Kidney Stone Prevention.

[memmy]

OK. 

[marc]

I've been showing people an arrowhead I found a couple of years ago and telling them I've passed my stone, but I don't think they're buying it.  

[twd]

Ouch!

[memmy]

I've been showing people an arrowhead I found a couple of years ago and telling them I've passed my stone, but I don't think they're buying it.   

I am sure it must feel like that somedays, huh Marc?

[marc]

yep.

[janine]

You can get those plastic lemons in the produce section at most grocery stores.  They should be mostly real lemon juice, maybe also with some lemon oil, which shouldn't hurt.  Maybe a little tiny bit of something else as a preservative -- although how something so acidic is gonna go bad I don't know.

You grab your 20-oz bottle of springwater, you pop in a couple packets of Splenda, you squirt in a few squirts of lemon from your easily-managed rubber lemon...

[Arkstfan]

I've had two kidney stone bouts, one about sixteen years ago (and if beer cures kidney stones I musta had the Rock o Gibaltar inside of me before the beer whittled it down because I drank some serious quantities of beer at the time). Round 2 was in the spring this year.

I got lucky both times, gallons of water and proper administration of narcotics and was over it in around 24 hours.

[marc]

I've never had one of those 24-hour stones.  My brother-in-law and his family were in Myrtle Beach last week, though, and a stone hit him on Friday.  He passed it Sunday morning.

Why can't I get that lucky with mine?

[Bon Voyage]

I've never had one of those 24-hour stones.  My brother-in-law and his family were in Myrtle Beach last week, though, and a stone hit him on Friday.  He passed it Sunday morning.

Why can't I get that lucky with mine?

Didn't some other big thing begin on a Friday, and end on a Sunday?

[marc]

That's what I've always thought, but I know a preacher who says we have our days wrong. 

[Snargles]

I have more problems with stones when I allow myself to get dehydrated. I read an article that recommended stone sufferers drink enough water that they have to get up in the middle of the night for a trip down the hall. When I have a stone I just drink gallons of aqua tapus - the good stuff the city pipes straight to my sink. Pop is bad, tea is bad (pthalates do something evil), cranberry juice is alright but no better than water, beer is good. Narcotics are excellent.

[janine]

heh heh heh yep morphine is supposed to be the nectar of the gods, so Mike says...

[marc]

I have more problems with stones when I allow myself to get dehydrated. I read an article that recommended stone sufferers drink enough water that they have to get up in the middle of the night for a trip down the hall. When I have a stone I just drink gallons of aqua tapus - the good stuff the city pipes straight to my sink. Pop is bad, tea is bad (pthalates do something evil), cranberry juice is alright but no better than water, beer is good. Narcotics are excellent.

I'm not sure what city you're in, but I've never tasted anything from city pipes that didn't need a good filter before it was drinkable.

[twd]

That's why God gave us Brita.

[mandalee65]

DH is prone to the 24-hour variety. A couple of weeks ago, he felt one coming on. I had to do a covert run to the gas station to buy beer. In a small town, that's no easy feat!

The army doctors told him to drink a beer a day as a preventative. His regular dr. said to stay away from dairy products, or at least cut them back. It wasn't exactly intentional, but he started drinking a lot more water after the last serious bout, and he hasn't had as much of a problem since then.

I've always heard of cranberry juice for a UTI (which absolutely works), but not for kidney stones.

[memmy]

Since the stones are generally a buildup of calcium and calcium is not assimilated well without magnesium, then that is what I recommend.

I know........., you all heard it all before, but it's true.

[Bon Voyage]

More info for Marc,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20060904/hl_hsn/orangejuicebestatstoppingkidneystones

[whispering hope]

I'm new to this board but have had between 12 and 15 kidney stones in my lifetime.  My father had over 90 and all of my children have had at least 1.  And they say the tendency is not hereditary?  Riggggghhht.

Anyway, kidney stone pain IS worse than labor pains unless it is a small stone.  I have had a greatly reduced number of stones in the past 20 years.  Possible reasons:

1.  High blood pressure, which causes me to take a medication with a diuretic which makes urine pass  through more quickly.
2.  Drinking lemon juice.... squeezed from the lemons, not diluted.
3.  Craving, yes craving, vinegar and drinking it... now I know that sounds weird and most people would not even want to try it but you might try a combination of vinegar, honey, and olive oil in equal portions... it is more palatable and also cleanses your entire system.

Gary, that was a good article about orange juice, but with Marc being diabetic, that might not be a great solution.

   

[twd]

Craving vinegar?  Eew!  A small splash of vinegar in a large glass of water can be refreshing, but not in higher quantities.  Of course, as I've never had a kidney stone, I can't imagine what you might be driven to do to avoid them.

[Arkstfan]

I've never had one of those 24-hour stones.  My brother-in-law and his family were in Myrtle Beach last week, though, and a stone hit him on Friday.  He passed it Sunday morning.

Why can't I get that lucky with mine?

I wasn't so lucky a couple months later. Missed around a week of work.

I was talking to a co-worker who had come into my office and just as the conversation was wrapping up I felt IT move and start the most horrendous pain I've ever experienced and that's from a guy who had already had two attacks before.

Held composure just long enough for the co-worker to walk out. Immediately dialed my doctor to see if I need to go to ER or the office (his office is in the same complex a floor up from the ER) they said come to the office.

Had enough presence of mind to tell another co-worker to call the court and get a continuance for a trial later that day.

Then I made the dumbest mistake of my life I drove the 8-10 miles there in so much pain I could barely see. I was veering and couldn't maintain proper speed (pedal to the floor between waves of pain, coasting in mid-wave). I parked my truck in front of the door where the little covered porch is for dropping off and picking up patients and staggered in. Got upstairs to the doctor's office and handed my keys to the receptionist in the event the truck needed to be moved.

My wife arrived a few hours later (actually about five minutes). They gave me a shot for pain which reduced it from fatal pain to "wish it were fatal" pain. They gave me another shot for nausea which worked very well because I started puking my guts out. Near as I can tell those little puke dishes they give you are merely vomit ramps to help you guide it to the part of the floor you want to hit.

They shipped me down to the ER for some heavier narcotics and a CAT scan or MRI. Then back to the doctor's office.

Doctor says he can admit me to the hospital or send me home with drugs. Again being stupid I opt for going home. He says the stone appeared to be small enough to pass on its own. If it does bring it in to be analyzed.

Well.

A week later it passed into this world in the most horrifyingly painful way I've experienced. It was larger than the radiologist thought it was and when I brought it in, the entire office came to look at it because it was the largest stone they had ever seen anyone pass on their own. If I had been smart enough to opt for the hospital stay they would have almost certainly done litho the second day.

My stones aren't calcium but rather uric acid crystals which means I've got to keep down the amount of protein I eat but if go with too many carbs I start looking like a certain Mike Meyers character with a Scottish accent.

[marc]

Why do I only think to read this thread (and others like it) when I already have a stone?

This one's taken a while, btw. The pain has intensified the last week and a half (this is the second worst one that I've had; I say that every time) and have pretty much been able to track the stone's position.  Right now, it seems to be trying to complete the journey.

I passed my last one in a WalMart bathroom, btw.  I hope to have more privacy this time.

[ravenlorre]

Why do I only think to read this thread (and others like it) when I already have a stone?

This one's taken a while, btw. The pain has intensified the last week and a half (this is the second worst one that I've had; I say that every time) and have pretty much been able to track the stone's position.  Right now, it seems to be trying to complete the journey.

I passed my last one in a WalMart bathroom, btw.  I hope to have more privacy this time.

Oh boy......I am not sure I feel better or worse after reading your nightmare stories.  My left kidney started hurting a couple of days ago and the pain is increasing.  So far I have avoided going to the doctor, but I know it is inevitable.  I have never had a kidney stone before, but based on the pain I am already feeling, I am going to be in a world of hurt. 

I drink tea habitually and I am diabetic so I am vulnerable to the kind of stones make from too much protein and the ones make of calcium - oh mama!

Lord have mercy......

[revkag]

The last one I had, I passed at Texas Stadium at a Promise Keepers conference... I remember it because it felt so good afterwards! 

[ravenlorre]

The last one I had, I passed at Texas Stadium at a Promise Keepers conference... I remember it because it felt so good afterwards! 

So was the initial pain sharp and agonizing?

[marc]

btw, the doctor today told me to drink beer when I have the stones.   He said that since this was just a temporary thing it wouldn't really affect the diabetes, and he said that beer was the best thing to help them pass.

[kensington]

The best cure for Kidney Stones (I've had them several times) is drinking lots of water...  and a Urologist who can hit a bullseye from 100 yards with Lithotripsy!  Good Luck! 

[marc]

I don't have one at the moment (I just passed my second in the past year a couple of weeks ago).  fwiw, I drink more water than anyone I know (have all my life).  For years I lived under the illusion that this would keep the stones from forming.