Kidney Stones and WLS: Long Story!

Hi Everyone! I'm coming back from a combined few days in the hospital dealing with Kidney Stones. Just wanted to share my story, in case it has (or God forbid, will) happened to anyone else. Woke up Monday Morning 5:30am in excruciating pain radiating front to back on my left lower abdomen. Since I am not a morning person and it was VERY early for me, all I could do was writh and ask myself, "WTF?" Having just finished my period, I went to the bathroom, thinking I was having either really bad cramps or really bad gas. Neither was the case and the pain would. Not. STOP. Of course, I did what all sane adults do--I called my mom! My mom (also woken out of a deep sleep) confirmed that it wasn't appendicitis (appendix is on your right side, not your left), and asked me to call my Dr. Even though I have a PCP, since Surgery, I've treated Dr. Harrington (my WLS surgeon) as my PCP--I really trust him more, plus this is an abdomen pain, which is clearly in his domain, right? His service pages him and tells me that if he hasn't called back in 15 minutes to call them back. I got through about 7.5 of those 15 minutes before I was like "eff this!" and caught a cab to the hospital. I was in the emergency room at 7am, sitting with my head to my knees trying to keep the pain down (btw, this is something I never could have done before surgery--my belly was too big to allow me to bend over that far!). Once they brought me back to the room, right away, everyone (nurses, doctors) thought I had a kidney stone. They did a CT scan and then an ultrasound and confirmed I had a 3mm kidney stone just outside my left kidney (in the ureter from the kidney to the bladder). They gave me some pain medication and a urine strainer and told me to follow up with a urologist. The only other thing of note that happened when I was in the ER was that when they gave me an IV of morphine, my blood pressure went down to 85/45--so they bagged me with a thing of saline to hydrate me. I left the ER Monday afternoon around 2pm and went home. I had really bad pain Monday in the middle of the night, had a pretty good day Tuesday, and woke up with bad pain on Wednesday morning that stayed until about 3:30pm. At about 6pm, I called my mom again, telling her that I'd been in a lot of pain and was really nauseous (I threw up twice Monday morning). I hadn't had anything to eat on Wednesday, but was trying to keep drinking water. When I had to hang up the phone on my mom to throw up the three sips of water I'd just taken, she made me call my doctor again. My Doctor admitted me into the hospital Wednesday night because he was concerned that I was becoming too dehydrated. I spent the night Wednesday and all day Thursday in the hospital, getting bags of Potassium Chloride and a little pain medication (although I was more nauseous than in pain at that point). My doctor discharged me yesterday evening--again with pain medication and a strainer to wait out the kidney stone. (Kidney stones can take up to a month to pass through your system!) A couple of comments: 1) My doctor said that there is a known correlation between WLS and kidney stones due to the malabsorption of minerals in our bodies, which can cause buildups in our kidneys ("calculi") that are kidney stones. There are some surgical treatments for kidney stones, but they all have a slight risk of damaging my renal system (kidney/bladder/ureter/urethra), and I'd rather deal with the pain of passing the stone than a lifetime of urinary problems! 2) Our "normal" blood pressure range changes a lot with our weight loss. My "normal" BP used to be 120/70, but I never even got close to that in the hospital, which made me quite nervous that I was very dehydrated. My blood work came back ok, and it was my surgeon who suggested that my BP has probably lowered b/c of WLS. I plan on getting my BP checked a few times in the next few weeks so I can start to see what my new "normal" BP is. If you were on BP meds before, you probably already knew this, but if, like me, you never had a BP problem, I bet you didn't realize that your BP range still probably changed with the weight loss. Anyway--I'm doing much better now! I'm hoping to rest this weekend and be back to 100% early next week. Feel free to ask any other questions you may have about kidney stones--I thought this was just useful information to share with ya'll. Jem 327/207 (Can I please get to Onederland already??!?)/165

Glad to hear you are doing better Jem and are on the road to recovery! Thanks for all the information. I'm a bit worried about kidney stones because in addition to WLS... and BEFORE WLS I had elevated calcium and PTH (parathyroid hormone) levels. In fact, I am spilling out calcium in my urine. So I'm very suspectible to kidney stones with all this going on. Luckily, no problems. It does look like my problem will be resolved in the near future - they FINALLY saw the cause which is an adenoma (tumor) on one of my parathyroid glands. Been giving me grief for a few years but now we have found it and they will remove the one gland and that will be that. I see the doc on Monday and hopefully will get referred to a surgeon. Anyway, my BP was high prior to WLS and I was on meds. It still was a bit elevated after WLS for a while but now it is excellent. In November when I went for an endoscopy they had the continuous measurer on me and I was running about 90-100/60-70. Love those numbers! Get plenty of rest, drinks tons of fluids!!!!! Kathy

Kathy: Congrats on your BP! I'm still pain-free, and so long as it stays that way, I don't care WHAT the stone is doing! Jem

EEEEKKKKK!!! I know that is major PAIN. I was in ER yesterday with my husband who had another kidney stone attack (this would be attack 5 or 6 for him). Very very painful... but the did give him good drugs!! Watch your uric acid levels on your labs. The higher they are the more at risk for stones. Drink, drink, drink.... walk, walk, walk.... the only TWO things to do to pass a kidney stone. Here's to hoping that you'll drink soooo much that you'll pass the stone AND pee your way into Onederland!!!!!!!!!! Hugs (carefully given so as to NOT cause pain) Laurie

Thanks Laurie! And tell your husband I feel for him--it's not fun at all! Jem

I've had two kidney stones in my life. One in 1987 and one in 1997. (and let me tell you... I'm really nervous about 2007 being just around the corner!!!) Both stones had to be removed surgically because they were too large to pass on my own. So I understand the pain you are going through. I was told of the kidney stone risks associated with WLS, but chose to have the WLS anyway, a decision that I've never regretted. I am very careful to drink ALOT of water and I'm getting more exercise than I ever did, so hopefully I won't have to go through it again. I hope you're feeling better soon.

Karen: If I HAD to get kidney stones, I suppose once every 10 years isn't bad, although I'm sorry to hear you had to have surgery! I hadn't heard anything about kidney stones & WLS until last week--but maybe I just wasn't paying attention. I feel great--I'm back to work and the gym, so hopefully that was the end of it. Jem

Jem, So sorry you had to go through this. A good thing for all of us to know and watch for. Lori

I really hope that you pass that stone out soon and thanks for the info on the WLS/kidney stones correlation. That's one that I hadn't heard. Heather

Lori & Heather: Thanks for the well wishes. I know-- I hadn't heard about stones before either, which is why I decided to post. The more we all know, the better we can treat ourselves, right? Jem