A Rolling Stone, Gathers No Moss

Kidney stones are probably the worst pain I've ever felt. Nothing like getting your heart ripped in two by a cold hearted bitch (well she wasn't so cold hearted as she was moving into a different phase in her life and chose the guy who was willing to make the ultimate committment), but painful none-the-less.

I experienced both of these events. One during my early years of medical school and the other a little more recently. Since I'm over the heartache (the bitch and I are actually friends now. She sent me pictures of her new baby--which I think would have been cuter had he had my eyes) I'll post about the pain of a kidney stone.

I had read that they could be painful. The pain was caused by the smooth muscle closing in around the stone and trying to push it down and out. I not only thought that mine was being pushed out, but the stone was doing cardio-aerobics in there as well. Doggone this pain hurt. I could actually feel the muscle contract around the stone. It felt like nothing I've ever felt before and I don't ever want to feel it again.

One of the first lessons I learned in medical school and this came directly out of the dean's mouth "doctors make the worse patients". He said this to point out that we should be more sympathetic to patients, since we oursevles can't deal with pain, needles, and laying around in a bed. I proved his theory correct. I hate needles and I cried louder than the four year old getting sutures in the emergency room. She got a lollipop, I stuck my tongue out at the nurse who inserted my I.V.

My doctor decided on a lithotripsy. Nothing invasive. He would just use sonic blasts to destroy the stone and then I could pee the shattered remnants out. This sounded like the best alternative to me. No stitches, no scars and no scalpels.

After the procedure, I spent four days peeing out pink sand. Yes, it was pretty, but felt funny coming out. On the fifth day, my urine was basically clear again. Oh thank God.

The advice given? Keep myself hydrated. Keep everything flowing and not give the stones a chance to build up again. Some further tests will be done later (after my kidney rests) to try and pinpoint why this happpened. Until then I'm just suppose to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.