HELP!!! Kidney Stone. How do I lessen the pain and pass quickly?

01/15/23 | Dmztahoe

[dmzTahoe]

Experienced a kidney stone 25 years ago. Doctor at that time went in invasively to get it and remove

Three nights ago, I was struck with another kidney stone attack. Lasted about 2 hours in the middle of the night.

24 hours later. Another one. Could feel the pain and the stone moving farther south.

Another one early this morning, still painful but I believe stone is making progress.

Refuse to go to any clinic or hospital, what do my wise freeper friends suggest to speed up the process and alleviate the pain.

[Bob434]

Yowzers- sounds excruciating-

[null and void]

Pretty much. I’m convinced I would have died without morphine. As it was, I got to watch the paramedics from the ceiling...

[Mean Daddy]

Doesn’t always work. Knocked me out to bust up my stones with the waves & didn’t do a thing to them.

[Bob434]

how did they finally get it out?

[EQAndyBuzz]

Vicodin, drink everything recommended here and ride it out until you feel like death. Then go to a doctor and get it taken care of.

[cpdiii]

Go to the doctor. If it turns into a complete blockage you will have a problem.

[rlmorel]

Seriously-My experience is, even if you don’t want to go to a hospital, everyone has a threshold, and eventually, you will get to a hospital if the pain level gets high enough.

And if the stone does not pass, your pain level will get high enough. You can count on it.

Don’t let it get that high, because if you do, the whole thing is going to be worse. My rule of thumb (and I have experience) is:

If I can’t concentrate on anything else, it is time to go to the ER.

Don’t roll on the floor in pain wondering if you can get to your phone to call an ambulance.

Just a few years ago, I began to pass one at work, and after a couple of hours where I was in enough pain, I couldn’t concentrate and I decided to drive home and gut it out there.

I had a couple of people beg me to just go to the ER (I work in a hospital) and I didn’t. I got about halfway home, and the pain got bad enough I had to pull off the road, and I suddenly had the feeling the pain was going to go up to the point I wouldn’t be able to call anyone on my cell phone, and thought I might have to flop out of the car on the side of the road and hope someone saw me and stopped.

Fortunately, it was just a peak and spasm, and I was able to make it home. But I realized how stupid that was. I should have just gone to the ED.

[FoxInSocks]

That is the max with normal kidney function. In the setting of a kidney stone kidney function may be impaired in which case the max dose is exactly zero

Well, the OP didn't provide a full history -- he just asked about thoughts re a simple kidney stone. There is support for administration of ibuprofen for kidney stones -- at least one study out there:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033982/

"NSAIDs have many unique properties which make them ideal analgesics in renal colic. The predominant analgesic action of NSAIDs in renal colic is through inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis (see Figure 1). Prostaglandin production is stimulated by local irritation by the stone. Prostaglandins promote glomerular afferent arteriolar vasodilatation and increase vascular permeability resulting in increased urine output and renal pelvic pressure. The use of NSAIDs reduces glomerular filtration by up to 35% [5] which in turn reduces renal pelvic pressure and stimulation of stretch receptors. Inhibition of prostaglandin production also reduces ureteric oedema and inflammation enabling better drainage, all of which act to reduce ureteric activity or peristalsis. Furthermore NSAIDs may have a direct effect on ureteric smooth muscle resulting in relaxation."

The text continues and explores situations in which NSAIDs are NOT a good idea when treating kidney stones. For example:

NSAIDs potentially interfere with the renal auto-regulatory response to obstruction by decreasing renal blood flow [5]. This is generally well tolerated in healthy individuals, but renal failure may be induced in those patients with pre-existing renal disease, dehydration, cirrhosis, or with the concurrent use of contrast agents and nephrotoxic drugs.

And their conclusion was that:

NSAIDs provide excellent analgesia in renal colic, but should be used with care in patients at risk of renal impairment, cardiac failure and gastric ulceration. They are highly effective in reducing the number of new colic episodes and readmissions to hospital; however they do not appear to have any effect on the time to stone passage or the likelihood of stone passage in renal colic.

So yeah, with nothing to go on but the question of mitigating simple renal colic, I'd say try and treat the pain to the extent you can, and when it gets too much to handle, see a physician.

[dadfly]

what helped my wife:

at home: drink plenty of water and liquids.

ibuprophen in this case worked like magic for her ureter pain.

if you go to the doctor, prescription flowmax.

[Mean Daddy]

Had to go through my back to get them. Woke up and I had two catheters. One in my back and the other in the normal spot.

[omegatoo]

Having had a stone that required removal makes it more likely that this is again a big stone that will not pass on its own. Over a long period of time, they can grow large in your kidney without any symptoms until they head south. The sooner you find that out if this is another big one, the sooner it can be taken care of.

Letting it move farther down will only make the procedure have to be done more emergently which will make costs and risk of complications greater.

Many urgent care centers can now do CT scans, so you may not have to go to an ER to get started.

In the meantime, hydrating and a single dose of an anti-inflammatory like advil or aleve as directed may help and shouldn’t be dangerous unless you have other reasons not to take them. Nothing will dissolve a stone that is already in your ureter enough to make any difference, unless it is a very small one, and you have no way to know that without a CT or ultrasound.

Good luck to you. If you aren’t already on your way to an ER or Urgent Care (call first to see if they have a CT), please go as soon as you can.

Love, O2

[Delta 21]

The next 3 days on a morphine drip will be better than them without it.

[spokeshave]

Ox bile will dissolve it

[spokeshave]

The best is the last.

[Mean Daddy]

Go to the doctor or ER. I worked with a guy who had them regularly and had one at work. They tried to get him to go to the doctor but he said he’d go after work. Co-worker saw that his pickup truck had slid in the snow off the side of the road and stopped to help but he was dead. Doctor said he had been experiencing a massive heart attack most of that day.

[Romulus]

Drink as much water as you can hold. Then drink more. Repeat, and keep it up. Ask a friendly doctor for a prescription for Toradol (the generic form works just fine). This is a non-opiate pain reliever that’s especially effective in the lower abdomen. If you have an opiate in the house, take it, but honestly, Toradol works better. A doctor will resort to surgery/lithotripsy as a last resort. What they really want you to do is pass the stone. Don’t be surprised if your urine turns brown or even red with blood. If you get no relief in a few days, consult a urologist. The pain can be excrucuating, so don’t put yourself through all that.

I speak from personal experience — lots of it.

[Bob434]

uggh- the doc mentioned going through back to me to remove stones that were still in the kidney, but explained it could cause further kidney damage- i opted not to go that route- but sometimes i guess it’s unavoidable-

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

Drink lots of fluids, combine ibuprofen and acetaminophen to help with pain. They are the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. I’m a giving my own advice, you should consult with a physician.

[wally_bert]

No but with the migraines I get sometimes, I feel spaced out.

The tang suggestion comes from a guy that did appliance repairs. Tang broke down calcium according to him.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Liquid magnesium. Works like a charm.