Is Your Pain a Kidney Stone?

February 11,2016

According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 500,000 Americans visit an emergency room each year due to kidney stone issues. Interestingly, the number of people suffering from kidney stones seems to be increasing. This malady often strikes quickly and renders patients frightened with painful, baffling symptoms including:

  • Blood in urine
  • Antagonizing pain on either side of your lower back
  • Vomiting or nausea
  • Chills
  • Fever
  • Persistent stomach ache
  • Cloudy looking urine
  • Foul smelling urine

When you have kidney stones, your pain begins when the stone causes irritation or blockage in the kidney. Unfortunately, your initial twinges of pain can progress quickly. For this reason, getting to a doctor’s office as quickly as possible is crucial.

Thankfully, most kidney stones don’t cause permanent damage to a person’s kidney. Actually, a pain reliever is often the only treatment required for smaller kidney stones. Patients are also typically advised to drink large amounts of water in attempt to move the kidney stone alone faster. In some cases, kidney stone sufferers are prescribed a type of medicine that causes their urine to be less acidic. If your kidney stone is particularly large, or causes persistent symptoms or other problems, you might need to undergo surgery in order to remove it.

If you are diagnosed with a kidney stone, your physician will likely wish to examine this substance once you pass it. Doctors need to know what type of kidney stone you suffered from in order to discover why you had it and how you can prevent future occurrences. The most common kind of kidney stone consists of calcium. This type of kidney stone develops when your kidney fails to remove the extra calcium from your diet that your body doesn’t need. 

Suffering from a kidney stone can be a painful, scary ordeal. Thankfully, this common health problem can usually be treated easily. If you feel you might have a kidney stone, contact Prime Med in order to set up an appointment with our medical staff.