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Discomfort on left flank
Undead Scottsman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So let me preface this by saying I've seen a Doctor (a urologist) already and he's come up short.
Anywho, as far back as August (before PAX) I was getting a weird sensation in the left side of my pelvis, basically right below my gut in the middle of the left. I can best describe it as a weight or pressure; basically it didn't hurt, but something was off.
About a month after that, it had upgraded to kinda-sorta hurting, and then a really weird pain at the head of my penis. At this point, being without insurance, I went "Well, if this gets worse, I'm going to the doc anyway." On October 5th, it got worse. I woke up, took a leak, and got back into bed to browse the web on my ipad. About 20-30 minutes later that kinda-sorta became a "Okay, this is a legit pain." I tried taking a crap just in case (I get a lot of bloating and cramps) but I totally didn't need to go, so I called up a ride to take me to the Doc. 20 minutes after my ride arived, it had gone from being an affecting pain, to a massive pain and had started going up my back. The Doctor's office I went to was.. slow and by the time I was actually seen an hour and a half after arriving, the pain was the worst pain I ever experienced and stretched from the middle of my back all the way to my testicle. A nurse had me pee into a cup and there was obvious swirls of blood in it, so by that point I was pretty certain I had a kidney stone and the Doc agreed with me, gave me a shot for the pain and proscribed some pain drugs and some Flomax to widen my tubes.
I spent the first 20+ hours basically immobilized from the pain and the combo of the pain meds and flomax making me too nausious to stand. (That lasted a few days, actually) The pain was never as bad as it was for the first day, but would flare up, specifically around the kidney. I stopped using the medicine right before it ran out to see if I still needed it, and it the pain would basically flare up like once or twice a day and last a few hours. I'd quaff some water and take an aspiran and just pace looking at my phone until it faded. An attack would usually be preceded by the sensations in my pelvis and penis I described above, so it was easy to pregame an aspiran.
About two and a half weeks later ,(October 21st?) I had a really bad attack that lasted more than four hours, so I took the last of my medication. The next day, I finally passed the damn stone! It was 3-5mm and covered in a blood clot, but you could still see the crystals poking out of parts of it.
However, I sill continued to have those sensations in my flank, as well as random pains in that region (they're not really that painful, just annoying) and, to a much lesser extent, on the right side. I figured I had another stone. I eventually went back to work, got insurance and went to an Urologist (Different Doc than before) in the beginning of December. He had me get an X-ray and sent my stone off for analasys. Nothing showed up on the X-Ray, so he scheduled me for a checkup in late January (the 26th) where he had me get a CT scan. Cue last Monday where I went in and he basically said nothing showed up on the scan (which I guess is good; none of the organs seem out of place) and made intonations that there wasn't much else to be done.
I, being an inquisitive guy, asked if it could be a bladder infection and he said he didn't think so. I mentioned my urine has been dark lately, but didn't look bloody like it was that one time. I had mentioned the blood in my urine (From October) to him before, but this time he said that it was a red flag in this profession and said I could get cytoscopy just to check things in my bladder out. Fast forward an hour and he didn't find anything related to my issue (though I'm going for a blood draw next week for something unrelated) which is about where I'm at.
I'm still getting that sensation in my pelvis, and minor pain in my left flank. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I don't remember getting this stuff prior to the stone. It's been over 3 months since I passed that one stone.
Any ideas on where to go from here.
Anywho, as far back as August (before PAX) I was getting a weird sensation in the left side of my pelvis, basically right below my gut in the middle of the left. I can best describe it as a weight or pressure; basically it didn't hurt, but something was off.
About a month after that, it had upgraded to kinda-sorta hurting, and then a really weird pain at the head of my penis. At this point, being without insurance, I went "Well, if this gets worse, I'm going to the doc anyway." On October 5th, it got worse. I woke up, took a leak, and got back into bed to browse the web on my ipad. About 20-30 minutes later that kinda-sorta became a "Okay, this is a legit pain." I tried taking a crap just in case (I get a lot of bloating and cramps) but I totally didn't need to go, so I called up a ride to take me to the Doc. 20 minutes after my ride arived, it had gone from being an affecting pain, to a massive pain and had started going up my back. The Doctor's office I went to was.. slow and by the time I was actually seen an hour and a half after arriving, the pain was the worst pain I ever experienced and stretched from the middle of my back all the way to my testicle. A nurse had me pee into a cup and there was obvious swirls of blood in it, so by that point I was pretty certain I had a kidney stone and the Doc agreed with me, gave me a shot for the pain and proscribed some pain drugs and some Flomax to widen my tubes.
I spent the first 20+ hours basically immobilized from the pain and the combo of the pain meds and flomax making me too nausious to stand. (That lasted a few days, actually) The pain was never as bad as it was for the first day, but would flare up, specifically around the kidney. I stopped using the medicine right before it ran out to see if I still needed it, and it the pain would basically flare up like once or twice a day and last a few hours. I'd quaff some water and take an aspiran and just pace looking at my phone until it faded. An attack would usually be preceded by the sensations in my pelvis and penis I described above, so it was easy to pregame an aspiran.
About two and a half weeks later ,(October 21st?) I had a really bad attack that lasted more than four hours, so I took the last of my medication. The next day, I finally passed the damn stone! It was 3-5mm and covered in a blood clot, but you could still see the crystals poking out of parts of it.
However, I sill continued to have those sensations in my flank, as well as random pains in that region (they're not really that painful, just annoying) and, to a much lesser extent, on the right side. I figured I had another stone. I eventually went back to work, got insurance and went to an Urologist (Different Doc than before) in the beginning of December. He had me get an X-ray and sent my stone off for analasys. Nothing showed up on the X-Ray, so he scheduled me for a checkup in late January (the 26th) where he had me get a CT scan. Cue last Monday where I went in and he basically said nothing showed up on the scan (which I guess is good; none of the organs seem out of place) and made intonations that there wasn't much else to be done.
I, being an inquisitive guy, asked if it could be a bladder infection and he said he didn't think so. I mentioned my urine has been dark lately, but didn't look bloody like it was that one time. I had mentioned the blood in my urine (From October) to him before, but this time he said that it was a red flag in this profession and said I could get cytoscopy just to check things in my bladder out. Fast forward an hour and he didn't find anything related to my issue (though I'm going for a blood draw next week for something unrelated) which is about where I'm at.
I'm still getting that sensation in my pelvis, and minor pain in my left flank. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I don't remember getting this stuff prior to the stone. It's been over 3 months since I passed that one stone.
Any ideas on where to go from here.
Undead Scottsman on
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Diet is trash, but has been for years. (I went particularly heavy on soda in lou of water for a few months before the stone) I went pretty heavy on water between October and December, but that didn't change anything. I'm still avoiding Soda for the most part. Milk doesn't agree with me so I don't typically drink it. I was taking shots of pure lemon juice for a good month or two there, hearing it might prevent stones from forming, but I gave up recently.
Never met my father so dunno what his history is. Don't believe my mother has had any digestive issues or liver/pancreatic problems.
Urologist said he didn't find anything anomalous in the x-ray or CT scans; I got a cystoscope shoved into my bladder and they didn't see anything alarming. (Just a questionable nodule that I'm getting a blood draw for, just in case, but the Doc doubted it would be causing my issues even if it was something.)
As always, IANAD.