Reply #19: I recently had a lithotripsy

[mockmonkey]

The stone was 1.6cm. I had a pain in my left side and they found 2 stones. They arranged for me to have the lithotripsy at the end of the week. Two days before it was to be done I was in too much pain so they inserted a stent.

The stent insertion and the lithotripsy were easy since the put me under before hand. There was some bleeding when I urinated for about 5 days. I would have a small amount of bleeding when a piece of stone was about to come out.

When I first had the stent put in there was some sharp pain in my kidney when I had to urinate followed by me swearing a lot. Not fun but not the worse thing.

After 3 weeks they took the stent out. This was last Thursday actually. Sometimes they use a stent that you can pull out yourself since a part of it is left hanging out. I didn't have that.

The stent removal wasn't fun since they had to go in to get it. They used a numbing solution and that's all. Then they use a camera guided tool? to go in and get the stent. Definitely the worst part of everything. They used a saline solution to flush me out after they remove the stent. It was painful but I got through it with some "AHHHHH" sounds.

They showed me the stent they took out I swear it was 8 inches long. I never saw the thing they used to remove the stent and I am GLAD. My partner saw it and told me about it later.

Since I had the stent removed I've passed the largest stones so far. Passing the stones hasn't been that painful.

The only pain meds I had was some Oxycodone since they don't want you to take aspirin and some Promethazine for nausea. The Promethazine worked well but put me out like a light. I hardly used the Oxycodone.

Kidney stones suck. Having never had them before I wasn't sure what exactly hurt when you have them. My only source for comparison pain wise was when Kramer had them on Seinfeld.

For me the pain is in the kidney when I urinate not in the stones actually coming out.
Stent removal was the other major pain.

Maybe it was different for others.

Good luck to your husband. If he can keep his sense of humor about it he'll be ok.