Kidney Stones Support Group

You know, I am scared my Dr is going to put me on this same diet. I will then have chronic pain every day and no good foods to comfort me. blah.
I am not sure about your theory. For me, I know I never drank enough water. That combined with the foods I was eating may have caused my stones. (Bilateral).
are others in your family affected? No one in my family has them so I can't point fingers at my genetics though I would love to have an actual reason for these little terrors.

Hi, I have had stones for yrs ,too. I have to watch oxalate foods mostly.
Greens, Beets, tea ect and on and on and on. Used to be calcium but they changed that a long time ago. It can get really frustrating because I am a diabetic as of last year so that just adds to it.
I think that we don't eat like they used to years ago , of course , and now everything is soooo processed. Some people aren't active as they used to be either. Not meaning you , of course. But you have a good thought here.

I too would have those strange pains followed by a "kidney infection" for years. Then finally, Jan. 2001, I was hospitalized with a 8 mm plus that was "shutting down" my left kidney. After an emergency stent/stone removal they found that both my kidneys were "full' of stones. After trying to follow the "oxalate" diet, multiple lithrotipsies every year, more hosptital/ER vistits than I can count and passing more & more stones regularly my husband took me to the director of stone disease at Hopkins - 4 hours from home. I since had 2 parathyroids removed (they caused most of the oxalate stones) and take medication (regulated with 48 urine test) I am no longer making stones and I am able to eat whatever I want with or without oxalate - Thank god! My new doc also performed 4 percutaneous nephrolithotomy (they cut the back and suck out the stones) getting rid of the "hundreds of the bigger stones" so now I just have to pass the lil' ones - as if they didn't hurt. Because the local urologists did not know what they were doing (saw over 25 locally before we found Hopkins) my kidneys and uruter are now over-sensatized from passing so many stones. Although I am still passing the lil' ones on a regular basis, I know it could be a LOT worse had my husabnd not stepped up and found me a real doc. Had we done that 7 years ago I could have prevented all the pain I am in today. Please don't be quick to accept everything you here from a doc - they are human as well and no matter how good they may be, all humans make mistakes. My advice, find a doc that "specializes in stone disease" before you too have 2 kidneys full of stones. I hope this helps! Hugs to all!

I live in the south, and I believe that a lot of southerners get stones because they drink so much "darn" (lol I am not THAT country) Iced tea which is full of it. I dont like tea, so thats not my problem. I have tried all the diets. The doctors just tell me more people are prone to them than others. When I get my lithotripsy I will finally be able to see what mine are made of and I will be able to treat them better. This last time, I did feel like I was starting my menstrual and stabbing me in the back at the same time. So it was all around the left side of my body, and I felt like I was going to die. I was balled up on the floor for 2 hours until my mom got me here to get me to the ER. Then I had to wait 2 hours to be seen, puking my guts out and had a high fever. Also, some of the sharper pains did feel like gas, but I only had gas pains when I was pregnant, and your mother was probably thinking of those pains. Because they are not pleasant in any way. It makes you feel like you are going into preterm labor. But my experience is, this last kidney stone, kicked labor in it's butt twice. It hurt so much more. I don't think I've ever hurt so bad or cried so hard. I had a panic attack because I thought something was rupturing in my body. I have stones in both of my kidneys, and have for as long as I can remember. Does anyone else in your family have stones, failure, or anything of that nature dealing with kidneys? The urologists seem to think it runs in family. My dad went into renal failure at 4 years old, only one of his kidneys survived. My brother started passing stones at 12. So, maybe you should research your family history, see if anyone's had any kidney problems, and see if there was a certain treatment that worked for them. Sugar free lemonade seems to help some and if you can just not stand to drink water like myself, I buy bottled Aquafina/Dasani/Kroger brand whatever and get Crystal light packets. They are sugar free and only 5 calories. I haven't been eating much protein lately because my urine has been very foamy and I read up online that it could be something called Proteinua (sorry I dont know if I spelled that correctly) and that could be causing my stones, and Cran Grape juice because I can not stand straight cranberry, but I do take A-ZO cranberry every day religiously and I have not had an UTI in 2 years since beginning it. Now kidney infections and stones on the other hand have not went away no matter what I do. How did you find out what kind yours are? Have you strained them before? Or had surgeries? I'm new to this group too, but I'm so glad I found it so I can connect with other people who go through thesamethings I do and other people are always like "Gosh is something always wrong with you?" I pass stones at least twice weekly. Most of the time I don't even notice because they are so small. I've had them ranging from less than a millimeter to almost 2cm. So I feel for you. I am here if you want to talk! I am just so excited to find out what they are made of so hopefully I can make them less frequent. I am going for my first lithotripsy July 18th and am kinda anxious. Good luck to you! Add me as a friend.