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Herr Prop-Wasche

O/T Kidney Stones--Not Fun!

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Hoo, man. What a day.

 

Just after lunch, I developed a SEVERE pain in my lower right abdomen. I mean SEVERE. Felt like I was being kicked continuously in the bollocks, it was that painful. There was NOTHING I could do to make the pain go away or to even alleviate it slightly. Of course, this was promptly followed by the nausea and vomiting. Right. Time to go to hospital.

 

Arrived at the emergency room. Fortunately, this hospital is new and there were few people waiting. Still, I had to wait about half an hour before they took me into the back. Mind you, I am about doubled over in pain at this point. I tried standing, walking, sitting, lying down--on my back, on my stomach, nothing seemed to help. Finally, got taken back to an emergency bed. More waiting, which felt interminable--especially when they make you wear that gown with your backside exposed to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that comes by.

 

A nurse appears--finally! But no, she just wants my personal and insurance information. #&$%! About all I can do at this point is moan and give one word answers. She leaves, and eventually a doctor comes in--thank God! I'm pretty sure I have a kidney stone, but of course, he has to make sure. Yep, sounds like a kidney stone all right! Then, he tells me what will happen next. I am in such pain that I can barely understand anything he says at all, except one word: morphine. Hooray! But, we have to wait a few more minutes--not hooray. Finally, they give me the drug. WOW! Now I know how people can get addicted to this stuff. A few minutes after putting it in my arm via IV, my whole body starts to tingle and feel warm. My muscles all get very heavy--as if I had been moderately exercising every single muscle in my body for the last 30 minutes. Best of all, the pain in my belly begins to gradually fade away. Huzzah!

 

To conclude my long tale of woe, I am now sitting at home, pumped up on Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen with Oxycodene, some pill for nausea, and Flomax. Some pain is still there, but it is much better than earlier. However, I still have to wait for the stone to pass. I know I am not looking forward to that. Furthermore, because of the nausea, I can't fly BHaH. Arrrgghhh! When will this misery end!

 

Thanks for letting me vent about this. It has been a long and painful day.

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James, sounds like hell... not being able to play OFF. Seriously I pray you pass that sucker real quick. I get sick like what you described and have not been diagnosed. Makes me wonder. Get well man.

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Hope you feel better soon Taffy. I wouldnt fly my best pilot on all those meds. I'd end up doing a Willy Coppens and try to land on a gas bag!

 

Seriously, hope you feel better.

 

-Rooster

Edited by Rooster89

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Make sure you drink lots of water and other fluids -- cranberry juice is good for kidney stones. I've had my share of them, including some that required surgery. I've got a couple right now, but they haven't bothered me in a while. As long as they don't move around they don't hurt. Hope you feel better soon.

 

Thumper

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James, sounds like hell... not being able to play OFF.

Ha ha, Rickity, the pain of not playing OFF is much greater than the pain of a puny little kidney stone!

 

Seriously I pray you pass that sucker real quick. I get sick like what you described and have not been diagnosed. Makes me wonder. Get well man.

Man, if your pain is anything like the pain I experienced today, then you are the rock of Gibraltar. Don't see how you can ignore it. On a scale of 1 to 10, I have to say my pain was around an 8 or a 9.

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Hope you feel better soon Taffy. I wouldnt fly my best pilot on all those meds. I'd end up doing a Willy Coppens and try to land on a gas bag!

 

Seriously, hope you feel better.

 

-Rooster

 

Right now, these meds are making my head feel like a gas bag!

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Make sure you drink lots of water and other fluids -- cranberry juice is good for kidney stones. I've had my share of them, including some that required surgery. I've got a couple right now, but they haven't bothered me in a while. As long as they don't move around they don't hurt. Hope you feel better soon.

 

Thumper

 

Yeah, drinking LOTS of cranberry juice. Have to call a urologist tomorrow.

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Yeah, drinking LOTS of cranberry juice. Have to call a urologist tomorrow.

 

Thankfully I've never had to deal with that (yet....). I just happened to read this just before I headed over to CA this evening:

 

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/headlines/...p.10/index.html

 

People can say what they want about race car drivers not being athletes etc. (I disagree), but you hear about stuff like this all the time. Man that's gotta take some guts and serious focus. I just can't see myself saying "yeah, I've got a kidney stone I'm dealing with right now but I'm still good for some laps at 190 mph".

 

I hope you feel better!

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Get well soon (and back in the Air!)

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Get well soon.

 

Funny story actually. when I was around 9 my dad brought home from the hospital what looked like a tiny piece of metal in a plastic container. He said it was shrapnel from WWI when he was in the trenches, but he had to go into hospital to have it taken out as it was causing trouble. I was amazed at this and told all my friends at school, who thought he was just the coolest.

 

A few years later and not quite so gullible I approach him about this again. I was a bit suspicious when I realized he was born in 1944, and the closest he got to action was just before the birth of my third sibling (i'm youngest of 6) when they were going to ship him to Vietnam, but didn't because of the birth of his then 3rd child. My dad was in the RNZAF Marine section, working with the Sunderlands until they were retired.

 

Turned out of course that it was a kidney stone, just looked like metal because of the preserving fluid on it and the plastic jar...... my dad always was a bulls**t artist. Now he tells his grandkids that Grandma pulled out all his hair when he was sleeping. You should see the looks they give their Grandma when she walks in the room after that!

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I feel your pain. I had one of these 5-6 years ago. Mine was relatively small but at times, the pain was paralyzing. The good news is...and I'll phrase this carefully...the final stage of passing it was, surprisingly, completely painless--I hope yours moves on out as smoothly.

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Thanks, guys. The pain is much better today, but I feel pretty woozy because of all of the drugs. I'm pretty sure if I tried to fly I would need to use the bucket that Gimpy recommends for first time users of TrackIR! :bad:

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I feel your pain . I had one the size of a tennis ball. Had to operate on me to remove it. Left one the size of a dime that they broke up. I passed them trough a tube they left in my kidney. Too k about 3 months to heal. Go to the doc once a year for check ups so I never get one like that again. Get well soon and best of luck.

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Thanks for letting me vent about this. It has been a long and painful day.

 

Dude, I feel your pain, really.

 

I've been shot, shelled, clubbed, stabbed, blown up, burned, generally had my butt kicked numerous times, been in several severe car wrecks, been stomped by horses and bulls, thrown from fast vehicles, and had teeth pulled, drilled, and capped without anesthetic. :black eye:

 

But none of that compares in the slightest to having kidney stones. In my experience, there is nothing even close on the pain scale. Women who've been through natural childbirth tell me that kidney stones are worse even than that. :yikes:

 

So IMHO you have nothing left to prove in this world. You survived kidney stones without killing yourself, so you can take anything :salute:

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My sympathys are with you, Prop-Wasche

 

I have had three bouts with those pebbles from H**L!!! Mine usually hit me over the weekends when the uralogist's office was closed.

 

My standard self treatment is as follows: 1) Draw a steaming hot tub of bath water - as hot as you can stand it. Fill the tub so the water level is up over your tummy - 2) get at least one six-pack of your favorate brew (Cranberry juice concentrate is OK if you don't care for taste of beer - But dont' use the cocktail mix since it has so much sugar in it). 3) lay back in the tub with a towel pillow behind your neck and down the suds one after the other.

 

The Beer Buzz with reduce the ache in your back and volume of liquid will help push the stone down the pipes. I usually passed mine in less that 24 hours.

 

My prayers are with you, my friend...

 

OlPaint01

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Prop-Wasche -

 

Get better soon. I've had stones three times in my life, so I can sympathize on the pain.

 

Yeah, I've heard that they're about the closest thing a man can experience to childbirth, which

makes me think it's amazing we are even on this planet! :)

 

For me, they used Demerol though the IV, and once that hit, the world became a wonderful

place again.

 

Thankfully, I passed the stones on all occasions without any noticeable pain afterwards.

 

Also, whatever painkiller they give you that works, if it ever happens again, make sure they use it!

Second time for me I found out they didn't use Demerol when the pain came back full intensity 20 minutes

later. Needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper!

 

Good luck!

 

Steve

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Thanks for all the support, everyone.

 

I've been shot, shelled, clubbed, stabbed, blown up, burned, generally had my butt kicked numerous times, been in several severe car wrecks, been stomped by horses and bulls, thrown from fast vehicles, and had teeth pulled, drilled, and capped without anesthetic. black eye.gif

 

But none of that compares in the slightest to having kidney stones. In my experience, there is nothing even close on the pain scale.

Thanks, Bullethead. I don't think I would compare my one tiny kidney stone with all that you have gone through, but thanks for the support, anyway. As I haven't been shot, stabbed, shelled, or blown up I can't say to what I would compare it too, but I was writhing around pretty seriously for awhile yesterday. I feel much better today, but whose to say when the damn thing will pass?

 

I like the beer buzz idea! I'll give it a try next time.

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i wish you'll gain your health again asap.

i never experienced something like this. all i can say is, drink water as much as you can. or like doctors say, try to keep white all the time, not yellow. as soon as you get yellow, you did not drink enough.

 

creaghorn

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I feel much better today, but whose to say when the damn thing will pass?

 

Glad you're feeling better. Just be advised that passing the things isn't a lot of fun, either. To me, it felt like there was broken glass mixed in with the liquid. But even this is SO MUCH better than when the things are higher up in the system that it's actually a real relief, especially because you know the whole ordeal is nearly over.

 

Next step is figuring out why you got the damn stones, so you can avoid ever doing that again. In my case, it was drinking Saudi bottled water from their desalinization plants on the shore of the Persian Gulf. The labels on those bottles listed high levels of about 20 different minerals, and it stoned just about everybody in my outfit within +/- 2 weeks of us going home. Fortunately, that's an experience I'm not likely to repeat :).

 

I've made it habit every since, however, to drink at least a gallon of low-mineral water a day. I'm never letting my kidneys silt up again :).

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Thanks for all the support, everyone.

 

 

Thanks, Bullethead. I don't think I would compare my one tiny kidney stone with all that you have gone through, but thanks for the support, anyway. As I haven't been shot, stabbed, shelled, or blown up I can't say to what I would compare it too, but I was writhing around pretty seriously for awhile yesterday. I feel much better today, but whose to say when the damn thing will pass?

 

I like the beer buzz idea! I'll give it a try next time.

Thinking about you and hope you pass that puppy soon, Prop-Wasche.

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Back from the urologist today. There is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that the doctor said there is an 80% chance that my stone will pass without further intervention. In fact, he said that it may have already passed!

 

The bad news is that he identified two more stones located in my other kidney! There is good news and bad news with that, too! The good news is that they may never dislodge from the kidney. The bad news is that they may continue to grow and grow until they have to be removed via surgery. Lucky, lucky, me. His advice? Wait for six months and see if anything happens! Great.

 

In the meantime, I haven't experienced any significant pain since late Sunday and am off the pain meds, so I anticipate being back over Flander's fields as soon as I get a little time from work.

 

Wish me luck!

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Wish me luck!

 

Fingers crossed!

 

Geez, more stones to come.... Did the doc say what caused all this? You might want to ask him on that, so you can stop whatever it is you're doing.

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Well, after being married for awhile, I am again officially single so my diet recently has probably not been as good as it should be. Also, I probably have not been drinking enough (water that is), so I most likely became dehydrated. The good doctor gave me lots of pamphlets to read, so I will learn more soon enough.

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I am intrigued as to why the doctors haven't made a decision to zap the two stones with ultrasound?..it's a fairly routine and common practice here in the UK

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