r/KidneyStones

I’ve had a stone lodged in my urethra for two weeks (female). My doctor is an idiot and I couldn’t get Flomax until today. How is it even possible for a stone to be lodged there this long? My urethra spasms every 20 seconds. My pee comes out in the saddest most erratic dribble and I essentially live on the toilet because I never stop feeling like I have to pee. Holding it and building up a good stream is not an option. It’s too painful to wait. What the hell can I do? Im drinking so much water im half scared I’ll get water poisoning. Has anyone else had this happen? And if so how the bloody hell did you get it out? Everyone says it should come out quickly once it’s in your bladder but clearly that’s not the case for me. I need to know I’m not the only one 😫

I 37F ended up in the ER with severe left abdominal pain, flank pain, and rectal bleeding on 5/6. They did an abdominal ultrasound, transvaginal ultrasound, and CT. They found an 8mm kidney stone. It’s my first kidney stone, so at first I thought I could just ride it out, but I ended up back in the ER the NEXT day after fainting from the pain. They referred me to a urologist but they wouldn’t see me until end of June. I found a different urologist that would see me next day only downfall is the office is almost 2 hours away.

During my consultation he said because of the size and where the stone is located, surgery was my only option. I’m scheduled for surgery tomorrow (5/21), but this whole thing has been absolute hell. I genuinely had no idea kidney stones could be this bad.

I cough or vomit and it causes me to fully pee myself. I literally had to buy diapers. The urologist said incontinence can happen with kidney stone pain and should resolve with time. I vomit daily, I didn’t have a bowel movement for 6 days, I’ve fainted 3 times from the pain, can’t sit or lay down for long periods of time so sleeping is a challenge. To make things even better today during a pain flare up one of my front teeth literally broke in half and fell out from how hard i clenched my mouth. I didn’t mean to… I just didn’t want to be loud since it’s late and I had already ripped most of our bath towels. Oh yeah, when the flare ups are bad I channel my pain into ripping bath towels into strips. Didn’t know I could do that before.

I keep reading posts from people who deal with recurring kidney stones and honestly… I don’t know how you do it. I feel like my body can barely handle just one.

For anyone who’s had a ureteroscopy with stent, what was the recovery like? Did the pain decrease or disappear pretty soon after? I must sound like a huge baby I’m sorry. I’m over this……sending all my fellow stoners so much love and thanks for reading my nervous rant.

I have a real difficult time just drinking water. When it’s juice it’s so much easier for me to drink loads and loads. I know that’s super childish but myself and my body don’t have a great relationship.

I try to do what I can to stay hydrated but it’s difficult a lot of the time.

Is the ribena really counterproductive? Am I really ruining myself by not drinking just water? I use fresh and filtered spring water with tons of ice and a dash of ribena with lemon slices.

Just got my uteroscopy. I feel good but is it normal :

- to need to pee frequently, even when my bladder isn't actually that full. It feels full

- that it kinda burns when i pee.

Thanks

First some background:

I (40m) have had kidney stone issues since I was in college. After passing a few stones I had shockwave lithotripsy done about 15 years ago. It went really well and I had no issues for about 10 years. More stones showed up and grew slowly over that time and in May 2022 I decided to do another round of shockwave lithotripsy to remove a stone or two that were about 5mm. This time recovery was much harder. I constantly felt like I had to pee and had a lot of pain while the fragments passed. It took about a month for things to calm down with the help of some muscle relaxers. I hoped that things would be good for a while....

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago, and I had to have a CT scan to check on my reflux. Turns out my 2nd nissen mostly failed and hiatal hernia is back :/. Anyways, that CT showed multiple stones with the largest up to 8mm. I met with Urology yesterday and we discussed what to do about it. My suspicion was that even though shockwave lithotripsy broke up the larger stones, it likely didn't get all of them and maybe all the fragments didn't pass. Those remaining stones are the ones growing currently. Urology thought that could be possible so we discussed doing the laser lithotripsy procedure instead. The main advantage I think here is that they can actually remove all the stones as part of the procedure so I don't have to worry about not passing them. They mentioned they were going to do a slightly longer 90 minute surgery to make sure to flush all of them out.

My worry:

Everything about this procedure sounds amazing except for the stent. They mentioned using a string and it being removed after 7 days in the office. I've never had a ureter stent before so I made the mistake of looking up people's opinions of them. Big mistake. All I can find are people saying it hurts worse than passing stones. I'm now terrified. I woke up almost every 20 minutes last night with nightmares about the procedure and possible pain. On one hand the scheduler thought I could return to work the day after surgery, but I can't stop worrying. My rational brain says it only sounds bad because people who have good experiences don't post about it so I'm only seeing the small percentage of bad cases. My OCD brain (diagnosed OCD) can't stop catastrophizing.

You guys have any good stories about the URS/LL (laser lithotripsy) procedure where it wasn't that bad? Maybe I should ask for the version without the string to avoid the extra irritation? Just looking for some reassurance that it'll be ok.

Edit: I forgot to mention that they analyzed the stone fragments after the 2nd shockwave procedure and they were 20% calcium oxalate and 80% calcium phosphate

I had kidney stone removal in early March this year. Since then I’ve had several dry orgasms (nothing comes out) or very little comes out. My wife and I are trying for another child so aside from climax not feeling nearly as good as it used to, this is becoming a bit of an issue. Has anyone else had this problem?

I’ve read that flomax can cause this, but I’ve been off flomax for 2+ months at this point.

I'm 42F and I just got through with my yearly stone. I passed 2 at home, which is an improvement over the last big disruptive stone I needed surgery to remove, but hoo boy, was it AWFUL. I get stuck in a cycle of nausea, reflux and vomiting that leads to dehydration only trips to the ER for IV fluids & anti-nausea meds can cure. A week ago I was in the ER so dehydrated I couldn't generate enough saliva to dissolve the Zofran I had at home, this week I'm back to work. (I still have stones in both kidneys but they're not on the move, thank god.)

I was sitting on the couch tonight and got a twinge in my lower back. It could be because I've been sitting at my desk for the first time in about a month or the nap I took after work, but my brain just went "STONE! STONE! STONE!" and all the feelings of helplessness and fear and desperation I wasn't able to process when I was sick came flooding out. I hate this, my urologist can't even see me until June, and I legitimately don't know what else I can do to prevent them. I am TERRIFIED of another one dropping, I'm nearly out of sick time at work.

Anyway, just wondering if this happens to anyone else after passing a difficult stone. It's so disruptive, my life stops for a few weeks unexpectedly, I have to somehow manage a bunch of admin tasks to get leave from work while I can't stop throwing up, and then after the stone passes and I'm feeling better, I have to go on the apology tour at work. It sucks. I can't do this once a year anymore and it's truly starting to harm my mental health.

Hello fellow Stoneys haha I (28F) currently have a 6mm kidney stone in my left kidney (upper / mid pole) that has been there for about 5 years now. It's given me on and off flank pain and I've been a college student all that time so its always been a toss up between tuition or ESWL and ultimately i chose tuition every time. That being said, the time has come to get the ESWL! (Procedure is on Friday). The doctor insists we put a stint in but I've done some research and it doesnt seem thats customary for a 6mm stone.. additionally, I had one appointment with him so far (switched urologists due to out of network issues) and he immediately said 6mm? 5 years? ESWL! (which is fair) but never asked for a follow up CT scan (my last scan was over a year ago from a different hospital so this surprised me). I did eventally reach out to him about it and thennn he scheduled one after the fact. The point of this post is, should I see the lack of concern for getting another CT scan and the push to get a stint as a red flag and postpone the procedure to find a different doctor or am I just reading into it too much? Additionally, if anyone has had any good experiences with this procedure, id love to hear them! (im pretty nervous)

I’m 16 and just got diagnosed with my first kidney stone yesterday. I got a CT scan at the hospital and it’s teeny tiny (3mm) but I’ve been in pain nonetheless. I was discharged yesterday but I have this walking pad/treadmill thing with a “massage” setting where it vibrates. I’m obviously no doctor but I’ve heard stuff like rollercoasters can help dislodge kidney stones so I started using it whenever I’m in pain. It could just be the placebo effect but I really feel like it helps :D

Ive had a 4mm stone in my ureter now for over 8 weeks. Every day feels like I have a bad UTI. Burning, constantly feeling like I have to go, some pain flares. I'm on Flomax, I chug water like it's going out of style. I just can't get this dude out of me. Anyone experienced this? And how did you cope?

My 3mm stone is already down to my bladder. I haven’t had any pain since, and i’ve been drinking lots of water. I see lots of talk about the jump method. Will that work if the stone is already down by my bladder ?

Well… here we are 10 months after a removal of 2 stones .. last year I had a bad case of vomiting after some pizza and was taken to the ER for a ct scan where it was found I had 2 kidney stones , one traveling out of my right kidney was halfway down and one still in the right kidney. 0 in the left (or so they say). I was given an option to either take some medicine to help them come out or surgically remove them, I opted to have them surgically removed since the flank pain was awful. I HATED everything about the removal, I hated the hospital visit, the being put to sleep and the agonizing 6 days with a stent and then the awful UTI post stent and the back pain 🤦‍♀️ I was so glad to be rid of the whole situation. Then in February of 2026 just 6 months after removal I began feeling some soreness in my right side again , I didn’t expect them to now tell me I have 3! 3 new guys, 2 measuring 6mm in both left and right kidneys and one 7mm in my left …… HOW?! I mean fck! I blame coffee, I guess! I’ve had coffee often while I was working but those stones are big guys , I’m literally here just crying , I don’t wanna go through the removal again, but I don’t wanna go through months of worrying about my kidneys either. I’m just hurt. I hate this .