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Comment by kevinak | Hacker News Reader

I’d say in your case your stones probably haven’t been that big. My stones were the worst experience of my life - only IV morphine helped. And even that made the pain just tolerable. Horrible!

I do identify with the constant uncomfortableness though.

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I don't think size has much to do with it, or at least there is no deterministic correlation to pain. Mine, just removed, was only 3-4mm, but it caused immense pain. The pain was 11/10, such that I cried and vomited from the pain, and the pain pushed through toradol, hydrocodone, and oxycodone. The second hydrocodone IV juice I got was described as 10x more potent than morphine. On my second ER visit in just two days, I had to have a stent installed until the stone could be removed because my kidney was doing poorly. The stone still hadn't passed after a month.

The shape of the stone and size of the ureter have an effect as well. I think the main thing on pain is: is the stone blocking urine. If yes, then you will experience pain that you didn't think existed. And if things stay that way, you risk kidney failure, infection, and/or sepsis.

The insane-o pain comes not from the stone itself but from the stone causing urine to backup which causes the kidney to expand in its casing. I had more discomfort from the stent than I did pain from the stone while I had both, but the stent kept the insane-o pain and my kidney from failing since it kept urine flowing.

I literally cannot describe the pain I had when the stone first entered my ureter. It was existential pain, my back and abdomen muscles locked up and felt like they were dying and turning into stone, and the nausea was unbearable. The best analogy I can come up with is that it felt like someone was taking a screwdriver and stabbing me in the side all the way to my spine without it piercing, and then some, all the while having the worst stomach ache, immense pressure to void, etc. And I don't think that even gets to it.

That sounds horrible, something I don’t ever want to experience. I’m sorry you had to go through that, you’ve just convinced me to start including more lemon juice in my diet.

Yea, 0/10, would not recommend. Lol. Even dealing with the stent for four weeks was unpleasant. Everything's out now, and I'm so much better now. I think even just a lot water is supposed to help since it decreases concentrates.

Was your pain acute? I get a stone in my right kidney every 5 to 7 years. My pain is usually very acute. I like to describe it as somebody slamming a large needle into my abdomen. Think Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.

These days my regimen is to avoid caffeine. I don't know if it's working, I had a year long relapse during COVID as caffeine free coke became unavailable.

I'm due for my next one.

The pain was beyond acute. When it first occurred I was sitting on the couch. I went from being perfectly normal, to being slightly uncomfortable, to thinking I had a back or stomach cramp, to thinking I needed to use the restroom, to thinking I needed to go to urgent care, to knowing I needed to go to the emergency room all in about 5-10 minutes. But at times, the pain was so radiating that I thought my abdomen would explode. I honestly thought I would die any minute.

I've been caffeine free since 2020, stopping it due to severe anxiety during that whole debacle of a year. I have been dealing with acid reflux in the prior months, and I have a suspicion my stone was caused by low water intake and Tums. Hopefully the stone analysis correlates with that because it would be an easy fix. I'm certainly increasing my water intake now and staying completely away from Tums.

I hope to everything this is my only experience. It was my first stone, and I hope my last.

Sounds like me. I occasionally get heartburn and worry that the Tums are a contributing factor but they are the only thing that provides consistent and immediate relief.

Stay hydrated and good luck!

Ouch, I had my first one a few weeks ago, 4mm too and this hits home.

3 days before the acute crisis which led me, vomitting with pain, to the ER, the symptoms were weird and not easily attributable to a kidney stone: a few drops of pink urine at first, discomfort more than pain, mostly in the morning after peeing, then almost ok for the rest of the day.

The ct scan showed swelling of the kidney. When I finally ejected the stone (more like peeing black sand) 6 days later, I lost ~2kg over the next 24h.

The medicine that helped with the pain was ketoprofene (and antispasmodics) but 2 doses a day were clearly not enough to cover 24h :(

didn't know about lemon though...

I think when they saw them on the scan (they were very obvious) they said they were around 4-5mm.. I assume thats on the smallish side?

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