Treatment of Kidney Stones

If your doctor thinks the stone can pass on its own, and you feel you can deal with the pain, he or she may suggest home treatment, including:

• Drinking more fluids. You need to drink enough water to keep your urine clear, about 8 to 10 glasses a day. Try to drink 2 glasses of water every 2 hours while you are awake. If you have kidney, heart, or liver disease and are on fluid restrictions, talk with your doctor before increasing your fluid intake.
• Not drinking grapefruit juice. Drinking grapefruit juice may increase your risk for developing kidney stones.
• Using pain medicine. Nonprescription medicine, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), may relieve your pain. Your doctor can prescribe stronger pain medicine if needed.

Your doctor may prescribe medicine to help your body pass the stone. Calcium channel blockers and alpha-blockers have been shown to help kidney stones pass more quickly with very few side effects. Ask your doctor if one of these medicines can help you.

If your pain is too severe, if the stones are blocking the urinary tract, or if you also have an infection, your doctor will probably suggest medical or surgical treatment. Your options are:

• Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL). ESWL uses shock waves that pass easily through the body but are strong enough to break up a kidney stone. This is the most commonly used medical treatment for kidney stones. See a picture of ESWL.
• Percutaneous nephrolithotomy or nephrolithotripsy. The surgeon puts a narrow telescope into the kidney through a cut in your back. He or she then removes the stone (lithotomy) or breaks it up and removes it (lithotripsy). This procedure may be used if ESWL does not work or if you have a very large stone.
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• Ureteroscopy.The surgeon passes a very thin telescope tube (ureteroscope) up the urinary tract to the stone's location, where he or she uses instruments to remove the stone or break it up for easier removal. Occasionally, you may need a small hollow tube (ureteral stent) placed in the ureter for a short time to keep it open and drain urine and any stone pieces. Ureteroscopy is often used for stones that have moved from the kidney to the ureter. See a picture of ureteroscopy
• Open surgery. The surgeon makes a cut in the side or the belly to reach the kidneys and remove the stone. This treatment is rarely used.

Kidney Stone 101 continuation

What are the symptoms?

Kidney stones form in the kidney and if they stay in the kidney, they do not typically cause pain. When they travel out of the body through the tubes of the urinary tract (including the ureters, which connect the kidney to the bladder, or the urethra, which leads outside the body), their movement may cause:

• No symptoms, if the stone is small enough.
• Sudden, severe pain that gets worse in waves. Stones may cause intense pain in the back, side, abdomen, groin, or genitals. People who have had a kidney stone often describe the pain as "the worst pain I've ever had."
• Feeling sick to the stomach (nausea) and vomiting.
• Blood in the urine (hematuria), which can occur either with stones that stay in the kidney or with those that travel through the ureters.
• Frequent and painful urination, which may occur when the stone is in the ureter or after the stone has left the bladder and is in the urethra. Painful urination may occur when a urinary tract infection is also present.

How are kidney stones diagnosed?

You may first find out that you have kidney stones when you see your doctor or go to an emergency room with pain in your belly or side. Your doctor will ask you questions about your pain and lifestyle. He or she will examine you and may do imaging tests such as X-rays to look at your kidneys and urinary tract.

You may need more tests if you have more than one stone or have a family history of stones. To find out the cause of your kidney stones, your doctor may order a blood test and ask you to collect your urine for 24 hours. This can help your doctor find out if you are likely to have more stones in the future.

Kidney stones may not cause any pain. If this is the case, you may learn you have them when your doctor finds them during a test for another disease.

Kidney Stone 101

What are kidney stones?

Kidney stones are made of salts and minerals in the urine that stick together to form small "pebbles." They can be as small as grains of sand or as large as golf balls. They may stay in your kidneys or travel out of your body through the urinary tract. The urinary tract is the system that makes urine and carries it out of your body. It is made up of the kidneys, the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder (the ureters), the bladder, and the tube that leads from the bladder out of the body (the urethra).

When a stone travels through a ureter, it may cause no pain. Or it may cause great pain and other symptoms

What causes kidney stones?

Kidney stones form when a change occurs in the normal balance of water, salts, minerals, and other things found in urine. The most common cause of kidney stones is not drinking enough water. (That’s me ) Try to drink enough water to keep your urine clear (about 8 to 10 glasses of water a day). Some people are more likely to get kidney stones because of a medical condition or family history.

Kidney stones may also be an inherited disease. If other people in your family have had them, you may have them too. (My dad had this too).

Drink a lot of Water

Let me share to you about my recent health condition. It all started a month ago when I’m experienced some pain in my body like I always felt some burning sensation when urinating, my lower abdomen and lower back are aching and also frequent urge to urinate but only a small amount can pass.

Well at first I thought that it was just a simple UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) which I usually get for not drinking enough water everyday. I used to be diagnosed with it for several times now. It is all because of my stubbornness when it comes in drinking enough water and for postponing the act of urinating. I remember before when my father used to tell me to drink water eight glasses a day and do not prolong the urge to urinate and now that I am married, my husband always keep on reminding me about it too. And since I have this “maniana habit”*, which I’m trying to change till now, I always ends up with the same situation.

Anyway, last Saturday I decided to consult a doctor because I can no longer tolerate the pains. I undergo to a urine examination and waited for the result. When the result came out, I was surprised because it was negative. The first thing I asked to myself was what could be possibly wrong with me?

My doctor told me that I might have kidney stones. And those symptoms that I was experiencing are also the symptoms of a person who have kidney stones. So she referred me to undergo ultrasound. Unfortunately I am still waiting for the result of my examination but I will keep you posted about it.

Next I will talk about Kidney Stones…

* maniana habit is a Filipino attitude which means that you can do it now, instead you are prolonging it or you will do it later.