My Kidney Stone Experience + My Ureteroscopy

Praetorian22

Hey Guys

I just wanted to post about my experience as I've spent the last few months scowering the web for other peoples when it comes to Kidney Stones and the various treatments/procedures out there. It might prove useful to someone down the line who like me was a little hesitant about going through with a Ureteroscopy.

Arrival of the Stone

Around 7 weeks back, I went to the bathroom only to see coca cola colored urine entering the toilet which was quite a shock at first and led me to believe I was severely dehydrated from running earlier that today (I'm a jog-a-holic). I also thought it might have been hematuria from going to hard on the runs.

I felt fine, no illness, sickness, nausea, vomiting or anything. I did however have slightly pains (very slight) in the right hand side of my back throughout the day and put this down to the jogging.

Anyway the next day I awoke, feeling fine again no pain, had my morning coffee, went running, came back showered, went to the bathroom and BANG blood blood blood. Instantly I became very worried and weak so went about booking a trip to the GP. I prepared a urine sample and brought it with me.

After 10 minutes with the GP he done some feeling around and suspected a kidney stone and referred me to A&E. I went to the hospital done both urine and blood tests which both returned fine, no infections, no kidney damage nothing. He did however say most likely it was a kidney stone and prescribed me tetcyclex, diafene, and tamulosin (flow-max) incase of extreme pain and walked me through what would happen if the stone passed and explained where the blood might have come from. He also referred me to a Urologist.

Urologist

4 weeks back I went to the Urologist and done further tests and scans, it appeared that I had one stone, not too large and not too small at the lower end of the ureter, so it has already left the kidney. While being showed the X-RAY I was hopeful as I'd spent the prior 5 weeks googling K-Stones and memorizing how they appear on the X-RAY screen. Immediately when the X-RAY was on the screen, I was thinking to myself.....hmm I see no stones there, might be in the clear, and then came the "but" from the doctor......scroll down on the X-RAY and bang a stone in my ureter.

Urologist Treatment Advice

They sent me out an appointment for a ureteroscopy as they said "if the stone has not moved by now it will not most likely move" so a ureteroscopy is the best way of getting it out.

My Ureteroscopy

As I type this I am presently recovering/recuperating from my Ureteroscopy. I had an X-RAY before the procedure which I kind of insisted upon as I didint want them going into me and then finding out I passed the stone . The stone however remained and has now been removed. Also removed was a calcium build-up which is not a stone as such but a slight gathering of particles (which would lead to another stone down the line). I was in the surgery room for 2 hours and in recovery for a further 2. No complications, no excruciating pain. Just observation, waiting until the anesthetic wore off to be given my discharge home.


Pain

I can only speak for myself here and say the pain ONLY occurs while peeing, no issues with the stent they fit. If I feel good by Monday I'll be back jogging. The whole experience was a lot better than expected.

Hopefully this helps someone out there who's on the stone journey

Gatling

Went through 3 stones in an 18 month period ,one had to be removed in an emergency didn't know I actually had one until I passed a thick black sludge ,one day was rushed in to remove one 9mm and one 6 mm stone didn't feel a thing ,
Developed another one 6 months later smaller but I passed that naturally after a month of what can only be described of holy hell pain ,
And less than a year later developed another one passed naturally but seriously painful process

dvdman1

Praetorian22 wrote: »

Hey Guys

I just wanted to post about my experience as I've spent the last few months scowering the web for other peoples when it comes to Kidney Stones and the various treatments/procedures out there. It might prove useful to someone down the line who like me was a little hesitant about going through with a Ureteroscopy.

Arrival of the Stone

Around 7 weeks back, I went to the bathroom only to see coca cola colored urine entering the toilet which was quite a shock at first and led me to believe I was severely dehydrated from running earlier that today (I'm a jog-a-holic). I also thought it might have been hematuria from going to hard on the runs.

I felt fine, no illness, sickness, nausea, vomiting or anything. I did however have slightly pains (very slight) in the right hand side of my back throughout the day and put this down to the jogging.

Anyway the next day I awoke, feeling fine again no pain, had my morning coffee, went running, came back showered, went to the bathroom and BANG blood blood blood. Instantly I became very worried and weak so went about booking a trip to the GP. I prepared a urine sample and brought it with me.

After 10 minutes with the GP he done some feeling around and suspected a kidney stone and referred me to A&E. I went to the hospital done both urine and blood tests which both returned fine, no infections, no kidney damage nothing. He did however say most likely it was a kidney stone and prescribed me tetcyclex, diafene, and tamulosin (flow-max) incase of extreme pain and walked me through what would happen if the stone passed and explained where the blood might have come from. He also referred me to a Urologist.

Urologist

4 weeks back I went to the Urologist and done further tests and scans, it appeared that I had one stone, not too large and not too small at the lower end of the ureter, so it has already left the kidney. While being showed the X-RAY I was hopeful as I'd spent the prior 5 weeks googling K-Stones and memorizing how they appear on the X-RAY screen. Immediately when the X-RAY was on the screen, I was thinking to myself.....hmm I see no stones there, might be in the clear, and then came the "but" from the doctor......scroll down on the X-RAY and bang a stone in my ureter.

Urologist Treatment Advice

They sent me out an appointment for a ureteroscopy as they said "if the stone has not moved by now it will not most likely move" so a ureteroscopy is the best way of getting it out.

My Ureteroscopy

As I type this I am presently recovering/recuperating from my Ureteroscopy. I had an X-RAY before the procedure which I kind of insisted upon as I didint want them going into me and then finding out I passed the stone . The stone however remained and has now been removed. Also removed was a calcium build-up which is not a stone as such but a slight gathering of particles (which would lead to another stone down the line). I was in the surgery room for 2 hours and in recovery for a further 2. No complications, no excruciating pain. Just observation, waiting until the anesthetic wore off to be given my discharge home.


Pain

I can only speak for myself here and say the pain ONLY occurs while peeing, no issues with the stent they fit. If I feel good by Monday I'll be back jogging. The whole experience was a lot better than expected.

Hopefully this helps someone out there who's on the stone journey

Praetorian22 im in the same situation...a cluster on my left kidney, they will use Ureteroscopy and lazer them
Can you tell me about your stent removal, was it painful?

Praetorian22

dvdman1, I would imagine that you will have exactly the same experience as me (surrounding the stent), it sounds a lot worse than it actually is. I'm not one to over-exaggerate things and I know "stent-removal" on Google searches reveals all-types of horror stories. For me it was completely the opposite, literally over in a matter of seconds, it's the thought of it that builds up in your head but trust me it's not bad at all.

In truth for me the worst part of the whole experience was afterwards, it'll take 48 hours for things to go back to normal downstairs. Be sure to use the painkillers they give you post-treatment that is my recommendation. I was unfortunate to get a few kidney spasms as a reaction to the surgery/stent but once you take the pills you'll be free from any severe pain and will probably just get a few seconds of discomfort. It's going for a whiz the first few times that got me. That is an experience I do now want to re-live.

dvdman1

Praetorian22 wrote: »

dvdman1, I would imagine that you will have exactly the same experience as me (surrounding the stent), it sounds a lot worse than it actually is. I'm not one to over-exaggerate things and I know "stent-removal" on Google searches reveals all-types of horror stories. For me it was completely the opposite, literally over in a matter of seconds, it's the thought of it that builds up in your head but trust me it's not bad at all.

In truth for me the worst part of the whole experience was afterwards, it'll take 48 hours for things to go back to normal downstairs. Be sure to use the painkillers they give you post-treatment that is my recommendation. I was unfortunate to get a few kidney spasms as a reaction to the surgery/stent but once you take the pills you'll be free from any severe pain and will probably just get a few seconds of discomfort. It's going for a whiz the first few times that got me. That is an experience I do now want to re-live.

Thanks for the reply....btw how long was your stent in for?....biggest stone i have is 8.1mm and a bunch of smaller ones..hopefully the fragments wash out fast.
How many had u at what sizes

Praetorian22

My Pleasure and no problem at all, it was a solid week that I had the stent from the day of the Ureteroscopy being completed to the day of the stent removal. Now all things considered after the first 48 hours (post Ureteroscopy) I had 0 issues with the stent and would of forgotten it was there to be truthful if I had my brain wiped. It did not give me any issues and I worked back up my jogging gradually over the 7 days, I did not do my usual length/intensity of out sheer "cop-on".

For me the worst thing about it other than going for a whiz, was the anesthetic after the Ureteroscopy. It shut down my digestion completely so was bloated heavily for a few days, but that was just my reaction to it, everyone handles it different.

Surrounding the size of the stones.............firstly I actually asked for them pre-surgery to see if it was possible to get them back as I've seen videos of people on Youtube, but they told me it was not possible for whatever reason. The stone was 4.2 so not big, according to the urologist it was lodged at an angle in the ureter so that's why it did not pass.