Kidney Stone - hopefully never again - worse than WLS!!!

Hi guys

I haven't been on the board for quite some time and the last year has been a roller coaster ride. I gained 35 of the 85 pounds I had lost back and then finally in August joined a gym and got back on track. Or so I thought because a few weeks later I ended up in the ER one night and 12 hours and a CT scan later I got diagnosed with a 5mm kidney stone.

I was told that anything bigger than 4mm your odds of passing are pretty bad (20% or so) and after it did not make any attempts to do so I was looking forward to get that "rock" crushed with Ultrasound and get rid of it. Well, it stopped there and I was in for some shock. With 330lbs or so I was too big to do the Ultrasound trick and the solution went through some escalation and the word "surgery" was used.

My Urologist recommended to have a Ureteral Stent put in surgically to cru**** with a Laser and so on - I spare you guys the ugly details but if you look it up it ain't pretty. The surgery is about an hour and the recovery is nasty. My 2 Lap Band surgeries (had to have a revision 5 days after the 1st) were easy in comparison. The stent makes life and every trip to the bathroom a miserable experience. Anyway 2 weeks later I had to have another precedure done to have the stent removed - again in the OR to my surprise. That was on the 17th of December last year and luckily recovery was a lot easier the 2nd time around.

A few days later I went back to the gym after weeks of either recovering from surgery or just not feeling like it. Gained all the weight back I had initially lost and started over again with my gym routine.

Here is where my update would normally stop if it wasn't for the ice storm we had 6 weeks or so ago which I utilized to injure myself falling on the icy steps in front of our house - guess what? at 4.30am on the way to the gym! That figures! I sprained my lower back and I fell on ice and was put on ice - literally. Luckily I did not brake anything but gym was out again for weeks and after a few days off from work I was able to go back to work at least to stop thinking about food and comfort myself in my misery.

4 weeks ago I finally felt good enough to go back to the gym and I have been kicking my butt since then and lost 15lbs or so since I started. Now I am back down to 300lbs where I was more than a year ago (loss of 80lbs since beginning the weight loss journey) and I hope to make more progess in the future.

Back to the kidney stone for a moment - I will make an appointment with my surgeon Dr. Peters next month to check in with him as well as discussing the issues with kidney stones being caused by high protein diets. The Urologist definetely told me that lots of protein and anything similar or close to Atkins would be increasing my chances of having repeat events of kidney stones. Statistically - once you have one, you are likely to get them again.

What did you guys experiences with kidney stones and Lap Band??? I know gall bladder is always a topic and even gall stones but it also seems that the kidney stones are quite common. I try to drink at least a gallon of fluids daily (water/crystal lite) so it's not that I am not hydrated enough.

Sorry for the long story but I thought you guys might be interested - if not just ignore :-)

I passed a kidney stone last year and it was worse than the 13 other surgeries I've had in the last few years. In fact it made child birth seem like a walk in the park. Never, ever have I had soooo much pain. I sure hope to never get another one. You have my sympathy, not a fun way to spend your life.

 
Kidney stone pain is worse than childbirth, it honestly is!

Thing about our diets is that they aren't high protein, they are adequate protein.  Also, if your stone was a uric acid stone it could be from excess protein, if it was a calcium stone then it wouldn't be due to protein.

I had one years ago, long before WLS and it was a bummer.  That was some serious pain.  I feel for you!

Yeah those are pretty bad. I noticed when I have gotten kidney problems it is when I'm having a lot of vitamin c. I don't know why that does it but it seems to be. Hope you get through it all.

My DH had a 9mm stone a couple years ago and had to have the special procedure. Doctor told him the likely was inadequate fluids (and boy, was it like pulling teeth to get him to drink water). Since then, he's been the water man and fortunately hasn't had any problems.

Sorry you had to go through that.

Kidney stones are the worst!  I would rather give birth.  I had one when I was 16 (go figure) and I actually passed out from the pain!  I have had a double ectopic pregnancy, given birth twice (once without anesthesia) and had multiple surgeries...I would rather have any of those issues than have a kidney stone again.  My SIL had one a few years back and he had the stint.  It came out on it's own...while he was coaching his football team...yeah, embarrassing!  I told him that he has come as close as a man can to knowing what it is like to be a woman...lol.

I completely understand I had band surgery in Dec 2008 and went on vacation end of Aug 2009 and ended up in the ER 3 days after returning with a 5M kidney stone. I felt pain a few days earlier in my right side/back but figured i'd pulled something on vacation etc. I tried over the counter Advil, Tylenol, Motrin probably way to much of it then Hubby dragged me to ER when all I could do was curl up in a ball and cry from pain. I spent over 2hours in the waiting room, trying to be brave in front of my 8 year old. Finally they got me back did a brief assessment and decided to give me moraphine via IV and do CT Scan, joy oh joy a large stone. I spent the next 3 weeks trying to pass it on prescription pain killers, trying to work, and doing the Mom stuff with my child. They were going to do the Ultrasound thing when it finally passed. The doctor's reasoning was I got dehydrated on vacation (true) and caused the stone. Either way I'd rather have surgery or childbirth again than another stone. It did make me drink more water so I guess there's an up side.