Not one but TWO kidney stones!

I had a nice new years surprise, a kidney stone on the 2nd and another on the 4th of January.  It was as painful as they say, or at least the first one that did without any drugs.  I was pretty quick to get on the drugs for the second one!  :-)

Since I'm only 4 months out, the ER doc doesn't think there is a straight line between my surgery and the stones.  I'm pretty sure I've been building these for years.  The ER doc said that people who get kidney stones have a good chance of getting another one, but with all the things that surgery was going to change in my body, I have two choices for follow up:

1. Wait and see.  Be more vigilant on my hydration. 
2. Get my Expressed Calcium tested and then we can calculate my unique calcium intake requirements and also be more vigilant on my hydration.

Personally, I’m leaning towards #1 but I’m curious to hear what you guys think.  It just seems like over the next year so much will be changing that even if I get the test and stick to it, it might not give me any really trustable information. 

Thanks!

I'm so sorry you're dealing with kidney stones.  I'm leaning towards #1 too and maybe a diet adjustment to counter new ones...didn't I read something about lemon juice helping to prevent kidney stones? I would be cautious about trusting a doc concerning "unique" calcium intake requirements when they don't seem to understand our malabsorption issues, but maybe he would understand better if you explain that your malabsorption from WLS is like someone with short gut or cystic fibrosis. 

Perhaps Larra will chime in and offer some better suggestions.

--gina

You poor thing, you must have been in a great deal of pain.  Increasing your water to 3L/day is a great start.  I would also make sure you are taking in at least 6480 mg/day of K citrate, divided throughout the day with your meals.  You should see a nephrologist and s/he can monitor you for enteric hyperoxaluria.  Hope you feel better.

Lemonade therapy is mentioned on this thread http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/ds/4486269/Some-Vitamin-Ad vice-Gerson-Therapy-and-Lemonade-Therapy-for/#37121671

The pertinent section is pasted below:

"After my kidney doctor found out about my lab levels after I stopped juices, he recommended I add "lemonade" Therapy to help my citrate levels.  Basically, you need to drink the juices from four lemons a day (or organic juice in a bottle equivilant to that).  

Since you absorb the vitamins/minerals within the first 20 minutes of consumption, and it does not have to go thru the digestion process down the bowel (since it is juice it is absorbed without the work) juices are the best way to get vitamins quick with our DS system."

I hope you can prevent this recurring as it sounds awful.

I appreciate the time you took to respond to my post, but, knock on wood, I have to admit that I would rather have kidney stones than drink that much lemon juice for the rest of my life.   Also, the second stone, the one where I knew what it was, wasn't so bad.  The codeine took away 80% of the pain, so although it wasn't my favorite afternoon, it wasn't so bad.  I just want to eat as normal a diet as a DS person can do.  I doubt we need fad diets as long as we stay on our vitamins and from what I can read, unless you have one of a few specific diseases, experts think that any increase in liquid will be equally effective. 

The first kidney stone I thought was constipation and so I messed around trying to fix that for too much time.  I will be quicker to the ER next time, no matter what it is.  My mother-in-law used to have to go to the hospital all the time for constipation and to be brutally honest, I grew rather tired of it.  Not just the time, but hearing all about it.   I am ashamed of myself for my less than charitable thoughts.  Somehow seemed to be hypocritical for me to go to the ER for the same reason, although it took me long enough to figure out that this was what was stopping me. 

My advice is do not mix kidney stones with teachable moments. 

Brandy, how are your urea and phosphate levels?  I'm just wondering if kidney stones reflect in blood test results.  TIA

Is Urea the same as Uric Acid?  Both of these were in range from my blood work a month and a half before the stones.   

Uric Acid     (range: 2.2 to 7.1)  mine was 5.6. 

Phosphorus (range: 2.3 to 4.8)  mine was: 4.7.

I decided not to get the expressed calcium tests.  That was where they would feed me an exact amount of calcium and then monitor exactly how much I could digest and then I would know not to take more calcium than that.   I just figured everything is still in such flux in my body right now at 5 months that I wouldn't trust the results anyway.  If I get another stone, it probably (knock on wood) won't be for at least two years and things should be so much more stable then that it would probably be worth it. 

Until then, I will drink more liquids.   Wikipedia talks about how the US Military people started to develop kidney stones 3 months after being deployed to Iraq all due to dehydration.  Most of the medical sites list this first.  Before surgery, I hated to drink water.  Ick.  I would choke on it.  Now, it is yummy.  The DS is a miracle and a total game changer.  I'm going to trust my surgery and my new body.

Thanks!

Nope, urea and uric acid are two different compounds. There are more details in the link below.

Read more: Difference Between Urea and Uric Acid | Difference Between | Urea vs Uric Acid http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-be tween-urea-and-uric-acid/#ixzz3OpBxNRW2

I hope the extra liquids work for you!! ;-)

Ooh, that's a good point from Gwen - are you taking calcium citrate or carbonate?  I'd love to know if there's a way to prevent future recurrences as I really feel for you.

Kidney stones suck.  I've been getting them since I was 12 - I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy.  

You're a DSer, so I'm sure you're on top of your vites, but make sure that you're not getting calcium carbonate - it can lead to stone formation.