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franniej · 01-23-2013, 07:04 AM

Hi! I have had dull pain in my left side/back for six months. During this time I have had two episodes of excruciating pain. The first lasted six days and the second almost two weeks. During these episodes I could barely walk and had spasms every few minutes. I lived on strong pain killers so don't remember a great deal other than the pain. I had an ultrasound of the kidney which was normal but the tech told me that if there was small stones they probably wouldn't show up. A ct scan was recommended but not done at the time because my doctor believes if the ultrasound is clear then no stones.
24 hour urine showed slightly increased creatinine of 17mmol/24hr ( ref range 6-14). Blood creatinine 93 umol/L ( ref 46-90 umol/L). Urine culture showed bacteria which I was given antibiotics for. Alkaline Phosphatase has been slightly increased since this began with levels of 132 U/L ( ref 42-98) and ESR of 20 ( ref < 12). My doctor ignores all these results and says they are fine and normal.
I finally convinced another doctor to send me for a CT scan. I had non contrast scan first followed by contrast. I was called back for more pictures because the doctor saw stones. I was relieved to finally have answers however the report came back saying NO stones and a phlebolith instead. The pictures certainly show something resembling stones.
I was wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences and if they have any advice on where to go from here. ? The X-ray clinic are very slack and don't have a good reputation. I personally have had three misdiagnosis's by them.

Although I don't want stones it was very disappointing to come away with yet again no diagnosis. I was wondering if it would be worth getting a second opinion of the scan or having it repeated elsewhere. Does anyone know if there is a possibility of stones being mistaken for phleboliths or vice versa?

Any advice or similar stories would be awesome. Hopefully someone has suffered similar and found a solution. Thanks for reading my novel too

AmandaNicole · 01-23-2013, 08:31 AM

I have been misdiagnosed multiple times that I have had kidney stones. The very first time I had kidney stones I went to ER because I was in an intense amount of pain. They told me it was a UTI and sent me home with antibiotics. The pain continued to get worse and I ended up back in ER several hours later, shaking and vomiting from the pain. They finally sent me for a CT, and found stones.

This last time I had kidney stones was a week or so ago. I am pregnant so they can only do ultrasound to diagnose, and in those they only look for hydronephrosis (swelling/fluid build up in kidneys) and my kidney was not swollen so they said no kidney stones and sent me home with pain killers. I went to my OB and she said yes I likely have kidney stones, and gave me stronger pain killers. I ended up in ER 3 times in that week, each time they gave me IV pain meds and said they couldn't diagnose.

The third time that I was in ER with this last episode, the doctor told me there was no way I had kidney stones because the ultrasound showed nothing. He acted as though I was a drug addict seeking more pills, and diagnosed me with muscle strain, even though I argued with him about this and said I was positive it was kidney stones. He refused to give me enough IV meds to dull the pain and so I had them unhook my IV and I left, I was incredibly ****** off. Funny thing is, 3 days later I passed the kidney stone.

It was yesterday that I passed the stone, and I also went to see my urologist. He told me that unless the stone is extremely large it WILL NOT show up on the ultrasound. And he also said that not everyone shows swelling or fluid build up in the kidneys, I obviously didn't but was still in severe pain. He said the only accurate way to view kidney stones is with a CT, but I can't have that because I'm pregnant. He said ultrasounds are one of the worst tools for diagnosing kidney stones and should not be relied on.

So yeah, I've had a lot of doctors make mistakes about what's going on with me, if you feel they have misdiagnosed you then definitely seek a second opinion.

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