You got it, brother. Hope your on the mend.

Prayers sent. The only time I saw my father cry was from that malady.

I've been there several times. Sorry to hear you are having to deal with these too. Best wishes and a speedy recovery.

I’ve had upwards of 50 surgeries, most for kidney stones or to remove a damaged kidney. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked through passing a stone for weeks until either it passes or I give in to surgical eviction of those little motherfuckers. I know that pain and related symptoms very well. As the stone goes lower you’ll feel like some little leprechaun bastard is punching you in the balls. That’s when it’s getting close to the bladder region. Potassium Citrate meds 1080mg twice a day have helped me cut down the number and size of stones tremendously. Before these prevention meds I was passing 3-5 a year minimum. You DO NOT want to have a situation where one exits the bladder as you’re urinating only to have it stop 2-8” from exit point and then stop with the pressure of needing to finish peeing continuing to build. God speed to a swift passing of yours or a painless successful operation. I feel your pain.

Prayers sent!

Prayers sent. Had one this past summer (my first) and they are horrible.

Prayers sent! Good luck!

Procedure went great, stone is gone. Was still in my ureter, had not made it to the bladder like I thought.

Used a laser to break it up, collected the bits and placed a stint. Producing and voiding urine much better, morning blood work will show if creatinine is going down as expected.

As patw pointed out, peeing afterwards is not fun. Or as the told me 38 years ago after my first cystoscopy “You may experience “discomfort”. My claw marks may still be on that urinal at Balboa Naval Hospital to this day…

Feeling good otherwise, got some chow and sleep. Looking forward to going home tomorrow.


Thanks all for the thoughts, prayers, well wishes, and comments.

That’s good to hear, all but the stint. Sometimes those cause as much problems as the stone if you have to be anywhere but the hospital bed. Movement with those can dig into your bladder something fierce. Years back I thought I was hardass enough to backpack/camp with a stint in and boy was I ever wrong. I had to stop every 50 yards to urinate in dribble fashion blood mostly with a high degree of pain. Then there is the pulling out. If you have the string version (it sometimes has its own issues in the morning if you catch my drift) then it’s better for removal. Without the string version, they have you come to their office and give you nothing except ky jelly to push a camera rotorooter grabber into your bladder, grab onto the end of the stint, then rip it out in one longgg motion. I don’t envy what’s ahead of you with the stint. I still think they were originally a CIA interrogation technique.

Ah, ureteral stent. There's a string on the end, kinda like a tampon.
My urologist told me he'd count to three then pull it.
One--holy shit! My wife heard a huge laugh coming from me in the exam room.
Yeah, better not to clamp down, that doesn't help.

Get the stone analyzed: if calcium oxalate like mine, you need to cut back on oxalates (spinach is the worst).
I saw an urology specialist who ordered a 24-hour urine collection for various things. I also have gout, and treating that with febuxostat (Uloric) NOT allopurinol lowered my urine uric acid level dramatically.
Potassium citrate may also help if your urine is acidic.
For some, taking citric acid (e.g. Crystal Lite) helps prevent recurrence; but I didn't need that based on my 24-hour urine.

A bonus from my ureteroscopy removing the diamond-hard little shards of stone from the ureter after ESWL (yeah, sounds just as much fun as it was) revealed an early bladder cancer. So thank God for my kidney stone! And my urologist!!

I sometimes refer to urologists as Dicksmiths. Their business card would have the picture of a blacksmith with a patient laying his junk on the anvil and wincing as the hammer looms above.