The Rolling (Kidney) Stones - Kidney Stones strike again!

I am unfortunately a Kidney Stone Suvivor, I guess you could call it. I had my first kidney stone roughly 1/2 years ago (passed two of them.) At the time it was easily the most excrcuiating and immense pain I have ever experienced in my life. This is coming from a person who has had: a broken leg, broke both ankles, numerous ankle sprains, dislocated finger, sprained fingers, dislocated knee (twice), tip of finger cut off, and broken arm. Never in my life have I ever experienced pain such as with Kidney Stones... until last weekend.

I was at the beach in Sunny San Diego, California on Saturday, while spending time with family that is in from Fort Worth, Texas. The day was great... sun, fun, and good times. I went to bed around 10:00pm and at 3:05am I woke up with a very sharp pain in the left side of my back. I got up and thought that maybe it was a muscle strain from swimming in the ocean. But the longer I sat on the bed, the more I realized, ".... its a kidney stone!"

I actually had some Vicodin from my previous episode, so I immediately ran to the kitchen and downed a Vicodin and went back down to sit on the bed. The pain got to about a 4/10 then lucikly the Vicodin kicked in. While looking at my Vicodin bottle and seeing I only had 3 left... I had to get to the ER to get more pills.

At the ER I had virutally no pain, as the Vidocin was already kicking. The doctor gave me a new perscription for Vicodin and sent me on my way. I was only in the ER for less than 30 minutes. (Kaiser ER in Mission Valley, CA area). So I went home... and went back to bed. Woke up the next morning.. and felt fine. No problems at all... "(sigh of relief")

I went along with relaxing the rest of Sunday... until roughly Monday morning around 4:00am. Instead of a slow moving back pain, this time is hit me like a ton of bricks *BOOM!* The pain factor right out of the gate was easily t 7/10. I was in excrutiating pain, and I immediately took a Vicodin. Waited 10 minutes in agonizing pain, and nothing was happening.... so I took another. 20 more minutes and nothing.. took another. I waited roughly an hour and popped down 4 Vicodins.. and it was like taking Sugar Pills.

At this time I had to go back to the ER.... which was another 30 minutes from where I live. I get to the ER and fall out of the car. A guy from the hospital ran out and got me a wheelchair. They admit me to the ER right away and bring me back. I talk to the Doctor give him the scoop and her perscribs Demeral for me. Which after the IV and finally medicine.. took about 40 minutes. After roughly 10 minutes of getting the Demeral.. the pain finally went back down. During this time... going to the ER... the pain was about 8/10.

After a CTscan and 8 hours in the ER... I get released with Percocet (Oxycontin). I get home and no more than a few hours I got unbearable pain again. This time the stone is down into my bladder area, and there was just nothing I could do. Right when I thought I couldn't handle anymore pain... you gussed it... another stone started to come out of the kidney. At this time... the pain was a 10/10. I have never experienced pain such as this. I popped 2 50mg Percocets and they didn't kick in until about 30 minutes. During this time... I thought that I might as well died.

Finally the percocet kicked in.. and although there was still a ton of pain, I was so dopped up... I really didn't care. I went into a dazed dream/hallucinagin state for the next 3-4 hours. Woke up.. with again a lot of pain. This time about 7-8/10. I popped another Percocet and it seemed to help a bit. At this time.. it felt like the stone that was close to my bladder.. finally went into the bladder and didn't hurt as much anymore.

It took me 2 days to get the Percocet out of my system. I'm really sensitive to medicine, and this stuff really messed me up. Probably because of the over-dose of medication. I was suppose to not go over 2 pills in 12 hours.. I was up to 6. 6 50mg of Percocet.. is quite a lot.

But... now its Wednesday... and its four days since the first sign. I didn't think I would be able to make it out of that pain, but here I am today.

If anyone else suffers from Kidney Stones... i'd love to hear your stories below. If you have had them before.. you know the pain i'm talking about... if not.. your are lucky!

One thing i'm very happy for is... 1 1/2 years ago.. after all the bills from the stone.. I was out $3,700. With Kaiser... for all the perscription/ER visits etc... costed me $235.00. Not bad...