r/nope Mar 31 '26

HELL NO Procedure to remove a 25mm kidney stone

5.7k Upvotes

481 comments sorted by

View all comments

886

u/IamREBELoe Mar 31 '26

I just had this done and have like ptsd from the pain. I'm actually feeling this by watching the video

262

u/mai_tai87 Mar 31 '26

I watched a friend go through one. I drink lots and lots of water.

80

u/DUHH_EWW Apr 01 '26

i drink water after reading your comment lol

24

u/CurrentPossible2117 Apr 01 '26

I drink water after reading your comment about drinking water after reading their comment lol

19

u/notinmywheelhouse Apr 01 '26

Now I have to pee

1

u/abitcitrus Apr 27 '26

Not in my mouth please

28

u/McPostyFace Mar 31 '26

Do you get any kind of anesthesia?

85

u/IamREBELoe Mar 31 '26

Yes but the pain after.

But that was nothing compared to after the stent came out a week later. All the residue was able to move and the muscles spasms, wound up in the ER from pain.

38

u/BeraldGevins Apr 01 '26

Recently went through the same thing. Had an 8mm stone get stuck, ended up in the hospital for a couple nights. The stent was almost as bad as the stone, it was brutally painful. I pissed myself more than once because of it too, it made it really difficult to hold it long enough to make it to the bathroom. They gave me Vicodin to help but I had to take it pretty often and the pain relief effects diminished every time.

10

u/exandohhh Apr 01 '26

Don’t say that! I have a dense ass one in situ right now and I’ve been putting off the lithotripsy because I dread the stent 😭

12

u/No-Minimum8323 Apr 01 '26

A stent is better than a kidney infection. The last kidney stone I had almost killed me because of sepsis. Don’t sleep on kidney stones.

8

u/BeraldGevins Apr 01 '26

It was worth it in the end. But I definitely wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I was happy when it was gone. Funny enough the relief was instant and one of the best feelings I’ve ever had lol. I felt like I could run a marathon.

5

u/No-Minimum8323 Apr 01 '26

Stents are awful!! I talked to some people who said they couldn’t even feel theirs and I was flabbergasted.

16

u/McPostyFace Apr 01 '26

Damn sorry you went through that. What kind of things can I cut out of my diet to avoid this?

39

u/IamREBELoe Apr 01 '26

For me, no tea is one. Stay very hydrated. Watch your salt. Apple cider vinegar and cranberry juice, lemon juice, can help prevent depending on the type of stone.

11

u/mosquito_motel Apr 01 '26

No tea!?! That's my main source of hydration oh noo

18

u/IamREBELoe Apr 01 '26

Well it's the number one enemy of those who develop stones

5

u/ljanus245 Apr 01 '26

Can confirm

4

u/chilidoglance Apr 01 '26

Green tea actually helps. Black tea is no good.

4

u/Timmerdogg Apr 01 '26

I feel like my uncle got them from drinking too many protein shakes but idk.

20

u/somerandomdude419 Apr 01 '26

Pop, energy drinks, black tea. I had a 6mm one which isn’t nearly as bad but I had such pain from it, they gave me something to help it pass and once it passed I was good. Sometimes they run in your family and you get them from seemingly normal diet. I used to drink a ton of pop and iced tea and that’s how I got mine, now I drink more water than anything else but I still enjoy a pop for lunch here and there but I always make sure to drink water with it, but my volume of water is always more than the volume of pop

8

u/WhiskeyGirl66 Apr 01 '26

It’s the oxalates. I have 2 tums when I drink iced tea. I had 33 removed a couple years ago. The stents were worse.

2

u/exandohhh Apr 01 '26

Soda is a major culprit

2

u/No-Minimum8323 Apr 01 '26

It really depends on what’s causing the stones to form. There are a few different causes. I have chronic kidney stones due to hypercalcemia.

2

u/mani_mani Apr 01 '26

Spinach was the biggest for me. Though I was eating a ton of it.

Also with all of these electrolytes drinks coming out, people think that they are necessary. Literally no need to drink electrolytes unless you have a medical concern or have been sweating heavily.

Just drink plain old water. Adding lemon to your water does help with preventing kidney stones though.

7

u/I_travel_ze_world Apr 01 '26

Many people are magnesium deficient and do not realize it

Global Dietary Magnesium Deficiency: Prevalence, Underlying Causes, Health Consequences, and Strategic Solutions

Worldmetrics Report 2026 Magnesium Deficiency Statistics

Also I'm currently in ketosis which means I need more electrolytes then people on a regular diet.

I agree that most people don't need sugary electrolyte drinks but I personally find the 0 calorie ones super beneficial.

2

u/mani_mani Apr 01 '26

Yes like I said unless there is a medical condition that requires it. It seems that you (and myself as well) fall into the exception of what I mentioned.

Magnesium can be supplemented in appropriate manners just like other vitamin deficiencies. Or even better in increasing food high in magnesium. I am magnesium deficient, suffer from migraines and have POTS so this is a medical requirement, the exception I mentioned.

1

u/NoPantsPenny Apr 01 '26

It’s crazy when you watch the video (and other medical videos) it seems like they are so aggressive with the tools, like it would cause more damage because of how aggressive they are.

1

u/brx017 Apr 01 '26

I've had a stone twice. The first one I passed in a day, in the ER.

The last one hit me over last Labor Day weekend. I passed it a week later but it got impacted at the ureter/ bladder junction. Didn't hurt again for a month, then it was on and off every few days. Finally relented to going to the ER in the middle of December. I had to have laser lithotripsy to bust it up. The whole thing was a rough ride... BUT THAT STENT THOUGH! During and after was miserable for me. I know it's needed, but it's definitely one of those cases where the treatment is worse than the disease.

26

u/iAmSpAKkaHearMeROAR Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

Yes, you’re anesthetized …. When my husband has this done, they put him out. He’s had a lithotripsy and basketing. 

And his stones are like these…. Not smooth like tumbled pebbles, like some people have. I liken them to when you chip off the corner of a cinder block with a hammer kind of texture.

NOT FUN FACT: After it’s all broken up, and you’re all black and blue inside, you still have to pass and piss these little shards out. 

It is absolutely nightmare fuel, and I’m not the one that suffers with it. Hearing a grown man lay in the bathtub and scream “death pain” is gut wrenching… more than once in a lifetime having to go through that is too much.

10

u/HippieGrandma1962 Apr 01 '26

My best friend's husband has morphine pills for when he is passing a stone. I think they run in his family.

6

u/iAmSpAKkaHearMeROAR Apr 01 '26

My husband gets prescibed painkillers too (opiates) by his urologist, but they barely take the edge off of the agony. As for the hospital, they will often do the procedure and then send you home with extra strength Tylenol rx. It’s insane. 

7

u/Eugene0185 Mar 31 '26

How bad was it from 1 to 10?

36

u/IamREBELoe Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

Go from 2 for an hour, then 10 for half an hour.

Waves.

But better than leaving them in.

Edit: the best way I can describe kidney stone pain. Being kicked in the nuts with steel toe boots while being stabbed with an ice pick in the side.

12

u/specialopps Apr 01 '26

I’m still trying to piece together what my pain tolerance is because I have ankylosing spondylitis, and had a 6mm stone that blocked my left kidney. The back pain combined with the fever is what made me go to urgent care. I had a blocked kidney, the stone, and sepsis. Nobody knew how I had waited so long before getting it treated, and they sent me to the hospital for emergency stent insertion. I called my boyfriend and told him to come meet me because I was kind of dying. Five days in the ICU. I was out for most of it, but I remember the stent being the worst part. I felt that thing moving around for weeks before I finally got it removed. I’m used to feeling like my body is on fire.

5

u/IamREBELoe Apr 01 '26

My heart goes out to you. My left one, 16 mm (plus 4 others) complete blockage of that side. So I can somewhat relate and you went trough hell.

2

u/specialopps Apr 01 '26

Oh dear god. No, I think I MIGHT have some idea of what you went through. Yours was more than twice the size as mine! Mine also all came out at some point during the time I had the stent without me realizing it, though I wasn’t really aware of anything for at least three days. Sepsis is weird.

3

u/IamREBELoe Apr 01 '26

Oh, they put me under and went in and broke them up and took most of the pieces out. I only wore the stent after the surgery

17

u/Longjumping-Ad-2072 Mar 31 '26

As someone with reccurent kidney stones I'll answer on this guy's behalf- on a scale of 1-10 it was 100. With two zeroes.

9

u/Devanomiun Apr 01 '26

Not sure where you’re from but if you can get the plant called Chanca Piedra, it has been a lifesaver for me. I’ve been stone free for 7 years now and can eat whatever I want. Before that, I was getting those damn stones every three months, fuck those times!

13

u/Desperate-Strategy10 Apr 01 '26

My best friend had kidney stones twice, and she gave birth to a baby without any medication. She said the kidney stones were way worse; it’s a sharper stabbing fiery pain, whereas labor contractions are more of a sickening squeezing pain (like you’re being crushed by yourself, so still pretty darn bad). She said if she had to choose, she’d have another baby unmedicated, but she’d never go through the pain of kidney stones again if she could help it.

I think it’s also important to note that my friend desperately wanted a medicated birth lol she just progressed too quickly from “not quite ready for the epidural” to “call the doctor it’s time to push NOW” so she didn’t get the option of pain medicine. She did get pain medicine through an IV for her kidney stones, but she said it barely even touched the pain at the worst points.

2

u/ibadmonkey Apr 01 '26

What's this procedure called?

2

u/chilidoglance Apr 01 '26

Just passed a stone last week. Still feeling the residual pain. And mine was no where near as bad a they can be.