I'm a 26 year old female who had mild to severe hydronephrosis in one kindey due to a upj obstruction. I was told it is congenital. In January of 2007, my urologist performed laproscopic pyeloplasty because i was having upper abdominal pain, which I wouldn't think is related at all (but they just so happened to spot my big kidney again).I thought i was fine and then I started having issues again, which I believed was acid reflux. Well, i had another ultrasound done and this time, it showed severe hydronephrosis in the same kidney. I went back to the surgeon who put in another stent until I had yet another surgery. This time I had uterocystoscopy (i hope im spelling it right---they basically cut my ureter off where the new blockage was and cut a piece of my kidney off and placed the ureter in that new location). Well I had that surgery in early September 2007. As of a few weeks ago, I started having extreme back pain and weird urinary issues, as if i had one of my lovely stents in again...but no stent & no infection. Does anyone think that these issues have to do with the kidney and perhaps this isn't my last surgery???? I was lying around for 4 weeks so I'm thinking my back pain might be from sitting in my chair at work...???? I'm really nervous. I am going into the hospital again to see if anything is wrong but I'm so sick of this....

what is the question ? im not getting it/ lol

Not really sure what my question is...lol
I am just having some issues right now and the doctors told me that this last surgery was a last resort before taking out my kidney. Do you think having extreme back pain practically all day long has anything to do with my kidney not getting "fixed"? I also have the pain when I urinate and extreme urgency to go (worse than ever before) and I am not sure what is going there. I just wanted to find someone who may have had the same symptoms after surgery. But to be honest, I am just glad I found this message board because overall, it makes me realize that many people have issues like mine or much worse.

I also have UPJ. I also have a ureter wrapped around my vena cava so I have found noone willing to fix the UPJ. Though they claim that is not where my pain is coming from. I scarcely believe them. You may be peeing more now because your system is more free flowing. The back pain I am not sure about. How bad is the back pain? Do you have stones as well?

Well I was thinking that the issue with having to pee more is because everything is "fixed." But I sometimes have to run to the bathroom and get barely get there fast enough. The back pain is a knawling pain that just stays with me most of the day, more toward the afternoons. I do not have stones and I actually have never in my life had a uti. I actually resort to taking pain killers some nights. I guess its not extreme but one day at work, I had to stand and work on something most of the day and was near tears. I was wearing heels but never before did I feel like that. I guess they will look around on Tuesday and see if everything ok. It's been almost 8 weeks since my last surgery so maybe I'm just still healing....?

What kind of pain do you have that you think is associated with upj? What is a vena cava?

I have constant pain under my rib cage up on the right side. It gets worse when I drink fluids. A vena cava is the major artery to the heart. It carries all the blood to keep the heart pumping. I also have hyronephosis 100% of the time with right renal dilation.

Due to your surgery they may have got muscles that still need to mend which is why you sometimes ' don't make it'. This is all time until the muscles mend again. I remember after open abdominal surgery they asked me to breath in for an x-ray and I could not due it - the muscle was cut. This is all normal. Your body has been through a lot.

Well, I guess it can't hurt for them to look around and make sure everything is ok, even if these issues are related to my body just healing. And I was also thinking that maybe the fact that I had to pull my stent out myself (i wasnt supposed to be able to) has something to do with it...?? Somehow it moved its way down and out. It was a lot of fun! :(

I would think your pain is related (though I'm not a doc) to the hydronephrosis. I always felt a big lump in my belly and my back would hurt when i drank a lot or stood up. I don't think any doctor believed me when i said i had a lump in my belly that would come and go. Then i got an ultrasound!

I grimace at the though of having to remove your own stent. I am not sure I am even flexible enough for that. I remember with my first stent I also had a foley catheter in. The nurse/intern who removed the catheter pulled on the stent (not an easy task) and I screamed. Luckily they were able to get the stent back in without putting me out or pain killers but I was on a ton of pain killers any way so may not have felt it :-0. Hope you are feeling better. Please keep us posted.

Not to get too graphic but it was literally like pulling out a tampon (for all you females out there). It actually hurt less (it really didn't hurt at all) than if I went into the hospital to get it surgically removed. But it was extremely uncomfortable and hurt before I removed it. I couldn't control my bladder whatsoever...awful!! Anyway, I am getting a cystoscopy (i think thats what its called) tomorrow so I will let you know whats going on!

So, I had a cystocopy last Tuesday to see what was going on because of the back pain and urinary issues I had. Well, today is basically the first day I could update you all on what the problem was. Apparently, when I was still "under" the doctors came to my mom asking her questions about when I had my surgeries and something about the stents from those surgeries. Well, they were asking because not only did I remove a stent myself two weeks after my surgery, but there was still 1-1/2 stents still inside of me. I had three stents total. Because of the failure to remove the stents, I acquired a pretty severe infection and had to go to the emergency room on Wednesday and was in the hospital until Friday. So, I am guessing all of the pain I was having was because of the 1-1/2 stents inside of me. I am doing much better but not back to work yet due to the adverse effects of the antiobiotics. But I am hoping that this is over once and for all! One positive thing that the doctors told me was that my kidney looks great and is now functioning well!