Posted on 07/05/2019 12:20:19 PM PDT by rebuildus
What I Learned Passing a Kidney Stone—Old School Style!
Passing a kidney stone is a learning experience? EVERYTHING is a learning experience!
This is the third time for me—label me a slow learner.
The first one I attribute to using a Vitamin C product in excess many years ago.
The second one, frankly, I don’t remember the cause.
And now this one. You’d think with the amount of pain these tiny (in my case) rocks cause, I’d be done. Hopefully I will be now!
I’m going to tell you MY experience here, and MY choice. If you have a kidney stone, how you deal with it is YOUR choice.
I will tell you that, according to what I’ve read, the likelihood of needing surgery to remove a kidney stone is fairly small. I’ve seen a range of from about five to twenty percent.
I’ve thankfully been able to pass the stone each time on my own. But I did give them some help…
The first time, the excruciating pain drove me to the emergency room. While waiting to see a doctor, I passed the stone (“peed” it out, to be direct). Having no medical insurance, I was still charged over $2,000! I bargained the bill down to something over $500. The promise of immediate cash has always been a good negotiating tool.
These last two occurrences, I “learned my lesson,” and decided to take care of these stones myself “old-school style.” Both times I’ve used a 1:1 mixture of lemon (to help dissolve the stone) and olive oil (to smooth its passage out of the body). I used two ounces of each, in my case just one time, since I couldn’t stomach taking any additional doses. Some sources, like this article, recommend three, but the suggested dosage is meaningless if you can’t hold the dose down!
This last time, I also drank some cranberry juice, mixed with sweeter juice for taste. The cranberry acts as a kidney cleanser.
What I did worked. Not right away, it took several hours of pain. I took as much pain as I could stand, and then sought a pain killer. The problem with some pain killers, though, is that possible side effects include nausea and dizziness—two symptoms I already had in spades! No thank you. I opted for two extra-strength Tylenols.
One thing great pain brings—you “get religion” fast. I begged God for relief. Speaking of which, I found you don’t need to “be” strong—God is strong and will get you through each situation. The “strength” we need is Just not to show incredible weakness to others while we’re in pain.
Another thing I noticed, is the need for everything to be as comfortable as absolutely possible. I didn’t want certain people around (who have demonstrated a lack of empathy in the past and tend towards inappropriate, ill-timed comments).
When you’re in pain you only want pure energy moving through you. Anger is a “luxury” you can’t afford when you’re fighting the male equivalent of labor pain!
By the way, men are more likely to get kidney stones than women. There appears to be no exact consensus on why, but there is strong conjecture. This post makes sense to me.
Thankfully, a beautiful outshoot of this experience is that I ended up having a great conversation with one of these “low empathy” people, and they actually admitted to their troll-like behavior.
In the process, I saw my role in setting up this behavior.
So in the end the experience proved positive. I liken it to a pregnant woman who experiences a painful labor, but forgets the pain afterwards, only remembering the birth of a beautiful child!
In the midst of the trauma, I did everything I could to get comfortable. I finally had no energy left to fight, and had to lay down. I ended up falling asleep for ten minutes or so. Feeling a bit better, I got up, and simply passed the stone in my urine. It was incredibly small, in relation to the great pain it caused. The stone was reddish in color. I looked it up and the color indicated a uric acid origin—often caused by excessive animal protein, among other reasons, as noted in the above post.
I do have to re-examine my position on meat and other animal proteins—only in regards to amount. I have no intention on stopping meat eating. I did some thinking and research about other possible reasons I got this latest kidney stone at this time. A few things became apparent:
#1: I’d recently come back from Florida, which was extremely hot and humid. I was likely at least partially dehydrated. One of the biggest suggestions for preventing kidney stones that I saw in my research was to drink more water.
#2: I also ate more red meat than normal—beef salami on the trip down and back , and Whataburgers in Florida each day! (and yes, they were delicious!)
#3: And I had quite a bit of dairy—low-fat milk and full-fat cheese.
#4: I also had an intense, stressful drive home. We hit a huge electrical storm in northern Alabama moving toward Tennessee, which first appeared on the horizon as a big, dark cloud with visible lighting flashing inside of it.
It kept appearing as if we were heading away from the storm, but lo and behold, we ended up driving right IN to it.
Among the foreboding thunder and flashes of lightning, massive buckets of water fell from the sky. Visibility shrunk to near zero through northern Alabama and Tennessee, only finally relenting as we got close to home. My attention to the road was understandably intense.
I had to rest up pretty good after that.
So it’s safe to say that the conditions were ripe for a kidney stone occurrence.
Filling out the nutritional prescription, beyond merely drinking more water and eating a bit less animal product, is the need to add something acidic to my water. I used to drink a full glass of water with lemon every morning after arising, but I had not been doing that at the time of the attack.
I also had cut down on the apple cider vinegar I had been taking for decades with my water (typically one to two teaspoons per glass, a couple times a day or so). I’ve always been a big proponent of “ACV.”
Citric acid from fruit—such as lemon and orange—is considered a good tool in the prevention of kidney stones. But excessive Vitamin C in supplement form can actually form kidney stones. As I mentioned, I’m convinced that my first kidney stone was caused by a Vitamin C supplement.
In closing, in addition to what I’ve mentioned, here are some recommendations for preventing kidney stones, and while I can’t vouch for all of them, in general they appear sensible.
So after some heavy trauma, solid lessons emerged for me, which will only contribute to my good physical—and spiritual—health moving forward. I seem to emerge from each situation stronger and wiser, without necessarily trying to be either. That in itself makes it all worthwhile.
I wish you the same—and if you’re wiser than I have been, you will be able to move forward without having to endure so much pain! Pain is a good teacher, but wisdom is a better one!
Patrick Rooney is the Founder of OldSchoolUs.com, a website that believes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Its focus is Health, Success, and Freedom—yeah, in that order. Patrick is the author of GREEK PHYSIQUE: The Simple, Satisfying Way to Sculpt Your Body—Even if You’re Old, Weak, or Broken Down; and is also the creator of Greek Yoga™ and the Greek Yoga for Beginners video. To reach Patrick, email him at info@oldschoolus.com.
I opine: overly acidic condition. I suggest magnesium, alkaline mineral needed for calcium metabolism.
I understand your fear, VV. I recommend you review the article again (go to the link, so you get the links that are in the article). There are some suggestions there that you can see what makes sense, and try. You may find you can eliminate the problem.
Thanks, battletank. I hope he gets his life together.
The idea, Perservero, is that it would help make the rock's journey down the ureter smoother. How much of it gets to that part of the body, I don't know. All I know, is the last two times I had a stone, I was able to help it move out of the body with a 50/50 mix (2 oz each) of olive oil and lemon juice. It's entirely possible that the olive oil was the "weak sister," and the lemon juice did the real work. But until proven otherwise, I would use the same concoction again.
I have heard that, and can understand the need to balance calcium with magnesium, especially for those with calcified stones
Kids when you think you have it out but it
ain’t departing start drinking some beer/wine.
You will get the system cranking and it will
leave involuntarily
advice from a very, very prominent urologist practice I’m connected
to. Helped me pass a stone the size of a kidney bean
Other times it was the dry-heaves kind of thing. Agonizing. Percocet was prescribed, but if you wait until the pain starts, it's too late. The Percocet makes you even more nauseous, not relieved, in that case.
To avoid using too much Percocet (=Exocet, Roxicet), I would take it to cover 6 of the 24 hours, then 600 mg (3x200 mg tablets) to cover the next 6 hours. Then repeat, etc. until the stone passed. This way I never got hooked on Percocet and had a lot left over in case sometime in the future I got another stone. Never touch it for anything else. Ibuprofen if inflammation is involved, otherwise acetaminophen.
I presume that eating a moderate amount now and then of these foods and right after drinking water MIGHT be okay.
The one and only one I have ever had was likely the result of drinking too much Gatorade after working out. At least that is what my urologist said. His advice was to go buy beer and drink as much of it as you can, beer causes you to pee and the more peeing the better. He also said to drink water with lemon as a preventative. Has worked for ten years and counting.
Here's my Allopurinol story... For probably about 20 years, I'd get a bad case of gout about once every 4 or 5 years. Then the frequency tightened up and in March, 2018, I got on a plane with the sense that I had a bout of gout coming on and by the time I got to Milwaukee, the attack was so bad I could scarcely get off the plane. Most miserable trip of my life... the hotel found me a pair of flipflops and I wore them in the snow just so I could get home.
The following week, the gout started to go away and I went to see my doctor who prescribed Allopurinol. I said "of course" since it was apparent that my restricted diet, tall glass of pure tart cherry juice and other stuff that is supposed to keep gout away was no longer doing the job. Later that week after I had been taking Allopurinol for about 4 days, I had to go back to Milwaukee to teach a 3 day course and by the time I got there, I was in total pain from what was obviously another gout attack. Somehow I got home and promptly went to see my doctor again.
My doctor listened to me for a minute and then he said "oh sh!t…. I caused this attack." I said "come closer so I can get my fingers around your neck... but first tell me how you caused it?" My doctor says "well... the instructions for administering this drug are to start off at a certain dose size and then gradually inch it up if needed. Because of your history, I just went directly to the bigger dosage right off the start.... and there is a warning that if you do that, you can actually trigger a gout attack. Sorry about that.... "
I also take a small daily dose of colchicine and so far, everything seems to have settled down...
So you are applying this as one time deal? It's not something that gets taken regularly as a preventative measure or as part of a longer treatment play? Here is what WebMD has to say about it... https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-441/chanca-piedra
Saving this! I’ve had friends that couldn’t even crawl with the pain. Will send to others.
Had a friend many years ago that would drink about 1/4 cup of olive oil before going out for a night of beer drinking. He thought it slowed down the alcohol absorption into his bloodstream.
I have been plagued by kidneys stones most of my adult life. A few years ago I had insane shoulder pain that was diagnosed as a torn ligament that my brother claimed was gout. Doubtful of gout but willing to try anything to ease the intense pain that made passing kidney stones a cakewalk in comparison, I drank a 32 oz jar of Lakewood Pure Pineapple Juice. Insane pain completely disappeared by morning. Doc agreed that it was indeed gout and was embarrassed to have misdiagnosed.
I now drink a glass a day to keep the gout away along with two 27 ounce bottles of water. A by-product of the regimen seems to be that it has kept the kidney stones away as well. I have not had a single one since that I could pre-gout experience expect to pass every few months.
Flushing Uric Acid has vastly improved my quality of life. I wish I had discovered it years ago.
And I hope you stop writing about yourself in the third person.
Only douchebags do that.
Absolutely right! ....Beer is mostly water.
Even the Coneheads knew to drink mass quantities to prevent kidney stones.
My friend who got k-stones drank few beers but bought Jack Daniels by the case.
Been drinking beer over 60 years and have had no medical issues or Rx. Still have all organs I had when born.
Beer does indeed flush them. Let me drink too much beer and I would be passing a kidney stone the next day along with the hangover. While it made for a horrid day, I would be grateful that I was passing it instead of later when it was even bigger; although the dehydration generally made it take three days as opposed to one. Ha! It felt like just desserts for over-imbibing.
Everyone is different. I’ve read that tart cherry juice is supposed to be the best for gout, but it does nothing for me. I’ve also tried apple cider vinegar and lemon and some other things that I can’t remember at the moment. The only thing that works beautifully for me is pineapple juice. I pray that it never stops working as it is wonderful to not have to deal with stones or gout any longer. I dread the thought of its return.
My blood disorder prevents me from consuming vitamin C. Pretty much is a poison for my liver.
If someone has recurring stones, drinking stonebreaker tea on a regular basis is a good idea. If you have no idea what causes your stones and have no idea if/when you will get more, the tincture comes in handy. You can keep it in the cupboard and it works fast.
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