My Character On Heroes: Kidney Stone Boy

I'm in process of passing a kidney stone. I haven't had the displeasure of passing one since I started this blog. The last one was almost a year ago at the end of July. I'm an old pro at this...a veritable kidney stone making machine. Too bad they aren't worth anything cause I'd be rich. Rich, rich, rich I tell you.

So the symptoms have been with me for a while. I've had some unreasonable depression going on. Usually I have a reason to be depressed. In fact, I seem to have a treasure trove of reasons to be depressed. As luck would have it, life is pretty good right now. So when I'm depressed for no reason, I have come to learn it is related to my body being out of whack. This time around I said it was because of allergies, I was tired, etc. But now I know.

Yesterday I started with the back pain. Now, the pain is never quite the same and never in the same area, so until the pain is excruciating it isn't the best indicator. It depends on where the stone is and where the blockage happens to be. I can have pain in my back, in my belly, in my balls, or at the tip of my hoo hoo dilly. Pain in the back wasn't so much a cause for concern since I have been doing quite a bit of yard work. Carry heavy bags of soil, bending a lot, taking photos of my daffodils. The usual.

Today was the definitive symptom. Blood in my urine. Yep, I'm gonna pass a kidney stone. I ask you to send positive thoughts my way...and some Oxycontin wouldn't hurt. I never know if it is gonna be a bad one or not. It depends on the size (the last two were the size of a grain of rice), how jagged it is, and if it gets caught in my ureter sideways or not. The picture of a stone in the wiki link above is exactly what mine look like.

I know that I get them from drinking diet soda — it's the phosphorus. That caused my last two as I was on a strict diet and lost 25 lbs to get down to 155. Well, on a depressing side note, I found those 25 lbs and I'm back at 180. Anyhoo, I haven't had diet soda in a year so this is probably left over from that. The last two were from my right kidney so I suspect this will be from my left.

In tomorrow's episode: Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy. Been there, done that. Twice. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Update:

I get a large number of hits from Google searches on "Kidney Stone", "Lithotripsy", and other related terms. In an effort to make this subject easier to navigate on this blog, I am adding the following list of posts to every kidney stone entry to make them cross reference accessible.

If you are reading this because you have, or think you have, a kidney stone, I know your pain. Unless you've had one, and I've had some mild incidences and some really bad ones, no one can even imagine the level of pain.

Make an immediate appointment with an urologist. I am not a doctor and these are my experiences only!

You could be experiencing a kidney stone, but it may also be a urinary tract infection, a tumor, or other medical condition. Don't take any chances with your health!

These posts involve my passing of two giant 6mm stones this summer...three days apart! Wrapped in these posts are stories that detail my lifelong battle with them.

In the interest of clarity, these links are in temporal order.

First Signs Of A Stone May 7, 2007
What I Know About Kidney Stones May 8, 2007
A Discussion Of Lithotripsy May 9, 2007
Peeing Blood, No Pain May 11, 2007
Pain Returns May 18, 2007
Pain Again In The Back May 26, 2007
Bloody Urine Is Back July 12, 2007
Passed Kidney Stone #1 July 26, 2007
Passed Kidney Stone #2 July 30, 2007

I wish you well.
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