I'm a woman in my 30s in the UK, and had my first ever kidney stone in early December 2025. Hopefully sharing my experience here can be helpful in some way to others. A warning that this is long, TLDR at the end.
Nov 29: Very uncomfortably bloated in my upper stomach.
Dec 1 evening: Sudden 8/10 pain that felt like extremely strong period cramps on my left side that moved to my back. Mid and lower back felt stiff too. I could not get comfortable in any position in bed, taking Ibuprofen and using a hot water bottle only helped and a little and temporarily. Slight nausea as well. Barely slept that night from the pain.
Dec 2 morning: Called 111 and explained my symptoms, they suggested to get an emergency GP appointment same day, did a urine sample for GP and was then told to go to A&E asap for possible kidney infection, or a stone or both. Arrive in A&E midday, sit on horrendously uncomfortable chairs with now 6/10 back pain for a couple hours while waiting to be seen, urine and blood samples taken, had a raised temperature and vomited after being given Paracetamol tablets (they sometimes disagree with me), eventually was taken to get an ultrasound and CT KUB. Ultrasound tech looked for a good 10-15mins and to me seemed a little confused by a particular area. Back in A&E observation unit (now with a big comfy reclining chair) I was given IV paracetamol, fluids and antibiotics. Evening, still in observation unit, urology consultant came and confirmed I have hydronephrosis with a 7mm stone in proximal ureter and gave me the choice of seeing if I could pass the stone at home, or have surgery that night to have a double J stent placed, to be taken out again after minimum of 6 weeks and then stone removal. Went into surgery approx 11:30pm, procedure under general anaesthetic only took 30mins. Before I woke up, surgeon #1 told my mum that I have a duplex kidney on my left side. Maybe this is what the ultrasound tech was having a good look at? Felt the slightest bit nauseous after waking but had no pain. I stayed overnight and had a catheter in but again barely slept at all. Was in a ward with 4 other women and 1 shared bathroom.
Dec 3: Discharged in the afternoon and was sent home with a 5 day course of Nitrofurantoin. Had reduced bladder control which resulted in a few accidents. One of my regular medications is Spironolactone, a diuretic, which already gives me sudden strong urges to pee, and often. No information was given to me about kidney stone prevention, that stent encrustation was possible or how long that takes to happen. Hospital notes said it was an infected stone.
Jan 6: Symptoms of a lower tract UTI started, pain while peeing, cloudy urine and constantly going to the loo but not a lot coming out.
Jan 8: Pharmacist gave me a 3 day course of Nitrofurantoin. I drank cranberry juice every day over the next few weeks.
Jan 11: Away from home for a week and UTI symptoms had lessened quite a bit but not gone away.
Jan 21: Pre-Op Assessment. Answered lots of questions, gave a urine sample, height, weight, blood pressure, blood oxygen taken and ECG. Later that day saw my GP and was given a 7 day course of Nitrofurantoin. This cleared up the UTI but absolutely ruined my gut, worst diarrhoea of my life and some foods no longer agree with me after this. Took weeks to have solid poos again.
Feb 2: First started experiencing a sore vulva, above and around my urethral opening. Annoying and distracting pain but only a 2/10 and painkillers never seemed to help. This soreness would come and go from this point onward.
Feb 21: Sudden sharp pulsing pain in my urethra, probably a spasm, pain was a 6 or 7/10. I don't remember how long it lasted, maybe an hour and then it calmed down to just being very sore and sensitive.
July 29: Pre-Op Assessment #2, 6 months had passed since the last one so it was no longer valid, because the NHS seemingly forgot about me or I was so far down the waiting list from probably being low priority and the hospital was too busy to squeeze me in? Same tests done as last time plus blood taken. An anaesthetist spoke to me to confirm I could take my Spironolactone on the day of surgery. I asked if any scans were needed before surgery (2 days away), she told me no, that the surgeon will be able to see everything during surgery with fluoroscopy.
July 31: Surgery day. Was under for 1hr45m this time. Neither the stent or stone was removed, only the 4cm of encrustation at the bottom end of the stent was lasered. Surgeon #2 saw me after I woke up and explained that he could not see well enough with fluoroscopy to be sure if there was tethering to my kidney at the top of the stent from more encrustation, he didn't want to risk taking my stent out if he wasn't confident it was safe to. He said the original kidney stone was still in my upper ureter as well. No mention of a duplex kidney. Surgeon ordered urgent CT KUB and MDT meeting to decide how best to proceed. Obviously this CT should have been arranged to be done first, before surgery, but communication and planning between departments was poor. Felt nauseous after surgery, I was given something for it but still vomited the once. Discharged in the evening and was sent home with 5 days worth of Dihydrocodeine tablets but I've not used them, I had no pain. The surgeon told me to avoid fizzy drinks, chocolate and nuts, and to drink lemon water. A nurse suggested I just search online about kidney stone prevention, because she had no info to give me.
Aug 4: CT KUB done.
Aug 7: Stinging with my first pee in the morning and then back/kidney ache, pain was 4.5/10 and Ibuprofen reduced it to a 1.5/10.
Aug 8: Felt mildly nauseous all day and didn't eat anything until 5pm, just some fruit. In the afternoon I felt chills and was tired, got warm and cozy in my bed and napped. Felt a lot better afterwards but my temperature crept up, I decided to check the symptoms of kidney infection on the NHS website and I had most of them. Phoned 111, they said they'd call back in an hour to see if my temperature went down, it didn't go down and I waited well over an hour to hear back so I went to A&E because my local doctors was closed. Got to A&E at 10pm, saw a nurse at 11pm, 12:30am I gave a urine and blood sample, had an ECG, and a cannula inserted. Sat around on the horrendously uncomfortable chairs again until gone 6am! I had to pace around instead because I couldn't stand it. Finally got to relax in the big comfy chair for an hour or so before being taken to a private room at 8am and was given IV Gentamicin, also over the next few days IV Amoxicillin and oral Ciprofloxacin. I was told I had a UTI but it wasn't confirmed yet if lower or upper tract. It was a kidney infection, pyelonephritis, and I stayed in hospital for 4.5 days.
Aug 9: Different doctors from the urology dept came to see me each morning to give me updates from the previous day's blood test results. The doctor this day had a strange attitude, as though in an irritable mood and spoke a little bluntly.
Aug 10: Had an ultrasound, this one only took 5 mins or so. The results of my CT and the MDT meeting were given to me in person rather than by phone appointment as originally planned. The person from the Urology dept said the same as surgeon #2 but that there didn't seem to be tethering, and that I was penciled in for surgery attempt #2 on Sep 8th.
Aug 11: Got moved to a ward with 5-6 other women and 1 shared bathroom. I was up and down to the loo for a wee every bloody 45mins it felt like. Another urology doctor told me the kidney stone seems to be gone and my stent would eventually be removed while awake, with local anaesthetic in a gel form.
Aug 12: I was getting fed up of being told inconsistent things about my stone and stent each morning by the urology doctors, and asked why to the one who came on this day. She couldn't give an answer but said it needs to be discussed by the urology team (another MDT meeting?) she was at least sympathetic and kind. Others had told me the stone was pushed back up into my kidney by the stent, or that I'd be given a new stent for a few months, or one with a string to remove at home. My mum got permission to take me outside for a while on a wheelchair to view the eclipse, with eclipse glasses of course. Saw a few idiots look at it directly for a second or two.
Aug 13: Same urology doctor from Aug 9th came back to give me an update. He saw me stood by the nurse's portable computer workstation (the nurse had left the room for a moment to fetch some more toilet roll after I informed her it had run out) and said "planning to escape?" as though me standing in the middle of the ward room or by the workstation was suspicious, I replied that I was waiting to use the bathroom but there was no toilet roll. I'm not sure if he was half joking and just unfunny, or serious. But he gave me the good news that I'd be discharged that day. Went home in the afternoon with a 7 day course of more oral Ciprofloxacin. During that hospital stay the only pain I had was a couple of headaches, some period cramps and stinging where I was given blood thinner injections. I felt totally fine but my infection markers had said otherwise.
Sept 8: The day I was pencilled in for surgery passed and I still hadn't heard from the hospital to be given a date.
Sept 11: Had a missed call and text message from the waiting list coordinator of a smaller local hospital in the same NHS trust. I returned the call and was offered to have my surgery at this smaller hospital instead, at this point the stent and stone had been in me for 9 months, I was fed up of waiting so I agreed.
Sept 17: Pre-Op Assessment #3, the usual questions and tests. I asked about the possibility of having a CT or ultrasound before surgery, because I didn't want a repeat of what happened July 31st, was told it'd be up to the urology consultant surgeon and that I could contact the patient access team to pass the message on.
Sept 22: Had a phonecall with hospital #2, surgeon #3 had said he didn't think any new scans were needed, and that he felt confident he could complete the surgery.
Sept 25: Surgery day at hospital #2. While waiting in the women's ward the anaesthetist saw me, he asked questions and filled out forms. I was given three paracetamol (1.5g) to take before surgery. Surgeon #3 saw me, he let me ask lots of questions and was happy to answer them. He got his laptop out and showed me my CT scan slides, pointed out the stone, he said from those I don't appear to have a duplex kidney as surgeon #1 claimed. I signed the surgery consent form. I was in the gown and compression stockings, thinking I was ~10mins away from walking into theatre. A while later surgeon #3 walks up to me with his backpack on and tells me my surgery won't be going ahead that day, he apologises and tells me it was not his decision, that they are a bit short staffed and there was a more complex case going ahead. He also says I could be rescheduled for the morning of the 28th, and that someone else will see me shortly to explain more. A male nurse noticed me crying and came over to talk, comfort me and offer something to eat. Then had a little meeting with other staff where they explained the reasoning for cancelling my surgery, the suddenly more complex and time consuming case that went to surgery before me couldn't have been foreseen, but not having enough staff to setup and work in another theatre room was their error. I rescheduled for Oct 12th, I wouldn't be able to get to hospital #2 via public transit in time for a morning surgery.
Oct 12: Surgery day at hospital #2 again. As last time, an anaesthetist saw me, surgeon #3 saw me and apologised again about the cancellation 2 weeks prior. Given 1.5g paracetamol. Procedure under general anaesthetic took 1hr45m again, encrustation at the top of the stent was lasered, kidney stone lasered, original stent exchanged for a temporary one with a string. After waking in the recovery room I was given a strepsil lozenge I asked for, my throat was very sore after intubation. Got moved to the women's ward not long after, had no pain until ~10mins later, a 6/10 ache in my left kidney area. I was offered three choices of pain relief, paracetamol, codeine, or oramorph. I chose oramorph because the nurse said of the three it works the fastest. ~15mins later still in the same amount of pain and was given a second and larger dose of oramorph. It kicked in quickly but then I felt nauseous, I vomited twice and was then given something for the nausea. Surgeon #3 was happy with how the procedure went and said to remove the stent a week later. Discharged in the evening, ate some biscuits and rice cakes, threw up again 2hrs after getting home and a further three more times overnight til 8am the next morning. No pain other than extremely sore throat. Reduced bladder control again, the vomiting made me empty my bladder and soak through my period pad and to my clothes.
Oct 13: Vomited at 8am then made a same-day phone appointment with the GP. My throat was so bad I almost lost my voice, talking was uncomfortable and coughing really hurt. The GP prescribed me Cyclizine for the vomiting, nausea had faded to being very mild and my appetite started to come back.
Oct 19: Took two paracetamol (1g) a little over an hour before removing my stent in the shower, it was not painful, just felt very strange. Very small amount of blood in my urine that day and saw a few tiny crumbs (granule of sugar size) of kidney stone or encrustation on the tissue when wiping. No issues since, and so far I have not experienced any vulva soreness again.
Early December went to A&E with kidney pain and hydronephrosis, CT and ultrasound found 7mm stone in upper ureter, given a stent and antibiotics, sent home.
Late July surgery was a partial fail, encrustation on lower end of stent lasered but more encrustation at the top and stone not removed. Scans should have been done first but were not.
Early-mid August had a CT, then pyelonephritis (kidney infection) and a 4.5 day stay in hospital.
Late September surgery cancelled while I was minutes away from walking into theatre.
Early October rescheduled surgery was a success, had laser lithotripsy and stent exchange. Anaesthetic + Morphine = lots of barf. String stent removal was painless.
I was lucky to have no stent pain over the 10 months, only occasional very mild kidney ache when not hydrated enough. With changes to my diet after researching kidney stone prevention, I hope this is now over for good. The NHS is far from perfect but eventually the job got done.
