Welp, the kidney fairy has struck again! About 8 years ago, I had an impassable stone (first stone ever, at 35 y/o then), so I had lithotripsy and a stent for a bit, and that took care of it. I was offered Allopurinol, but elected instead to try to adjust my diet, up my water intake, and use LOTS of lemon juice in my water to get my urine pH up; I was at 5.0 and I guess 6.5 is ideal.

I went 7 years without any other issues, but did pass a smaller one last year without intervention - took a day. Then back to the ER a month or so ago with a doozy, then a smaller one that I passed last week.

I'm not trying to be stubborn about my diet, but I doubt that I'll realistically be able to be as faithfully restrictive as it sounds like I need to be, and some things I've read said that I can try REALLY hard to limit purine intake, and still end up with high uric acid levels, low pH, and more stones.

Does anyone here have long-term Allopurinol use, and an opinion on how big of a deal it is? My doc said he tends to not prescribe it for older people because it can potentially cause kidney issues, but that he wouldn't be concerned about me taking 300mg/day for the rest of my life. My thought is that if it's hard on kidneys for older people, wouldn't it take a toll on my 43 y/o kidneys over the long-haul?

I've also seen some mention of potassium citrate and/or sodium bicarbonate here and there in regards to uric acid stones. Anyone know about either of those options?

Thanks for any ideas!

-Chris

Why are you asking us ?
You need to be at your nephrologist and he will tell you exactly
What , how much, and when to take what.

He may tell you to cut your salt intake by half ,as well.

Four years Stone free, here
Because I found a much better than average kidney Doc.

I've been on 100mg/day for almost 2 years & have not noticed any side affects. I get gout in my feet & it has reduced it, but I still seem to be right on the edge.
When it hits, I take 2x per day & it shortens the time it takes to not limp again, but it still sucks. I try to avoid the trigger foods, but sometimes it hits w/o warning.

I have suffered from kidney stones for over 20 years. I have calcium oxalate stones which can be treated with potassium citrate which I take three times a day.
I have Been stone free for two years but I dedicated myself to the diet after having a 11mm stone removed. Nothing like having to pull your catheter out to motivate you to change your behaviors.
I did my diet changes slowly and stuck to them. I still eat some things that are high in oxalate but I make sure to drink plenty of water and take my meds.
A few sites I found say that the uric stones can be treated with calcium citrate but I would confirm with your provider. Just don't rely on the med to do the job and try and make those changes to your diet so in the future you are not having to pull out a catheter by yourself.

I got hit by the kidney stone god this weekend.

I spent all of Saturday in the ER at the Durham VA hospital

I was fine all morning but at noon waiting for the other half to get home from ALdi and shopping for lawn furniture the pain hit me like a cattle prod on the right side of my back

I thought it was either gas or a back spasm. Nope Kidney stone.

I have never had pain like that: it ranged from 7.5 to 9 out of 10
I almost blacked out a couple of times.

The other half knew I was in trouble when I said call the ambulance because I am so cheap

I did get to watch a lot of cable tv and high school football: (Games out of Oklahoma, Indiana vs Cincy, plus two schools from Bismarck.

I also watched a little College football: Austin St peay vs Cental Arkansas if I remember right

It was mad chaos in the ER. Drunks, Psycho, drug withdrawals etc.. Makes me second guess about being a police officer again

CT scans show a 4mm irregular shaped stone
The are hoping it will be pass on its own. They prescribed me Flomax, Oxycodone, ibuprofen and some nausea meds. They also told me to drink lots of water, juice etc..

What amazed me is that the oxycodone did nothing for the pain and I was popping them like chiclets but the ibuprofen worked like a charm.

The urologist is going to follow up on Tuesday.
I would like to know what caused it because I eat such a strict diet now, with very little dairy except cheese on a few items. I do not drink pop, eat fast food or even eat junk food except popcorn, pretzels and a cookie on occasion.

I found out several years ago I had a kidney stone. It was one big one. I stopped drinking soda soon after.

I've only ever had that one.

It passed this past Jan/Feb and I have no other stones.

I can't say that's the only reason I only had 1 but I'm sticking to my story.

I have been on allopurional (200/day) for over a decade. Due to a cardiac condition I am in a fluid restriction and daily diuretics which makes me susceptible to gout. I have noticed no issues with allopurional.

Had kidney stones in college 40 years ago, probably from drinking gallons of iced tea, which the MD told me to quit, along with any other “brown liquid” (cola, coffee, etc)

More recently I was on Allopurinol (for recurrent gout) for about 18 months after which I developed an allergic reaction to it (severe rash) and had to quit using it.

I don’t drink anything but water now, unless I start having gout symptoms. Then I drink tart cherry juice as well. It seems a major trigger for my gout is dehydration.

12 years on allopurinol

Remember I’m a retired physician, but I’m also a gout and kidney stone patient.
My kidney stones are calcium oxalate, but the urologist who specializes in stone prevention told me that if one has gout that needs to be treated too.
I am on allopurinol 300 mg daily for about 10 years with no known side effects. We were told that it’s extremely hard to control uric acid level with diet alone. I had bad gout until I was put on allopurinol, now rarely feel anything.

For my kidney stones I am on potassium citrate, and try to follow low oxalate diet (never have spinach any more, for example).

I recently had ureteroscopy and stone removal, last one was in 2015; this was caught much earlier, with far less trauma and pain for me.

With regard to your posting question: if your stones are uric acid, there’ pretty much no question at all you should be on allopurinol (there are alternatives if you can’t tolerate it).

I was on allopurinol from many (20) years and my Doc suggested switching to Uloric which I did for a year or so. First of all Uloric is quite a bit more expensive than allopurinol and for me at least it didn't help much with gout. I didn't get any kidney stones but I had a lot of joint swelling and pain with the Uloric. Four or five months ago I went back to allopurinol and joint pain and swelling almost completely went away. There has been no change in my kidney function since going back on allopurinol. As long as my kidney function remains stable, I'm happy with allopurinol.

I have been on Allopurinol for 20 years. NO gout since!!!!!

My brother has been on Allopurinol for a # of years for his gout. It was given to him by his renalogist, who follows him for reduced renal function,,,,,IGA malfunction. He is 79 y/o, and is having no problems with the med.

I've been on allopurinol, 300 mg daily, for about 40 years. I'm one of those people that also has to take Probenecid to control my gout or I get the most horrible flare ups.

My doctor told me (I can't clarify this with her as she burned in when her parachute didn't open a few years ago) that taking these drugs for so long was why she thought I'd never had a kidney stone.

I've had no other side effects that I am aware of and no flare ups of the gout in at least 30 years or more.

Bob

I was a long time sufferer of calcium oxalate stones. After surgically removing one, my then new urologist asked if I drank a lot of carbonated beverages. When I told him that I did, he said he thought that was causing the stones. I stopped drinking any carbonated beverage cold turkey. I have been literally stone free since -- and no drugs involved.

I am just healing up from my first bought with Gout, and all I can say is wow was it fun!

Never had a kidney stone,

Dr. drew blood to test my acid levels and gave me some steroids to get it over with, and I will see what they say after that.

I have been on 300mg per day for about the last seven or eight years. Previous to that I was on 200mg per day for about 10 years. No problems with the medication.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
Why are you asking us ?

I can’t really speak for the OP but it appears he wants real experience. Honestly the doctors I’ve run across in my life do not give me the confidence to blindly trust them and not every doctor has my best interest in mind nor has spent sufficient time investigating the problem I have come to them for.

I’ve run across many doctors only concerned about how many patients they can get through in an hour. I went to a gastro with a problem I had and he suggested a bunch of testing including a colonoscopy. After all the procedures I met with him to get the results. He handed me the info and said everything was fine and started walking out of the room. I stopped and asked him what was causing the issue I came in for. He blurted something out and walked out. That’s the typical doctor I’ve run across. fortunately I found a really good primary care but not so much so with specialists. No matter how good they are I’ll never trust them blindly, they may be the most brilliant doctor in the world but they are still human and make mistakes.

I will be honest I come here to read about individuals who had "real" world experience and to gain knowledge.

I learned a lot about medicine on the Medical Examiners side but that was at the end of the line.

I would like to learn about the other end.

I have had great Primary care doctors but not really any luck with Specialists which range from Physical Therapy, gastro and urology.

I am also really nervous and gun shy about anything medical since i have had since so many problems since I had inguinal hernia surgery and the mesh that was placed in me.

I never had any problems prior to that except a few broken bones.

It took me four physical therapist for my back/SI joints to find one that listened and what my plans were. She really didn't know but she did a lot of research on her own time and came up with an awesome plan. Without her I would not be even attempting to re-class back to Combat Arms in the Army Reserves.

I had a kidney stone around age 50 and I've been using Allopurinal once a day for more than 15 years without a problem. One of the advantages that I noted and my urologist confirmed, was a full head of hair. Yes, it really does increase hair growth as a side effect.