Had A Urodynamics Procedure Today

Hey, Janine! Good to se you again.

 

I've not written on this subject for a while because things had [thankfully] been uneventful since my bladder stone surgery last April (the issues with the compounding pharmacy notwithstanding.) Well, that changed on Feb 3. I woke up with massive stomach pains that got worse, so I went to the ER thinking it was the diverticulitis kicking up again, and I'd get a CT scan to confirm it and walk out the door with a prescription. It turns out that after over 20 years, my kidney stones are acting up again.

The CT scan at the ER I went to showed one at my bladder and one in transit, plus another couple in my kidney. I had my GP send the films to the radiologists he works with because they have legacy scans for me and there's a legacy cyst that needed looked at. They confirmed the location and the size of the stones...and the cyst is still fine (it's actually shrinking.)

I saw my urologist Friday March 1 and then went to his in-house radiology center the following Monday and got another scan. They showed 2 in my bladder and a 3rd one trying to exit my kidney, and their evaluated sizes were larger than the other places. I have this supra pubic catheter, so these things are not gonna leave my bladder without intervention. I'm going in on April 1 for another surgery (I hate to use that word, since there is no incision.) They will laser the stones in my bladder and remove them, then laser the stone that's in transit and remove it, then try to laser the ones that are in my kidneys and remove them, too. He said there's a possibility that he'll have to temporarily insert a stent for a few weeks to widen the ureter to get the laser up in there, but since passing the stones has always been uneventful, I'm thinking the pathway is not all that narrow.

I don't want to jinx things, but I have never had painful stones. I've had trouble excreting them from my bladder (which is why my bladder is shot), but they have never been painful going from my kidney to my bladder. These are more sore than I've experienced, and they seem to be taking much longer than normal [for me] to make the journey, but so far I've not been too uncomfortable...just paranoid.

Two of these stones that have been showing up on X-ray for the past few years. But I changed my diet a little and am wondering if I've not made things worse. First, I have been putting a tablespoon of cacao powder in my evening chicory drink, and I just discovered that cacao powder is high in oxylates (a component of kidney stones.) I also changed my breakfast cereal a while ago from an oat-based one to wheat bran flakes. Guess what? That is also high in oxylates. Maybe it matters and maybe it doesn't. I got my first stones in 1990 and have never altered my diet...it really wasn't discussed. As best I can recall, I got my last stones around 2000-2002, except for a 2 week period in 2010 when my hard well water caused me to pass the minerals almost straight through.

Like many people, I'm only forming stones in one of my kidneys (the left one.) Since it has been over 2 decades since my last kidney stones, I thought they were completely behind me. But I have a good urologist. I hope he's able to break up the stones that are still in my kidney. As long as that pharmacy can keep the antibiotic coming, it looks like the bladder stones are not gonna be an issue. Perhaps zapping the stones that are in my kidney will put an end to them as well. And I gotta be grateful that the diverticulitis is not a recurring issue as I initially thought.

 

I'm too slow to fast

The real kicker has been calcium. I had been sort of avoiding it because of my kidney stones, but I've never been a milk drinker (yeh, I know there are other sources.) A couple of years ago I read that calcium is actually good for kidney stones because the oxylate binds to it and gets carried away in your stool, versus being excreted through your urine (where it forms kidney stones.) So I started taking a 600mg supplement. Well, that calcium supplement sent my urine calcium levels off the charts and contributed to bladder stones. I only found this out when I was in a constant blocked catheter crisis.

I've had my calcium level analyzed 6 ways from Sunday, and it seems that almost all of the supplement was going right through me (550mg/day.) Parathyroids test OK...several times. I stopped the supplements and the urine levels have been in the normal range. Blood calcium levels have always been OK (which doesn't really mean anything, due to how our systems regulate calcium in the blood.)

As I said, the bladder sediment is under control. Now after 20 years the kidney stones need to get addressed. I am still grateful that I do not have any real "diseases." The stones are a purely mechanical issue, and the kidney stones have been dormant for 2 decades.

 

Yeh, I was taking both of them. 50mcg of D3 and 100mcg of K1 and K2. I quit taking the D3 last month when I got these most recent stones because I read that D3 could be a contributing factor. It's hard to tease out the data stating that certain things may cause you to form stones in the first place versus data looking at the impact when your are already forming stones...and then there's the "along with calcium supplements" variable for Vit D versus taking it on its own. A Sept 2023 Vit D 25 Hydroxy blood test put my Vit D at 39ng/mil (Normal is 20-80), so perhaps I should continue taking it.

These are calcium levels from 24 hour urine collections.
The target for Males is <250.
Nov 2022: 543mg/day
--Dec 2022 I stopped taking the 600mg calcium supplements.
Feb 2023: 362mg/day
May 2023: 325mg/day

These are Random Urine Calcium test results.
There is no "normal" (Diet Dependent.)
Dec 2022: 15.0mg/dl (I stopped taking calcium supplements around this time)
May 2023: 8.2mg/dl
Sep 2023: 4.6mg/dl
Mar 2024: 4.6mg/dl

Every CT Scan I've had has been noted that my prostate has a "severe" amount of calcium deposits. My parathyroid function has been tested at least twice, and they are fine.

edit to add: My multivitamin contains 220mg of calcium, which I am still taking. So my daily intake was 820mg.

 

I, too, eat a varied diet. I don't necessarily plan meals around their vitamin & mineral content to ensure I'm getting everything I need from food sources every single day. I'm not sure that would even be possible. And even if it were theoretically possible, there is no way of measuring the nutrients in our foods. I think we mostly agree that it was proven that our soils were depleted to some extent 100 years ago. So I supplement. But who really knows?

The main player (I believe) in metabolizing calcium are the parathyroid glands, and mine test OK.

 

I asked about that and (without recalling the exact verbiage) was told that there was no reason to, since the parathyroids tested OK. I have thought about this for a while since I've never been a milk drinker. I should just go ahead and get it done.

I'll check out that link. The whole thing is interesting and confusing. I'm thinking I might start taking the D3 again. Every time I read something I change my mind. There's so much garbage out there, but those calcium tests don't lie. But had I not had urine retention for so very long, I may not have formed those initial bladder stones. The second set came from the massive amount of struvite...it accounted for 70% of the stones' content. But the first set had to be calcium, since I was not cathed at the time.

 

I will be in May. And that test has been on my radar screen for a couple of years because of all the calcium issues I've had. I fear my output has exceeded my intake, but who really knows.