Passing a kidney stone right now.

My brother passed one in the bathroom at Lowe's. Yep.

He showed it to me. It was as big as a pencil eraser, and jagged as hell. Ouch.

Ouch! Luckily mine is only 2mm and a smooth calcium ball. But another downfall of not being well endowed means it hurts more, lol.a reply to: angeldoll

a reply to: bananashooter

Yeah, in all fairness, it would have further to go. I'm so sorry. I know it hurts.

a reply to: bananashooter

Had one about 10 years ago. Hurt like a (insert ALL the curse words)!!!!

I woke up with an awful pain in my back. Thought I'd just slept funny. Went to the bathroom, stood at the toilet, went to pee and the pain was like nothing I've ever felt before, and no pee was coming out. Not even a dribble.

Now, I don't much like going to the doctors unless it's something serious, but I phone my GP and made an appointment for 2 hours later. Only problem was, I was bursting for a pee.

So I kept trying and trying. I ended up in tears at one point. After an hour of gently trying, being in pain, the pain moving, countless cigarettes, it finally came out with A LOT of blood.

I kept this little jaggy thing and went to the docs. Had to have a couple of scans to check the damage, which, luckily, was only minimal. Scans came back all clear and no more stones.

Since then I've cut back on dairy, fizzy drinks and energy drinks. Don't want to jinx it, but I've not had one since.

Just remembering the pain and typing this is making me cross my legs and wince.

Once bit a plastic tip of a Swisher Sweet cigar clear through while passing one...
Dont try that at home , if you like your teeth.
I feel your pain

I've had kidney stones quite a few times. I did not know what they were until about ten years ago. I had hurt my back a couple of times in the same area and I didn't realize many of the attacks were kidney problems till someone told me that they were. I now lowered consumption of foods that increase the stone formation, basically oxylates. I occasionally get a stone, but not nearly as often as I used to. I don't get a sore back in that area very often anymore either, I think most of my problems in that location were stones before, I ate a lot of oxylate food chemistry before.

a reply to: bananashooter

They are painful,I had them twice,my son had one so big took like a year for them to break it up so it could pass,very painful,drink more water

a reply to: Bigburgh

WTF! Are those? They don't look like crystal. You passing teeth!! It does hold a calcium look though.

Amorphous Phosphate stone are sometimes made of Hydroxyapatite, the very same material that make tooth enamel.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I've had kidney stones quite a few times. I did not know what they were until about ten years ago. I had hurt my back a couple of times in the same area and I didn't realize many of the attacks were kidney problems till someone told me that they were. I now lowered consumption of foods that increase the stone formation, basically oxylates. I occasionally get a stone, but not nearly as often as I used to. I don't get a sore back in that area very often anymore either, I think most of my problems in that location were stones before, I ate a lot of oxylate food chemistry before.

Try to ID what are they made of exactly, bring them to a lab. Also the pH of your urine is very important when dealing with kidney stones. Distinction between amorphous urates and amorphous phosphates is often made on the urinary pH basis.

originally posted by: Cofactor

originally posted by: rickymouse
I've had kidney stones quite a few times. I did not know what they were until about ten years ago. I had hurt my back a couple of times in the same area and I didn't realize many of the attacks were kidney problems till someone told me that they were. I now lowered consumption of foods that increase the stone formation, basically oxylates. I occasionally get a stone, but not nearly as often as I used to. I don't get a sore back in that area very often anymore either, I think most of my problems in that location were stones before, I ate a lot of oxylate food chemistry before.

Try to ID what are they made of exactly, bring them to a lab. Also the pH of your urine is very important when dealing with kidney stones. Distinction between amorphous urates and amorphous phosphates is often made on the urinary pH basis.

I get them after eating high oxylate foods. One meal usually doesn't do it, but if I eat quite a bit of it they form. Most oxylates break down by just cooking the veggies a little longer, so now we do that and I can eat more without the stones forming. Calcium oxylate stones are way more common in people anyway from what I read.

I still get an occasional little stone, but nothing that is really that bad anymore after I corrected my diet. Strangely, I have gene variants that are interpretted to show I may get oxylate stones, evidently I make less of an enzyme that breaks down oxylates. I never figured they would have a genetic link. My son in law got some and went to the hospital and they gave him something to break up the stones. Those were oxylate stones.

Getting testing done now won't work, I'm not going to eat high oxylate foods again to form them so I can go to the doctors to have them test them. Why would I purposely put myself back into that situation again when I know how to keep them from forming in the future. If someone else wants to torture themselves to have a doctor gather evidence, let them.

I am not going to go to a specialist to verify I can't eat tomatoes on a regular basis either, I get broken out on the forehead and top of the head from tomatoes. I can eat them once in a week without too much problems, but if I eat them more than that I wind up breaking out and my guts seem to get festered or something. Some people think they need proof, I don't, I did an extensive observation that took almost a year to verify. You need to rule out all other possible interactions. That takes time.

a reply to: rickymouse

Calcium oxylate stones are way more common in people anyway from what I read.

This is Calcium Oxalate, it is present in both acid & neutral urine and can form a mix with other stone material. Ca Oxalate is abundant in normal urine, especially after ingestion of large dose of ascorbic acid or oxalic acid rich food (tomato, asparagus). It is normally is a state of oversaturation and shall not precipitate or crystalize in warm urine. You probably lack anti-crystallization factors. Supplementation with citrates might help.

Under the scope, crystal often have sharp edge (Weddellite), thus making damage (blood in urine) and pain.

Magnesium is an inhibitor of the formation of calcium oxalate crystals in the urine, but too high level can promote formation of Struvite stone (very bad).

Ca Oxalate is one of the few substance that cannot be redisolved by urine pH modification. However Hydroxycitric Acid is reported capable at broking the crystal structure.

I'm surprised you are not interested at investigating these things! Was not proposing you provoque formation to study them, I'm not that devious, just if you have kept somes.

originally posted by: Cofactor
a reply to: rickymouse

Calcium oxylate stones are way more common in people anyway from what I read.

This is Calcium Oxalate, it is present in both acid & neutral urine and can form a mix with other stone material. Ca Oxalate is abundant in normal urine, especially after ingestion of large dose of ascorbic acid or oxalic acid rich food (tomato, asparagus). It is normally is a state of oversaturation and shall not precipitate or crystalize in warm urine. You probably lack anti-crystallization factors. Supplementation with citrates might help.

Under the scope, crystal often have sharp edge (Weddellite), thus making damage (blood in urine) and pain.

Magnesium is an inhibitor of the formation of calcium oxalate crystals in the urine, but too high level can promote formation of Struvite stone (very bad).

Ca Oxalate is one of the few substance that cannot be redisolved by urine pH modification. However Hydroxycitric Acid is reported capable at broking the crystal structure.

I'm surprised you are not interested at investigating these things! Was not proposing you provoque formation to study them, I'm not that devious, just if you have kept somes.

I read about all those types of stones and investigated chemistry to break them. Like you said, it is hard to naturally break them once you have them. I was lucky that I never really screwed up my kidneys. I do have kidney damage, I pee out too much, but that came from the Depakote I took for a couple of years for my epilepsy. It has ruined a lot of people's kidneys. It could have been from stones, I cannot be sure it was the Depakote.

I reduced the amount of asparagus I use to treat my epilepsy, in order to break down the oxylates, it has to be all mushy. It doesn't taste good mushy. I do use cabbage a lot to treat my epilepsy, I make soups out of it. If I eat it raw too much, I get some bad side effects similar to what I had with the medications. Lemon juice is good for helping prevent kidney stones, I put that in my chicken soup. It is also good at helping preventing gallstones I think. I like lemonaide. I think that might have the citrate in it that you mentioned.

I tried using magnesium to control my epilepsy, and I wound up with some kidney pain, but I was also taking some ibuprofen at the time for spasms in my arm muscles so I do not really know whether the extra magnesium or the Ibuprofen caused my kidney problems. Magnesium does not work for my epilepsy, I did it and it took care of the head noise and some of the thinking part, but it doesn't take care of the muscle spasms like my soups and other anti-epileptic chemistry I consume. In order to see if the magnesium worked properly, I avoided all of my anti-epileptic diet. I can take magnesium occasionally but not everyday. The amount of magnesium I used was only about equal to the daily minimum requirement, it was magnesium citrate, that probably did not effect my kidneys. So I think it was probably two weeks of Iboprofin that caused the problem. The symptoms fit, sore kidneys but no real stones. Learning the hard way always gives you memories that last.

I have learned to try to keep sickness from happening instead of suffering the sickness. It is working, but often it is hard to determine what is happening. Symptoms are often the same for many different conditions, even too much or too little of a level in the body cause similar symtoms some times.

Bannanashooter, hope your stone passed, but I curse you. I am in the hospital now with one. It is like saying beetlejuice 3 times.

Oh no!!! I am sorry, yes I passed mine finally after 2 days. I hope you're feeling better. Drink tons of water, it's your friend when you have a stone.a reply to: theatreboy

I have had them and gallstones too... the kidney stones hit me awhile after I took some sulfur based antibiotics that I know I didn't take enough water with. Anyways un believable pain, went to the docs, ended up on the floor pounding the tile waiting for a shot of dilaudid. Then I had a few more pass, maybe debris idk but pain in my side etc. So to deal with the next ones I started a routine. I drank lime juice and took alfalfa tablets every hour during my second wave. Supposed to help break them up. Then I got a heating pad and some castor oil and spread it on where the pain was and wrapped a thin towel around it as well as some plastic wrap over that. Then rested/slept with the pad on as hot as I could take it. That worked way better than anything I did, the pain meds I got were worthless (Tylenol with codeine). Idk if the castor oil did anything but it seemed to help a lot. It was something I read somewhere. Also I started taking doses of stone free, a supplement for kidney and gallstones. The maker suggests larger than recommended doses for attacks taken hourly as well. I've taken it for years, never had an issue.

To echo a previous comment I read a study that said people who previously had kidney stones that took magnesium daily had almost no stones afterward so there's definitely a connection. Also good for constipation too, obviously you don't want to take too much. Mine KS were a few years ago and except for another mini attack a couple weeks later, I haven't really had any since. I take magnesium and PH's Stone Free daily ever since. But the heating pad and castor oil really eased the pain for me, I just moved it to where the pain traveled. Hope that helps someone, I had the heat as high as I could take most of the time. Also I have taken chanca piedra for gallstones too and supposedly is known as the stone breaker herb for kidney stones. And I drank lemon water for a long time afterwards as well as taking malic acid daily. Avoid sodas too...