How are you preventing future stones? - Kidney Disorders Message Board

wideawakeinaz · 08-15-2004, 09:50 PM

i had my first stone in october, though, it took till january to pass it. I'm a 30 year old female and i know both my parents had at least 2 stones in their lives. To my knowledge, i had a UTI about 6 years ago, but again, to my knowledge, this was my first issue with stones.

anyways, my urine for the most part is almost orange in color. despite drinking 64oz of water throughout the day at work and coming home and drinking about another 32 oz, my urine seldom ever gets to even just a normal yellow color. usually it's either dark yellow or orange. how much water should i be drinking??? i'm 280lbs and i don't know if my weight has anything to do with needing more water or what. my job is doing phone work, so that requires very little activity and the only time i'm really up and walking is during my breaks or when i need to talk to my supervisor. at home, i also don't do much, other than cook dinner and walk from 1 room to another. weekends is when i tend to do more walking.

anyways....i realize, this isn't enough water for my system and there are times, when i'll be sitting or laying down and i'll almost feel like a scratching feeling from my pelvic area. usually, once i take a hot bath, that goes away and i'm fine for awhile. i'm wondering if this is my body's way of telling me to drink more water. i don't know. i live in arizona....so i know, i should be drinking more, but i just don't have the taste for water.

well, when i passed my stones, i had 2 of them at the same time...they were too small to test and nothing appeared on the tests, other than, they were about 2mm in size....however, the pain was horrible that i can't believe those tiny things kept me out of work for almost 3 months in pain. i was on vicodin to stop the pain.

so, since my uroglogist couldn't figure out what the stones were made from, i'm not on any special diet or routine. what i would like to know from others, what are you doing to prevent future stones?

can you have stones and not have the back pain or the need to urinate all the time? the only feeling i'm having is that stratching feeling and sometimes, if i move my body in my chair in a different position, i'm fine. i have back pain, but mostly, it's due to my weight and how i sleep, so i do know the difference between my everyday back pain and the pain i felt last year when i had the stones. 5 days straight of back pain. not fun.

also is it possible to get another stone so closely after having the first one? i know my mom had one when i was a baby and then again when i was like 8 and from after that, i don't remember her having one. my dad had one when my mom was pregnant and then again about 27 years later. again, not sure if they had the more often or not.

my boyfriend tells me, i'm just paranoid and that i'm thinking there is stuff going on and because of that, my mind is making me feel things. i'm tired of feeling crazy about this and all i want is to go through a day without worrying about getting another stone. there are days when i can't even leave my house without worrying about what if i'm out and i get a stone? i can't leave home without pain medication and sometimes, i can't help but take 5 baths in 1 day. yet, i have none of the symptoms i had last year....other than the stratching feeling.

anyways, sorry this is so long, but any ideas or thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

heitara · 08-16-2004, 04:24 AM

I've been forming kidney stones for the past three years now and I know the feeling of terror and anxiety that overwhelms you when you are a "newbie" at cholics. First of all, let me reassure you on the fact that a lot of people have one sporadic episode and then they never develop a kidney stone for the rest of their life. Why not think that this is your case?

Anyways, if you want to be on the "safe side", you can use some supplements and some herbs that, along with the right diet, will lessen dramatically the possibility of having another stone. Here are some tips that come from my researches, talks with doctors and experience:

You have to use less salt and fat in your meals. Eat lots of veggie but avoid spinach and tomatoes, don't erase completely diary products from your diet but don't exceed in milk, fat cheese and yogurth (a lot of kidney stones are calcium oxalates and they formed because of an excess of calcium). Drink at least two liters a day of water or juices and, above everything, make sure you pee enough. Sometimes we suffer from water retention and no matter how much we drink, we don't pee enough. That could be the reason of the color of yours. In that case, you can try some herbal remedies, like the Betula Alba, which is a mild, natural remedy. Take thirty drops twice a day in a bit of water and see if it helps. I also drink two cups a day of a tea made by infusion of a plant called "stonegrinder", which is supposed to "grind" your stones - if you have any - and to purify and detoxify your kidneys anyway. I used it when I had three stones in one kidney and four in another...and it worked! As you can see, I'm still here and alive in spite of all those nasty buggers. I know is very scary and the pain is sometimes unbereable, but don't let this change your life. Bring with you the painkillers (you'll probably never need them but they will make you feel protected) and go and do whatever you want. Remember that for us women there are a lot of little pains or cramps that can resemble to one cholic kicking in but that are really only related to our ovaries, colon etc. And if you want to put your mind at ease, why don't you go have a kidney ecography? it's not invasive, it's quick and it will tell you exactly the situation inside your kidneys...

I hope this have helped a bit...if not, feel free to vent any time you feel like..lots of sypathetic people in this board

ainfante · 08-28-2004, 04:41 PM

I don't understand why the stone is too small for them to detect what it is made of? This is weird, I just had a kidney stone crushed and have exposed some of it, not done yet, unfortunately, and I took them in, they are very small. Oh my, don't tell me there going to come back and tell me that can't read them! I need to know the inbalance.

Andrea

heitara · 08-28-2004, 06:11 PM

Andrea, sorry **f ** haven't been able to express myself (darn language gap) and * worr*ed you. What * meant to say was that *f *** stones are less than two m*ll*m*ters *t's pretty *mposs*ble to see ***m through an ecography. But ***y can analyze anyth*ng, *nclud*ng gravel

Don't worry, ***y'll be ablet to bu*ld a genealog*c tree of your stones....

ainfante · 09-01-2004, 08:35 AM

Thanks Carla. Hope so.

Andrea