AmtrakQuebec
King
I am one of those people who has chronic kidney stones... I get them all the time, in fact I have one now. Normally this kind of condition is due to a malfunctioning parathyroid gland and so they will often just remove the one that is causing the problem... they are double redundant, i.e., there are four of them, so removing one is not a problem. In my case, they can't seem to find any that are malfunctioning so I just keep getting kidney stones.... I have seen specialists in Toronto, Montréal, the US and Ottawa to no avail. The parathyroid glands control the amount of calcium in your blood (and bones), which is normally what the stones are composed of, although in some rare cases they are made of other minerals. A malfunctioning gland will produce much more calcium than you need in your blood and will cause kidney stones to form with regularity.
For anyone who gets a kidney stone, I will offer some advice based on decades of experience. First, try to avoid using opiates to treat the pain if possible... they are highly addictive. Kidney stones are extremely painful (one doctor told me they were three times more painful than giving birth although I have no idea how one might measure that). That being said, there are other ways to deal with it... I find that back pain over-the-counter medicine does quite a good job at relaxing the stomach muscles, which helps greatly. Kidney stones mostly occur in men, although women can get them as well... a lot of the pain is when trying to urinate but this can be mitigated if you just sit down (for some reason this is much easier than standing). If you are fortunate to live in a place where weed is legal, the CBD variety is also quite useful. Some kidney stones are too big to pass readily through the urinary tract. If you find it is taking very long (weeks) you should go to a hospital to get them blasted out... they will perform an ultrasound and blast them into little pieces so that they can pass through. Be forewarned though, sometimes it takes more than one attempt. Also, sleeping on your side can cause issues, so try to sleep on your back as much as possible.
If you don't have a malfunctioning parathyroid, the usual cause is diet and most doctors will recommend that you cut out things like cheese.
If you have any questions, I might be able to help.
For anyone who gets a kidney stone, I will offer some advice based on decades of experience. First, try to avoid using opiates to treat the pain if possible... they are highly addictive. Kidney stones are extremely painful (one doctor told me they were three times more painful than giving birth although I have no idea how one might measure that). That being said, there are other ways to deal with it... I find that back pain over-the-counter medicine does quite a good job at relaxing the stomach muscles, which helps greatly. Kidney stones mostly occur in men, although women can get them as well... a lot of the pain is when trying to urinate but this can be mitigated if you just sit down (for some reason this is much easier than standing). If you are fortunate to live in a place where weed is legal, the CBD variety is also quite useful. Some kidney stones are too big to pass readily through the urinary tract. If you find it is taking very long (weeks) you should go to a hospital to get them blasted out... they will perform an ultrasound and blast them into little pieces so that they can pass through. Be forewarned though, sometimes it takes more than one attempt. Also, sleeping on your side can cause issues, so try to sleep on your back as much as possible.
If you don't have a malfunctioning parathyroid, the usual cause is diet and most doctors will recommend that you cut out things like cheese.
If you have any questions, I might be able to help.
I got my first one when I was only 18 but didn't get another one for over a decade, then they started coming much more rapidly.
