About a month ago I had a kidney problem – usual symptoms needing to wee all the time, pain when weeing, kidney pain etc. Two courses of anti-biotics later and it’d gone.

Last night I woke up with intense pain in one kidney, no pain weeing (or undue need to wee). This morning the pain is kind of at a 4/10 unless I do somthing that causes pressure on that kidney (laying on the side that hurts, for example) when it goes up to an 7 or 8.

So, what do I do now?

Shuffle off to the GP again?
Drink gallons to flush it all through and hope (if it is a stone) that it’s not going to get stuck anywhere?
MTFU?

GP??

I had kidney stones 12 years ago and it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Most of the pain was during the first night where the pain was so much I was vomiting. A duller pain continued for a few weeks whilst I was on antibiotics from the subsequent urinary infection, by the time I had the appointment to have them broken up ultrasonically they had passed (I think most passed during the first night).
Go see you GP and drink plenty of cranberry juice. Heat pads or a water bottle helps with the pain too.

Get him to refer you for an Ultrasound to check the size of the kidney stone. If its a big one, you will be waiting a while for it to dislodge.
But in the meantime drink plenty of fluids to keep yourself Hydrated.

Been their myself and its bloody horrible.

I came back from a bike ride and had blood in my urine. Had stone in both kidneys. Left one required surgery it was so big and right one required laser treatmentto break it up. That was painful in it’s own right and passing the bits can only be descibed as exquisite pain!

first sunny weekend for months on the cards and this happens 🙁

Brother has had them and he reckons its the most painful thing he’s ever experienced.

Women that have had them reckon they are as painful as giving birth.

GP’s later – will see what they offer.

there are two kinds of renal calculus, the rocky ones that need to be blasted away of the crystaline uric acid ones. If you super hydrate with lots af water and some lemonade or orange juice (for the citric acid) they can disolve aways. Do you have a uric acid problem, e.g. Gout?

no gout, my father gets it but he’s 20+ stone. I’ve got 10% body fat.

(Is low body fat/general health/reasonable diet a good protection from gout?)

no gout, my father gets it but he’s 20+ stone. I’ve got 10% body fat.

(Is low body fat/general health/reasonable diet a good protection from gout?)

no, there is a genetic component to gout risk, in 80% of cases there is a lack of an enzyme that breaks down uric acid. being fat make it likely to manifest.

You could have a low uric metabolism but never have symptoms, or you might have a taste for asparagus, pate, molluscs, beer, mushrooms etc and your system wont have an answer for the uric acid from purines.

blood test will tell you straight away if you have it.

Or, take your Dad’s Allopurinol with lots of lemonade and see if you feel better.

thanks smiffy – I’ll talk to the GP and try and get a) some sort of ultrasound to see what’s happening and b) a blood test. Might be time to play the private health insurance card as I can’t see this getting any sort of priority unless I’m at the point of collapse.

I had one a year or so ago – probably from being consistently dehydrated over a summer of guiding.

For me, I had one day of major pain below the ribs on my back. Went to the doc, he prescribed painkillers, anti-inflammatories and an anti-spasmodic to try to stop the tubes from clamping and twisting on it. He also sent me for an ultrasound scan which did not pick up any kidney stones.

After a day or two, the pain reduced to something bearable and all was OK for 3-4 weeks, other than some discomfort and needing to pee every 5 minutes. Pain steadily moved downwards.

Then one night I was supposed to be meeting for dinner at 8. At 7 I got in the shower feeling fine. 7:30, dressed and ready to go, still fine. 7:45, roaring and pounding on the walls, puking from the pain. Straight to the hospital, puking all over the place, they put me on IV morphine(!) which to be honest barely touched it.

By the morning though, I actually felt OK. Sent for another ultrasound (same guy) and he once again told me I didn’t have a kidney stone. At this point I asked him if he was sure, given that I did appear to be “experiencing symptoms”. He got a bit grumpy but agreed to have another look – “Ah oui, vous-avez bien une calcule la!” 🙄

From there on, actually no big deal. Passed it 3 or 4 days later. 5mm x 7mm. Pointy fecker. Actually passing it wasn’t painful at all.

Hospital said a pee test is best BTW – blood in your pee is a very strong indicator that you have kidney stones. It may not be enough to be visible, but they can test for it.

the blood test is for the uric enzyme, wee test will be done as well for both blood and infection.

Far more paiful that shattering my femur, far mor painful than dislocating my knee and according to the nurse on my ward way more painful than childbirth.

It it doesn’t leave you writhing on the floor you have “grit” stones are the purest definition of agony 😆

Good luck.

I remember my kidney being a little tender for a day or two after. Definitely get it looked at, at the very least you’ll get some painkillers. suppositories worked ok for mine 😉

I think the fact you didn’t feel the need to admit yourself to A&E means its not a biggun.

after my first day of writhing around and puking I had to wait a fortnight while it floated aound in my bladder. A hot bath helps speed up progress if its corked your pipe!

I had one in my mid 20’s. Like others have said, the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. Grey, sweating, vomiting then dry retching with the pain.

I was like that for a good four hours, incapabe of walking, before it began to pass. It had clearly shifted down and for the next three weeks it hurt to pee before it cleared.

I went to see the GP and they said drink more water, which is something that I do to this day. Whilst I have the odd episode of kidney pain, I’m very glad I’ve not had another episode, it was a deeply unplesant episode.

Women I’ve spoken to that have kids have said its worse than childbirth.

went to see Gp and he’s given me a note for the local polyclinic for an x-ray on Monday ‘unless the pain gets too excruciating in the meantime’.

Mostly feels like someone’s digging a knuckle in my right kidney unless I move and then it feels like they’ve grabbed hold of it and twisted.

All a bit odd really as I feel fine otherwise.

looks like riding’s out this weekend and it sunny 🙁

‘Renal Colic’ is what they call it.

*shudders*