Ever Wondered What A Kidney Stone Looks or Feels Like?

I’ve had quite a few kidney stones now. The first one happened just a few years ago when I got started on the medication Metformin after being diagnosed with PCOS (before I ever gave birth). I lost 40lbs in a very short amount of time and became very dehydrated. I had also been consuming large amounts of antacids (which contain calcium) for many years because of Gerd.

You’ve heard that when you pass one it’s comparable to giving birth. Lies. NOTHING compares to giving birth and the truth is the only time a kidney stone usually hurts is when it’s moving down the tube and getting ready to make it’s way out. When it actually comes out chances are you probably won’t know it unless there is blood or of course it’s extremely big.

Hey! Stop Poking Me

The first time I had one I had no idea what was going on and I just thought that I had something poking me in the back for ages. It was really weird. I kept getting angry that the seat in my vehicle and my bed had springs sticking out of them. Of course everyone around me thought maybe I was going crazy. Come to find out they weren’t springs.. it was the stone that was poking me! 

How Come You’re Not Crying?

Eventually the stone wanted to make it’s way out and it started to move. The PAIN. My goodness.. the pain! It was so horrendous I thought that I might be dying.  I didn’t have health insurance at the time so I was used to dealing with things on my own. This however had me writhing around on my bed, too freaked out to even cry. Were my kidney’s finally about to explode? Well at that thought I decided to go to the local emergency room.  My husband, who doubted there was any real reason to go there, rode along in the passenger seat. YES! I drove myself. He even asked me “Are you sure you need to go to the hospital?”, because apparently some people who have been lucky enough to never experience that type of pain just assume if you’re not crying it doesn’t really hurt.

Semi-Precious and More Expensive Than A Diamond Ring

So what does it cost to be diagnosed with one of these things? My first one cost me $10,000 + $180. That’s right. No joke. 1 night in an observation room of my local hospital, with pain meds that made me barf all over the place, and being robbed of the cash I had in my pants pocket when I went to sleep and was left alone. (that’s where the $180 comes in – and that’s a whole other story). 10 thousand dollars! and you know what they did for me? Nothing. They gave me a cat scan, diagnosed it, told me it wasn’t too big to pass but that it could take a while and if I wanted I could choose to have it broken up by laser or I could have a tube put inside me that would make it easier to pass. Did I already mention I didn’t have health insurance?

Once I pushed my thoughts passed the fact that I had to live through this without the Dr. helping me further, I got a wonderful prescription of vicodin to dull the pain. It ended up being roughly 2 weeks later when it finally decided to show itself and guess what? No more pain. After that initial night of horror the pain was gone.. all that was there was the constant poking (which had now moved lower in the back). One day I went to the bathroom and there was a bit of blood. Next trip to the bathroom there was a stone.  A beautiful, semi-precious, little stone with seriously jagged edges that looked like I could have tumbled it and made myself some cute little jewelry. Not at all what I expected. The thing even glistened in the light.

Doctors Suck

Instead of continuing to marvel over it I decided to take it to the Dr. and have it examined. I don’t even remember what that cost me because I was too angry at the fact that the Dr. never bothered to tell me what may cause them or what to do to prevent them. He simply took the stone, AND BILLED ME!  That’s right, never even so much as called me and told me what type of stone it was. Of course I inquired and it turned out it was calcium oxalate. The most common type.

A little Practice Pain Before Birth (Kidney Stones During Pregnancy)

My last kidney stone was just 2 weeks before I gave birth. On a trip to my OB they told me I had blood in my urine and not long after that I started having a lot of pain in my left kidney. I knew exactly what it was and apparently the Dr. trusted me enough (He’s been my Dr. since 17) that when I went back I told him I had a kidney stone and he prescribed me Tylenol 3. Well, Tylenol 3 sucks! It did nothing for the pain but dull it a tiny tiny bit. I wasn’t really happy about taking it while pregnant but apparently it’s ok.  Once again 2 weeks after the pain started I passed the stone. No I didn’t fish it out! I simply sat down, got ready to do my business and ding, there it was. This one was nowhere near as cute as all the others but I saved it as proof for my husband.. who tried  not to gag when he seen it.

There Is No Moral To This Story

Usually my stories or posts have some sort of advice or recommendations on how to handle whatever issue is at hand but today, I’m still recovering from giving birth (doing much better btw) and I’m lucky I even got this personal post out to begin with. So you know what? I’ll just cut to the chase because we all know why you’re looking at this post.

So ladies and gentleman. I present to you. One of the many banes of my existence. 

Now let’s all do a collective “EWWWWW”

P.S. That 10k hospital bill? I was lucky enough to get help from the hospital itself and the bill was dismissed. Lucky? In a way. Grateful? Eternally!