

We kept having to run upstairs to the bedroom and back down to the kitchen to check on the bird, the potatoes, the corn, and the pies.

It was actually a pretty good meal, or at least I don't recall it turning out badly....

She recovered, and once the issue was identified, her compliance gave her another 44 years.

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

apl68

Quote from: mamselle on June 30, 2020, 06:18:39 PM
Not a stone, but speaking of things renal.

My mom had a few serious kidney infections before they finally figured out that she had inverted ureters, that drained from the tops of the kidneys instead of the lower/middle part.

The kidneys would be so full they would get infected before draining. Luckily they never started to necrose.

When they finally figured it out (with dye, scans, etc.) they told her to tell all her female offspring since it might be heritable.

And she had to keep drinking gallons of water every day for the rest of her life, which she mostly did.

The worst year was the fall when I was 10 and my sister was 8 and my mom (who would by then have been c. 48) was directing us how to cook the turkey for Thanksgiving from her bed (not sure why my dad wasn't hauled in for that...but that was then, this is now.)

We kept having to run upstairs to the bedroom and back down to the kitchen to check on the bird, the potatoes, the corn, and the pies.

It was actually a pretty good meal, or at least I don't recall it turning out badly....

She recovered, and once the issue was identified, her compliance gave her another 44 years.

M.

Sounds a little like what I had, except it was a congenital ureter blockage.  I'd been exercising good kidney care most of my life too, yet kept having those misdiagnosed kidney infections.  I feel sorry for her for having to deal with those painful infections for so many years.

I guess my otherwise very healthy family hasn't been lucky in the kidney department.  I had my problem, Dad had his recurring stones, and my brother was born with only one kidney.  Fortunately it has always been healthy.  If he ever needs a replacement, I won't have a healthy spare to give him, since the recurring infections permanently damaged my right kidney.
All we like sheep have gone astray
We have each turned to his own way
And the Lord has laid upon him the guilt of us all

kaysixteen

So I finally got to see a urologist today, and got the results of the CT scan.  There are indeed several kidney stones and one harmless cyst in the kidneys, and the doc thinks but will not actually state specifically that what happened to me at the end of June was a passing of a stone.   The urine test I took today was thankfully blood-free, and I have had no new symptoms since about two days after the initial encounter the last weekend of June.   However, in order to dot all his i's and cross all his t's, because of my over-40 age and other health issues, he will send the urine sample out to  have a test for any possible cancer cells... and then in two weeks, I will head back to his office for a cytoscopy test.  I will spare you all the details of what this entails, and he was certainly not trying to sugar-coat the experience, though he did say it will only take 30-60 seconds.   It is almost certain that there will be no cancer, especially given my almost cancer-free family history, but I am certainly going to go through with this test anyhow.   Anyone ever have it?

spork

Never had a cytoscopy so can't make any comments about that, but I do hope you've had lab tests for vitamin D, calcium, and PTH. Vitamin D deficiency can cause hypercalciuria, which can lead to kidney stones. If you've had interactions with endocrinologists over the years, you're probably in good shape, but many other physicians don't understand the difference between 25-OH vitamin D and 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D tests or how to correctly interpret the results.

Disclaimer: I am not a physician nor do I play one on TV, but I often get mistaken for one.
It's terrible writing, used to obfuscate the fact that the authors actually have nothing to say.

apl68

Quote from: spork on August 15, 2020, 03:05:54 AM

Disclaimer: I am not a physician nor do I play one on TV, but I often get mistaken for one.

It's the stethoscope and the white coat.  And the golfing helps too.



Seriously, kay, glad you were able to get this checked out, and praying for you for good results in testing and treatment.
All we like sheep have gone astray
We have each turned to his own way
And the Lord has laid upon him the guilt of us all

ab_grp

I was with my husband during one of his two cytoscopies.  He had been having some small blood clots (?) in his urine, and a kidney stone was one of the suspects.  His certainly took longer than 30-60 seconds, and he had a second one that was more intensive that was longer than the first and was a little painful.  I hope yours goes smoothly.  The one I observed seemed more uncomfortable than painful, at least... as you might guess from the details it would probably at least have to be a bit uncomfortable. Not fun to go through, I'm sure, but hopefully it will provide some helpful information.  As an observer, I thought it was pretty neat to watch on the screen.  If there are any other details that would be helpful to hear anecdotally, please let me know, though I'm sure each procedure and experience is different.  If it helps, probably the worst part of the one I observed was that the equipment is supposed to be thoroughly sterilized beforehand, and there are some rules about drinking water/bladder fullness you might need to prep for.  Unfortunately, the tech dropped the equipment on the floor right before the procedure was about to start, so it had to be re-sterilized for about 30 minutes, which did not help with the bladder issues or anxiety.  If that had not occurred, the procedure would probably have been pretty okay.