My First Kidney Stone

Will you ever forget your first kidney stone experience? I won't!

It was late in the afternoon when I decided to take a shower. Right after a cold shower on a chilly afternoon I felt a cramping pain on my right back side down to my abdomen. I thought maybe I'm having Pre Menstrual Syndrome, but the pain is becoming more intense by the minute until I was curled on the bed crying for help because of the pain.

My husband wants to immediately bring me to the hospital but I was hesitant because I have a 13 month old baby who still breastfeeds and is not used to drinking milk from a bottle. I tried to wait it out. The pain at that point was like that of labor pains but persistent not like contractions. I have manage to wait for 6 hours until I have had enough of the pain, I felt like I'm drained of energy and vomited twice, worried as I was to leave my exclusively breastfed baby to my mom, at that point I was more scared of dying.

My husband took me to the nearest ER, ER doctor didn't even touch me, she just made me pee in cup and have a nurse took blood sample and have me wait on bench. I was for her just someone with a painful tummy! She was so lazy she when back to her nap while waiting for my lab results. After half an hour waiting in pain, the doctor read my lab results and told me I have an infection on my urinary tract, I can take antibiotics or better yet I can stay in the hospital so they can give the antibiotic intravenously for faster result. My first thought was I have to get home for my baby so I chose to just go home and take the oral antibiotics.

So I was sent home with the prescriptions, but my husband was worried that doctor didn't diagnosed me properly. He convinced me to go to another hospital, a much bigger and reputable hospital 30 minutes away from our place. Since the pain became more and more intense and the first ER doctor didn't prescribe any pain relievers, I agreed to get a second opinion, so off we go to the big hospital. The ER doctor made me lie down and ask me all sorts of questions, touched my tummy, had me pee on a cup and took blood samples. He later conclude that I may have kidney stones or my appendix might be swollen or irrupted. He cannot be sure because the ultrasound wouldn't be available until morning, it was already midnight. He said I can just go home and come back tomorrow. I asked for pain killers but he said since he also suspect a problem with my appendix that he wouldn't want me to take pain killers because it may masked the symptoms. So I hopelessly went home again, still no relief from pain.

I was home again, trying every position possible to relieve the pain, until I was crying and begging for a relief. I didn't even cried like that when I went through natural child birth!

So we were off again at 2am to the big hospital. My husband said he want's me to be confined and given pain killers, if ever I have irrupted appendix then I'll be safe because I'm already in the hospital! The nurse gave me Tramadol on my IV, but the pain relief wasn't fast enough that they gave me shot of Nubane. And thankfully I was able to sleep, pain free.

In the morning they did an ultra sound and confirmed a urine blockage in the ureter. I met my urologist and he gave me my options. He wants me to get a CT stonogram to get a clearer of the stone and how large it is, it cost 150 USD. He also prescribe acalka, ural, allopurinol and harnal. My first concern was if it is safe for breastfeeding, he said there isn't enough studies if its harmful for babies but he cannot rule out the risk,. He also prescribed Dolcet for pain killers but he said I should only take when I'm in pain, this he knows for a fact is not good for breastfeeding. He said I can go home and take plenty of water, at that I should come back to him when I have my CT stonograms results, and if the stone is too big to pass on it's own then I would undergo ESWL which cost 1200 USD.

So I went home, still pain free. I breastfed my baby as long as I'm not taking Dolcet. I got my CT stonogram done a day after but the results wouldnt be released for another day. That night however the pain went back. I took 1 tablet of Dolcet but it wasn't working. And I know the pain will not go away until I have the pain relievers given intravenously again. So we were back in the hospital, with IV, they gave me tramadol, no work, nubane, not working this time, and then the life saver voltarin.

The next day when my CT stonogram results came out, I found out I have a 10mm stone on my right ureter, it's already in my pelvic area. There is still 2 days before my ESWL procedure, my doctor said I can go home and just take dolcet when in pain but I refused, I chose to stay in the hospital and have my pain reliever given thru IV. I was so scared to be in that much pain again.

My ESWL procedure was done in another hospital where the machine is available. Thankfully I wasn't in pain during the ride from one hospital to the other. The procedure was quick, they put me on the table and put me to sleep the next thing I knew it was done and an hour and a half had past.

I thought the pain was over, I was instructed to go straight home with medications to help the fragments pass and for pain relief. Just an hour after I lest the hospital, still on the drive home, I felt pain again like I was hit by a bus. But I was done with hospital and this time I was given a different pain medication, Celebrex, which works fast. So I took the pill, and I took it for 2 days.

Thankfully I saw the fragments pass as I was able to strain my pee for the first couple of days.

Since then I live in horror for another stone attack. And I had another stone just after 1 month from the first one. (will write about it next time :))