Welcome to the club. I’ve had too many to count then they stopped for 15 years . Then I had one last May
Yes, I know that pain. I've never seriously contemplated suicide, but twice I caught myself thinking of the few options that I could think of to end the pain. Morphine in the ER is great. Nothing that they gave me for home made a lick of difference.
Is it worse than the horror I experienced with my vasectomy?
Seriously..... we're grown men. We can talk about these things...
how do you stop them(stones)
My vasectomy years ago was like a pinch...and the nurse was cute who did the shaving. I should have left her a $$ tip!
Stones can be hereditary (as I've now learned), a product of the foods that you eat, the water that you don't drink, etc. There are a ton of foods that lead to it like processed meats but also good things like spinach, rhubarb, nuts and seeds, etc...things that we should be consuming. Water with lemons, lemonade, or really anything with citric acid is good at keeping them from getting big. Avoiding dehydration is one of the keys. I've always been good at hydrating and am one of those people toting my metal water bottle with me wherever I go, but you can always drink more!
My brief story:
Mrs El Guapo had two friends at our cabin near the Canadian border in northern Minnesota. We had boated around 30 miles to the other end of the lake, had a few beers along the way, and eventually stopped for dinner at a bar. That's when it hit me like a brick. I couldn't eat, couldn't stand to be inside, and my friends found me laying in the grass in front of the bar like a drunk. A waitress (who just had a kidney stone surgically removed) handed us her keys and said to get me to the hospital 15 miles away. My friend drove me in the car while my wife and friend's wife drove the boat back to the cabin. Our lake is like a maze with hundreds of bays, islands, and rocky hazards. Mrs El Guapo is good driving a boat but had
never navigated the trip. They used a map and their good senses to make it back to our cabin, packed, and then boated in the moonless night back to the boat landing which is five miles away -- our cabin is essentially on an island, no road access. They met us at the local ER where they had done a CT scan and given me morphine. The stone was 5mm which means a 50% chance of passing on its own. They discharged me saying that the stone had made its way almost to the bladder. We returned the waitress' car with a full tank of gas, and stayed in a hotel for the night. Sunday was painful but tolerable as we drove home. Monday morning I was back in the ER in the Twin Cities due to the pain. My wife hadn't seen me in tears since we watched The Notebook, and even then she was shocked. Another CT scan, more morphine, and they released me without pain meds saying that the stone was in my bladder so there shouldn't be pain. Monday afternoon/evening I felt great, and even ate food for the first time since Saturday lunch. Then the pain and discomfort hit again around bed time. It was difficult living but I slept a few winks here and there and felt fine when I woke up officially. Then the pain hit again and was constant all day. The discomfort and pain are almost intolerable. I eventually passed the stone with little fanfare around 8pm and life immediately felt no pain. One side effect of the pain meds is that they cause constipation. While I hadn't eaten much in days, I still felt bloated on top of kidney and bladder pain. Once the stone was out, the stool softeners finally *kicked* in and I spent some much anticipated time on the porcelein.
I've broken bones, torn muscles, dealt with my shoulders slapping in and out of socket (thanks football), and have generally had IMO pretty high pain tolerance. This was much worse. Many women have said that kidney stones are worse than child birth, but I don't want to find out. I'm pretty sure squeezing a football out of any part of my body would cause a painful death.
I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Everyone go fill your water bottles and drink to your health!
(Learned this one from Cousin Eddie)
