psychosomatic?

I hurt my wrist 6 weeks or so ago. I went to a new doctor who said we weren't going to talk about my wrist, we were going to talk about my blood pressure instead. I told him I knew I should be taking BP medicine, but it was just great genetics and not much could be done. My mom and her dad both had their first heart at 36 (I'm 35) and my uncle died at 44 from a heart attack. I was diagnosed with hypertension at 17 (a 5'11.5", 120lb, cross country runner)

He disagreed that there wasn't anything that could be done other than medication and sent me on a litany of tests. His first guess was sleep apnea, but a sleep study ruled that out quickly. He then did a massive blood panel, which came back mostly OK - at least nothing indicating why the BP is so high.

One of the tests they did was a renal doppler, to find out if blood flow through my kidneys was the cause. That test came back fine, but they did find a 1.1cm kidney stone on my right kidney.

I had no idea. I found all of this out Tuesday. Of course, last night as I lay in bed, I feel something, maybe a very slight pain in that area of my back.

Surely it is psychosomatic or something, right? It wasn't really bad pain, just like I knew it was there.

I'm sure if I hadn't recently come to know, I wouldn't have given it a second thought.

Ignorance is bliss, no?

My father is a pretty tough guy. When he had a kidney stone I practically had to carry him to the car. So, "slight" pain is probably your brain doing that thing it does after you find a tick on your clothes and everything suddenly itches.

That's what I figured. I know it is way to big to pass w/out getting it broken up.

Sounds like you have a good doctor.

I'm another guy with the bad blood pressure gene. I'm working, or at least I tell myself I am, on bringing my weight down to get it under control. The sodium reduction did nearly nothing for it.

Trust me, you WILL notice when the stone does something and it wont be something you question.

I had a passable one last year and it was "hospital NOW" and spontaneous vomiting pain (I thought something in my gut had ruptured), and once there they gave me morphine and eventually sent me home with a supply of Oxycodone (and other assorted meds). Even with the Oxy, it was no picnic while I waited the two weeks it took to pass.

Basically, whenever it comes free and goes into the ureter (passage from kidney to bladder) THAT is when you will be feeling it. Once it is in the bladder you are home free. The urethera is 3x the diameter of the ureter, so it passes that easily and will only cause a little "this feels weird" flinch.

See a doctor about sonic treatment, from what I hear it will have resultant pain/recovery similar to being punched decently hard there. I have no experience with sonic, but sooner is better than later as for mine it was a non-option according to my urologist as mine was in the ureter.

The only options I had was to let it pass, or have it retrieved. The retrieval did NOT involve being cut on, they would go up the urethra, through the bladder, and grab it with a scope instrument. Oh, I heard healing from that is not a picnic as you can well imagine.

As I said, mine took two weeks to pass. As crap-tastic as the retrieval operation sounds, I was in enough pain that I had given the green light to having it done the next day by the time it finally passed.

It sucks, but you will make it out the other side no problem with no lasting effects.

Man... I don't want to add to your worry, but if that thing moves, you are going to know it. Like, REALLLLLY know it. I had a small stone that passed naturally with fluids and it was a rough day for me until I got the happy sleepy time injection with my IV.

I'm going to go drink a big serving of water now that I'm thinking about it.

A few points of memory if someone finds this looking for advice.

The heavy painkillers AND the contrast they use for a CT scan cause constipation. treat with laxatives early so it doesnt become a "larger" issue.

Just before the stone (or pieces of broken up stone) land in the bladder, it will exert pressure on a nerve such that you will feel that you MUST URINATE NOW!!, when in fact your bladder is empty. Good sign you are almost there and out of the woods.

No joke, PUSH THE FLUIDS, and if possible MOVE AROUND. I think mine took longer because I pretty much staid in bed. you want to shake that sucker so it keeps moving down the narrow tube. (that is if you arent about to pass out from pain)

WilD wrote: I'm going to go drink a big serving of water now that I'm thinking about it.

Yeah, me too

So, what's up with your wrist?

Wrist was just strained, I'd moved a metric crapton of dirt and it was swollen/hurt like hell for a few weeks. It is find now.

In reply to m4ff3w:

ever get an MRI on it to confirm it was just a strain?

captdownshift wrote: In reply to m4ff3w: ever get an MRI on it to confirm it was just a strain?

No, but it is fine now.

I had a 6mm stone go through my kidneys ... It felt like Bruce Lee kicked me on one of my sides. It go progressively worse from me having to lay in my office floor, to trying to leave work early to asking someone to drive me to the ER.

Dilaudid took care of the pain once at the hospital. You'd know if you are passing it.

Usually 5mm is the max they let you pass. Anything bigger and they have to go in and break it down into smaller pieces. I'd get yours looked at at 11mm.

Just to chime in with my own experience. I've had two kidney stones. When I had the first one I couldn't believe that anything could be this painful and not be fatal. The pain was the same with the second one but I recognized it for what it was. They gave me an IV of Tramadol while I was still in the waiting room and that helped a ton. I did feel a few twinges in the weeks leading up to the attack so you may be feeling it move but I have my doubts.

I have a really high threshold of pain.

Kidney stone is the only thing in my life that left me collapsed on the ground, vomiting, and completely incapacitated with my eyes rolling back in my head. It's the only time I ever checked into a hospital.

You WILL know.

As someone who had to have 3 procedures to rid himself of an 18mm kidney stone, I will tell you right now, you will know when you are having a kidney stone attack.

When women tell you that they have had 3 kids and a kidney stone attack AND they would rather give birth. You know that's bad.

Make sure you treat the blood pressure. My wife has had kidney issues and high blood pressure since birth. She stopped taking her meds because they were making her gain weight. After about a year she had a stroke. If controlling it becomes a problem see a good nephrologist. It took trying a few different meds but they finally hit on a combo that works with her various issues.

Here's my 2mm slice of heaven. I know it's not very big, but it can jump from here to there, and it's got teeth like... Oh just look at the spines!

Also, blood pressure plus kidney stones, are you a regular consumer of caffeinated sodas or coffee?