Kake passing stones almost made him pass out from pain about 3 decades ago. He stopped drinking tea and started drinking coffee, no stones so far since. Although he did think he passed one about 3 weeks ago, had blood in whatever it was, he said he heard it hit toilet, so giess it was.
I went in for "surgery" yesterday afternoon to have the kidney stones in my bladder removed, and the one in my left urethra and kidney zapped. Things went well. I'm still sore and a little queasy, some of it due to not being able to eat or drink from midnight till 6PM. And I have a string hanging out of me that's attached to a uretha/bladder stent that's gonna be yanked out in 10 days. I had not had kidney stones for 20 years. I reviewed the supplements I have picked up, and discovered that the cacao powder I've been putting in my nightly drink has a high amount of oxylate in it (as do most wheat-based cereals that I swapped to from oat-based.) So I don't know if I'm forming new stones, or if the ones that the urologist has been following long-term were the only ones that broke loose. Nor do I know how long it takes kidney stones to form from scratch. I'm gonna ping my UVA nephrologist to review my historical CT scans they have on file and see if he can tell. Every time I think I'm on a steady state...
Stent coming out the usual channel or via the suprapubic catheter? Why the stent in the urethra? Are you being prepped for a trial return to normal voiding?
The stent is where the ureter enters the bladder so it does not swell shut or (according to the nurse) get plugged with the sediment from the stones he zapped. It's coming out the place that shall not be spoken. I still may do another urodynamic to see where my bladder pressure is, but every time he looks up in there he mentions how extremely trabeculated it is. This latest round of kidney stones makes me glad I did not try to get off of the cath, because I'm certain my bladder would have crashed & burned again under the back-pressure, and the SPC would have healed over. When I was driving to my last CT scan, I got 1/2 hour from home and was thinking of hitting a rest stop to empty the already-filling 1000ml bag that I had emptied before I left home. I don't think that "normal" is in my future with this.
I'm still in the Grateful Mode...partly because of the initial nightmare of thinking the plugged cath issue was never gonna get fixed, and mostly the net-relief this has given me. I bet I spent 15 years with some level of retention and going to the bathroom many times a day more than most people. I've mentioned that a 2 hour drive consists of voiding when I'm leaving, making 2 pit stops, than wondering if I need to find a place to stop as I approach my destination. I am freed from that, and I don't ever again have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. My at-risk issues are (1) losing this urologist because another one will want to "fix it his way" and ditch the SPC, and (2) continued availability of the gentamicin. If I want to do test runs, all I gotta do is plug the cath (or put a valve on the bag) and see how things go. But after all I've been through, and the horrible urologists I've seen, I can't see letting go of the security of the SPC. All that being said, the backdrop to all of this is my urinating 4000ml every day. I could find a way to cut that back, but I've always been a big water drinker, and I believe it's the one reason my kidney stones have never really been painful. My first episode was 5 stones passed in rapid succession effortlessly, and then another 5 a little over an hour later. No pain, no discomfort, no real warning.
Gosh I tell ya, health and medical, and all the challenges, I know I've got mine too like many others, but bladder conditions and of course related things to each specific diagnosis can be and is so stressful so much of the time, this I know myself...
I thought I was on a steady state. It would never have occurred to me that after 20 years, I would have kidney stones again with no way to exit since I've got a cath. The urologist was following 2 of them in my kidney, but it looks like there were 2 that made it to my bladder, 1 was in transit, and 2 were in my kidney. I've not seen the final reports. I sent a note to my nephrologist to have my historical CT Scans looked at to see if I am still forming stones. I've changed my diet in the last 20 years and am now reading the wheat bran cereal is high in oxylate as is the cacao powder I've been putting in my nightly drink. dammit