For the next day after being hospitalized in the ER and struggling to sleep due to the pain, fortunately I had Ibuprofen in my cabinet but I spent the day and half contemplating what got me into this predicament.
And it pains me to find out that the healthy foods I was eating was actually going to affect me.
I have never heard of oxalates in my life.
And looking at he Oxalate List from KidneyStoneDiet.com, I realized that I was too focused on eating the same things, veggie burgers mad with soy or spinach, spinach salads, almonds, almond flour, almond butter. How would I know that the continually eating this would eventually affect me?
Granted, this was no doubt an accumulation of years of eating the same things day after day but I never realized it would be possible for me to get kidney stones. No one in my family has had it.
So, by Monday morning, I met with my doctor and she was surprised I was not prescribed medication to deal with the problems that were shown in the ER report.
I received an order to get extensive blood work done, but in the report it showed also a blockage and so I had to go and pick up one bottle and drink Magnesium Citrate.
I was also prescribed a higher dosage of Ibuprofen and Tamulosin (an alpha blocker) which reduces pain and leads to quicker stone passage. My doctor told me she would need me to not go to work for the week because of the pain.
I was referred urgently to a urologist for a Thursday meeting, so that meant I have four days of doing what I can to make the stone pass. I received a sheet from of foods to avoid and to drink a lot of water with lemon juice.
Fortunately, my mother has a lemon tree, so lemons is something I can tap into.
But for the next few days, I would have to bare with the pain, which literally I was stuck on the couch trying to lay on one side (the opposite side of the pain) while watching various YouTube videos on kidney stones, kidney stone prevention and what some people do to make the stone pass as quickly as possible.
I would drink water with a squeezed lemon (I estimate 16 cups) and pretty much avoided all foods that had high oxalates.
I was doing what other people were showing online, lunges and fall on your butt in the sofa to see if that would help make the kidney stone pass.
By Thursday, when I met with my urologist, I was scheduled immediately to have another CT-Scan because there was not many details from the ER. She needed me to get a certain type of CT-Scan that the ER didn’t do. So,I had to receive my order and head to get the urgent test at the hospital and return the following day for the reading.
This is where I became really upset because I needed an urgent CT-Scan as ordered by my urologist and when I took the order in to get it done, the hospital told me, I needed to pay over a $1000 up front or pay half up front. I was a little shocked, because I thought it went through insurance first.
But the hospital had a sign out saying you need to pay up front. So, I paid half and got it done. But it really made me think, what if others had needed this to be done and they didn’t have the money? They would be refused? And they would have to deal with the pain or go to the ER. It was sad. To be truthful, I was a little ticked off about it, to be honest.
So, I would get another appointment to go over the CT-scan and what was discovered were four kidney stones. Two on the right, two on the left. I am feeling the pain of a 2.5mm from the right, but that was not the problem.
The problem is the kidney stone on my left. It was showing up as a 5.5mm. Too big and I may need to have a special surgery done.
But first, to focus on one thing and that is to do all it takes to make sure the one that one kidney stone on my right side that is causing pain passes and I was prescribed Flomax, which relaxes the smooth muscles and would help make the stone pass even faster.
And also, I would have to take another week off from work (thank goodness I had sick time built up) and given a strainer to pee in and collect the stone (as the stone will need to be tested as there are different types of kidney stones). But If I did not pass this stone by the next Wednesday, I would need to have emergency surgery on the Thursday. I was told to drink as much water with lemon as possible.
So, the time limit was turned on….and that made me worry. Not just for the worry of having surgery but also the financial ramifications. Can I get this stone to pass within the next five days?
I will discuss what I did to help rid of the stone in my next blog post but before I go, I realized how much kidney stones takes out of you but it also made me learn how fortunate I had family to help me.
You deal with pain, the inability to sleep and it’s a pain that can take a very strong person out. It surprises me of those who get them continuously, as mentioned, I know a friend’s brother who gets them continuously but he refuses to give up his soda and foods that he enjoys. And also, he gets government assistance for his medical. So, he doesn’t have to worry.
For me, this pain is too excruciating. I don’t want to go through this all through my life and I am willing to change my lifestyle for it. And also, I have to pay for these medical bills (which I will later talk about), so the less ER or doctors visits for testing, the better.
