14 April 2011

"Don't Try This at Home..." 12 - 14•April•11

I was diagnosed with a kidney stone after sudden and incapacitating pain in my lower back forced me to halt the workday on Tuesday afternoon. After quick thinking and solid health judgment, an ambulance was called to the scene and I eventually spent that night and the last two days in St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital, the local hospital here in the city. The stone, more like a rounded grape seed, with a few jagged edges, was removed from my urinary tract by natural means early this afternoon. For a few moments there I was mentally preparing to remain in the hospital for as long as necessary, and / or have the pesky foreign object removed by a urologist. Thanks to all the wonderful hospital staff - everyone from the ambulance personnel and first responders on the scene in a retail parking lot who transported me, to the housekeeping workers, medical interns, nursing staff on the ward, the on-call doctors in the ER, and of course the very patient urologist who assured me that this was a common occurrence and very treatable. Let's just say it's been a tedious and "tender" time around the ranch here the last 72 hours or so... ~cg.

Holding the 4mm kidney stone in a specimen cup after it was removed by natural methods from my urinary tract at St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, NY on Thursday, April 14, 2011.

4 comments:

  1. Ouch. Man it sounds painful just reading it. I'm glad it you're feeling better and that it passed naturally and they didn't have to cut you open to get it out. Get well.

    jack

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  2. Usually several more stones tend to follow after the first “scout” stone leaves the mother ship. This scout stone leaves a track and makes marks along the way so the other army stones can exit to freedom. This can take several months and sometimes up to a year for the entire army/clan to exit the urinary track.

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  3. I bet you can't wait for the rest of the"Army" to exit to "Freedom" !!Painful, very painful. Not as bad as child birth though.

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  4. I disagree. Labor for child birth is expected, and manageable through breathing techniques, among others. It also isn't constant. Kidney stone pain is constant and you can not just breath through it. Meds are needed to manage that awful pain!

    I hope an 'army' of stones did not follow yours. I just had a stone 3-4 mm the other day. I only spent 5 hours in the emergency room at the local hospital. I walked in thinking I had appendicitis. I hope to never have one again!

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