I have had 3 kidney stones, all relatively small(4 mm to 8 mm) but all were EXTREMELY painful. In the last episode the stone blocked all passage of urine through my ureter and the urine started backing up into my kidney and it made me VERY ill. As you all know, kidney stones are one of the most painful things in the world, usually while passing from the kidney to the bladder through the ureter. This is because the ureter bottle-necks in three different spots and the stone usually gets stuck at each. I always experience extreme pain, nausea and vomiting and fever. The vomiting is horrible because it happens about once a minute and once I start heaving my body won't stop. I can't breath and I get awful headaches from the dry heaving and the pressure being repeatedly forced into my neck and head. But I have found that laying flat on my back relieves the pain some. I also found that using
Flomax helped me to pass the last stone I had quickly and with less pain. I have only been given
Flomax once but it worked well, although it made me very dizzy and it made me feel very out-of-it and fuzzy. I definitely would never take it and then try to drive or work. I always end up in the emergency room when I pass a stone and I strongly recommend going if you suspect that you might be passing a kidney stone. Aside from being able to greatly reduce the pain with prescription IV painkillers, they will also give you IV nausea meds(usually
Zofran or
Phenergan) and since the meds are given intravenously they work instantly AND you won't throw them right back up. They will also make sure your urine isn't backing up into your Kidney which can permanently damage your Kidney and in severe untreated and prolonged cases lead to death. And as an added measure they will put you on antibiotics so that any damage done to the inner lining of your ureter or urethra heals properly and won't get infected. Once you have passed one kidney stone your chances of getting another are much higher so make sure you collect the kidney stone from your urine once it passes out of your body. Then take it to your doctor and have them find out what kind of stone it is, as there are four different types of kidney stones and each different type has a different cause. Once you know the type of stone, your doctor can tell you what you need to do to prevent future stones. And most importantly, drink at least 12 8oz. glasses of water a day if you are prone to get kidney stones since kidney stones CANNOT form in diluted urine. And over weight and obese people are much more likely to get kidney stones so maintain a healthy weight and BMI(body mass index) and get plenty of
exercise! I
hope you find this helpful, but if you don't maybe you will at least find comfort in knowing that others know what you are going through and can relate.
