Samantha Bowick - Living with Kidney Stones: Complete Guide to Risk Factors, Symptoms & Treatment Options

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Living with Kidney Stones
Text copyright 2021 Samantha Bowick

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN: 978-1-57826-887-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Cover Design by Carolyn Kasper

Printed in the United States
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DISCLAIMER: The authors of this book are not medical professionals and make no claims otherwise. The goal of this book is to provide patients and the public with information about kidney stones through one patients story of living with the illness.

For anyone who has ever suffered with the
excruciating pain of a kidney stone;
you are not alone.

I D HAD kidney infections and urinary tract infections before, but I had never before experienced this type of sharp, persistent kidney pain. With urinary tract infections, Id had pain when urinating, but I would take some antibiotics and the urinary tract infection would go away, at least for a little while. Then, after my excision surgery for endometriosis, I stopped getting urinary tract infections until the day after Christmas in 2018. To top it all off, Ive suffered from nausea for the last decade off and on.

So when I felt nausea and some pain while urinating, I didnt really think much about it...until the horrible sharp pain on my right side sent me to the floor, forcing my parents to call an ambulance.

I know all about debilitating and gut-wrenching pain symptoms. Endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, osteoporosis, irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis...my medical history is a laundry list of ailments that unfortunately get you pretty accustomed to pain. But this was a sort of unrelenting pain that came out of nowhere and wouldnt go away. Lying in bed and taking a hot bath didnt help; the pain was the same no matter which way I turned or laid. I didnt know what was going on or wrong with me. All I knew was that the pain occurred right after urinating early in the morning.

I had a small inkling it was a kidney stone only because my sister and brother had experienced them, but I could only hope I was wrong. I didnt have medical insurance to deal with something long-term or that could require multiple doctor appointments, procedures and tests, or surgery. And so it was that I arrived at the emergency room, conveniently located about twenty minutes from my home, where I would spend at least another 20 minutes sitting in the waiting room, wracked with agonizing pain.

The emergency medical technicians told me that, based on where my pain was located, they were sure it was a kidney stone. By this time, I had also started throwing up (my vomit was green, though I was told much later that this green color was because I do not have a gallbladder). But nausea and vomiting are not unique to kidney stones; it could still have been something else, I hoped. Which isnt to say I was thrilled about it: I couldnt remember the last time I had thrown up prior to this (though at a guess, it was likely four years prior when I had to do a bowel prep for endometriosis surgery).

A nurse saw me about 15 or 20 minutes later, though it took at least another hour and a half for a doctor to come in to see me. My mom tells me I was lying in the bed moaning, tossing, and turning and asking why nobody would help me at the time, which makes sense; I dont remember much about this emergency room trip myself, you see.

The doctor finally ordered a scan (mind you, I still hadnt received any pain or nausea medication even though Id told them my symptoms when I arrived; even then, they could see that I was actively vomiting). I had to lie as still as I could for the scan to be completed accurately, which itself was extremely painful. It felt like Id have to wait until after the scan results came back before anyone in the emergency room would believe my pain.

Finally, I received Toradol for the inflammation and pain and Zofran for the nausea. The Toradol relieved most of the pain I was experiencing within 20 minutes and the Zofran kept me from throwing up, which was a plus. I was then told that I had a three millimeter kidney stone on my right side and that I should be able to pass it on my own, which was more of a minus. In fact, I was terrified to try that because Id heard the stories from my siblings, cousins, and others who have passed kidney stones. But no matter what happened, I knew I needed relief.