Got rushed to the hospital for kidney stones yesterday — here's my story

Just wanted to share my own experience from early this morning.

I was getting up to go to the bathroom around dawn when I felt this stabbing pain in my lower back, like someone was twisting an awl in there. The pain spread down to my thighs, I started feeling nauseous, and then I straight up threw up.

It hurt so fucking bad I could barely get words out when I called 119 from the landline in the living room. But the dispatcher heard my groaning and vomiting, so they sent an ambulance anyway. When the paramedics arrived, they saw the puke, touched my back, and I started rolling around in agony — they immediately knew it was kidney stones.

Honestly, I don't even remember the ride there. The general hospital was only 10 minutes from my place, so they took me to the ER. When I got there, the medics told them they suspected kidney stones, and they hooked me up to an IV with painkillers right away.

Then they ran a urine test, an X-ray, and an ultrasound. Turns out I did have a stone lodged in my ureter. It wasn't huge, so they used a lithotripter to break it up.

I'd read about kidney stones on forums before and thought I was staying hydrated, but lately I've been living off convenience store ramen and burgers, so my sodium intake was through the roof. I barely exercised either, and on top of all that, my family has a nasty genetic predisposition to kidney stones.

(Grandma's had them three times, grandpa and my dad each had one occurrence.)

Oh, and I used to love nuts — turns out those are a big trigger for stones too. Gotta watch that.

The doc told me to avoid meat, salt, spinach, and nuts (almonds, peanuts, walnuts) as much as possible, and to drink tons of water.

After the lithotripsy, the follow-up ultrasound didn't show any remaining stones, but they said I should come back next week for a checkup just in case. My back is covered in massive bruises now, but I got some painkillers and antibiotics pumped into me and was discharged.

They also prescribed me some meds — painkillers, antibiotics, and something called an "anti-stone agent"? Told me to take those and come back next week. My grandparents called to tell me to be careful...

Anyone who's had these knows this, but every single comparison on the internet about how painful kidney stones are — fr 100% true. And honestly, it made me realize how tough people with CRPS, who say it's even worse than stones, really are.

I just drank two more glasses of water while writing this. And you reading this — drink more water too.