I had one about six years ago, it started at 0430 as an intermittent ache on my side -- then my lower back -- then my side -- then my lower back . . .
Went to work and by 0800 I was having sweaty waves of agony punctuated by chills and blessed intervals of comparative pain-free existance. Then I got hit with a bout of nausea and after losing breakfast and 20 oz of coffee the pain QUIT, right NOW, period, paragraph.
I had called the Dr at 0800 and went to the appt at 1600 as schedule. Peed through a strainer for two weeks, nothing. Must have come out already.
Nope.
Two years hence and four years ago I was at a client's plant just finishing up a software dump and took the second leak of the day. Standing there, no problem, then a sudden SURGE of flow followed by a SHARP pain from my "male appendage" and the flow turned red, and the commode looked as if two units of whole blood was poured in. I stuffed some paper towels down the front of my skivvies, exited the men's room and went and finished up my work and bid my good-byes, see ya laters, and thanks for your bidness, etc.
I was six hrs from home, so I stopped for fuel and bought a small box of sanitary pads and exchanged the now-quite-bloody paper toweling for a Kotex. Those things REALLY WORK. They can absorb a couple hundred times their volume of liquid, let me tell ya . . .
So about 3/4 home I have to pee and HOLY CATS that is something I don't want to do again. I quickly figured out that by "pinching the pickle" at the right place next to my abdomen I could regulate the flow of mostly blood with some urine such that I wouldn't scream. After getting home I checked into the ER and a CT scan later the male NP pronounced that I had a 5mm x 8mm stone stuck in my urethra, about 2" from daylight. "No kidding?" I said.
An appt was made for me to see the local urologist at 0900 the next AM who read the films and agreed with the diagnosis. He said he'd meet me in the Short Procedure (aptly named, given what part of me the urologist was concerned with) Unit at the hospital at 1400 that afternoon, and that I should report about 1230 to get ready.
After prepping and getting an IV with the "take it easy" juice, I was rolled into the OR where I made it as far as "vierundneunzig" backwards from "ein hundert" when they told me to count. Fifteen mins later I recall the head end of the gurney banging the OR doors open and being pushed into the recovery room where the nurses were surprised that I could tell them it was 13:50. Once back in the Short Procedure prep room, the urologist stopped in and said that I had a "purple spiney" stone that was indeedn 5mm x 8mm and "did a number" on my urethra that would take a couple weeks to heal over and the bleeding to stop.
Purple Spiney (639 x 480).jpg
He said he went in with the scope three times, twice to break up the stone with the "crushing tool"
and flush out the particles, and then once to peep around my bladder which was fine except for some scarring from abrasion against the stone. "Drink lots of water" was his only instruction. Little brown M&M pills that dyed my urine and skivvies a bright yellow-orange helped the healing process and killed any pain. It was weird peeing big blood clots and stuff for a few days, but that stopped in time.
Yep, too much information, but I remember it like it was yesterday . . .
Noah
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Might as well face it, you're addicted to guns . . .
I just thought I'd share since most folks will probably have some of these suckers in their lifetime. For those who haven't experience the fun of kidney stones, you might think that passing a benign little stone would be easy. I swear, I felt the recoil when these buggers went off. Well, I took a few snapshots under a microscope today and thought I'd share. I had a "Big" one and a "Little" one. I put a #10-24 set screw in the photo for size comparison.
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