Ureteroscopy

i have had stones all my life, passed many normally, been hospitalized for 7, traditional lithotripsy 1 time and last week URETEROSCOPY lithotripsy. The most recent procedure was a breeze as I was under general Anastasia but the week following was terrible. The pain and discomphirt if a stent was close to unbearable. The meds helped but urination was painful enough to not want to drink water but the more I drank the less painful it was. Stent removal was 5 days later at my request and was a 10 second band aid off procedure. I felt better immediately.

2 hrs later and about every 6 hrs I experience lots of pain in the area where the stone was. Lots of spasms and Advil seems to help but Norco is needed. I’m not sure if this is normal to experience this after pain, of course the Drs office is closed today. If anyone has experienced this type of after stent removal pain spasms and regular pain please advise on how you treated and how long after your stent removal you experienced these symptoms.

Wow, what a great site! I am a 31 year-old otherwise-healthy female who unfortunately has kidney stones. My first experience with them was 3 years ago, when I passed a 7mm stone. The stone first moved just a bit, and it hurt only temporarily. I went to see the doctor, who told me I had a UTI (there was a urine infection). My husband interjected and asked for an Xray. The doctor then saw that it was indeed a kidney stone, and that it would likely make its way out soon. He sent me home with T3s and antibiotics. The next day, the stone did attempt to come out… worse pain of my life. About the same amount as a drug-free childbirth. I kept vomiting and obviously couldn’t keep the T3s down. After a few hours, hubby took me to the ER, where they gave me, at triage, a suppository (can’t remember the name) for the pain. This helped a lot, but unfortunately, as the pain was now controlled, made me wait 8h until I saw a doctor (I live in Canada, by the way). All their machines were turned off for the night (except for ’emergencies’), so they gave me Dilaudid and more suppositories, and told me to go home; that they would do a CT scan in the coming days. I lived off those drugs until the CT revealed the stone was blocking the ureter, and I had hydroneprhosis of the right kidney. Saw the urologist a few days later. He seemed quite unconcerned and booked me for a ureteroscopy/ lithrolipsy for 3 weeks from then! About a week before the surgery, the stone passed on its own.
Anyway, I recently had an u/s which revealed I have stones in the kidney again, and and the urologist was nice enough to offer me a ureteroscopy/ lithrolipsy to remove them. The surgery will likely be in November. Like for most other posters, he downplayed the amount of pain I will be in, and told me I’ll probably be able to return to work within 1 or 2 days. I’m just terrified of things going badly and being treated like just a number again (at the bottom of the pile). I’m interested in everyone’s experience, but particularly in those of other Canadians- how they’ve been dealt with through our medical system…

Just starting this process after 4 days of pain, E.R.visits and X-rays. My doctor has left the choice up to me, Ureteroscopy or shock wave lithotripsy. After reading all of your posts,(thankyou for scaring the hell out of me!) I’m going with the lithotripsy for a 6mm stone and hope it resolves this most painful time in the 54 years I’ve been alive. Accepting well wishes and prayers at this time. P.S. OOOUUUCCCHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a 35 year old male with a high tolerance for pain. This has been one of the worst weeks of my life. It began with the tell tale pain in my back associated with kidney stones. So I ate 2 Aleve and started drinking water. It usually takes me a couple of hours to pass a stone. This time was very different. After a couple hours I could even urinate, and the pain was building. So I went to the ER. After a few hours of being treated like a junky, or something they did an ultrasound. Turns out both of my ureters were blocked with stones. Had to have emergency surgery. This is were the real misery began. The placed a stent in both sides, and sent me home. Now I am at home 8 days later. My urine is the color of red wine. My back still hurts like it did when I went in. I haven’t been off the toilet for more than 20 minutes due to the constant need to urinate. And when I do urinate the pain is excruciating my eyes begin to water and I drop to my knees. Went back to the hospital and the shot me up with pain relievers that eased the pain for a while and then sent me home. Today woke up in the same agony so I called the urologist, but he is unavailable until next week. I am really out of options, and do not know what to do.

I have to stay I have so happy today when my stent came out. It was not painful at all. It was a poke and some breathing in and out then it was done. The worst part of this experience is the stent inside of you. What work was sitting in some hot water and pain medication. In recovery mode now and bearing this pain made me tough and even with the lots of tears I cried for 1 week. Stay strong you can handle it just breath in and out!

Hi I am suffering before 15 days kidney stones pain I approached to doctor. He say… Stone is sticked in uretera pipe. So he do ureterscopy lythoskipy operation… But I having plassed one Stent in right ureter. But small pain from operation. So after 6 weeks removing process. Still Stent remove time pain is staying???? This is my doubt. Please help me any one.

I had or may still have a 1/2″ jagged kidney stone in my left kidney – my urologist said it would never pass on its own. I have never had a stone before. I had the lithiotripsy on Friday (7/31). Had a fair amount of pain afterwards but was sent home with some pain meds. I was home about an hour or so and all of sudden started having IMMENSE, EXCRUCIATING pain and constant vomiting. Was on the bathroom floor crying it hurt so bad. Called the doctor and he said to go to the ER. So, we did that. Got into a room at the ER fairly quickly and asked for pain meds. Still in tremendous pain and vomiting. After several “interviews” by two different doctors, nurse and physician’s assistant thay gave me morphine via IV. THAT finally helped subside the pain. Then, about 90 min later the pain came back and they gave me another dose of morphine. Doctors decided to do an xray to see what was going on because they were certain the stone had not passed. Afterwards, they said the stent had moved a bit and that’s what was giving me all the pain. The stent was irritating the inside of the kidney. Hmmm …. OK. Ended up staying overnight in the hospital. Next morning, my urologist came to the hospital and said that the ER doctors didn’t really know what was going on and that the stent was probably “settling in”, in my body, and that is what caused the pain. He said, sometimes, the body wants to reject these things. OK. All of that pain STILL felt like what, I think, a kidney stone must feel like when you pass it. But the doctor said it is too big to have even gone into the stent. I have been in a LOT of pain for the past 6 days (today is #7), with abdomen, kidney and back pains. The pressure from the stent is terrible. Absolutely terrible. I take the Flomax once a day (as prescribed) and it does help for about 4 hours. I also take the Ditropan (sp?) – one every 8 hours – and that helps, only a little. One day was so bad I doubled up on the Ditropan because I couldn’t stand the pain/pressure. Last night I used a heating pad on my abdomen and that helped a lot to ease some pain. I go for the UKB x-ray on Monday (8/10) to see if anything has passed and see my urologist on Tuesday to verify if any has or hasn’t. If it has, he’ll take the stent out (hallelujah!) and, if not, he’ll do the lithotripsy on Friday (two weeks after my first procedure). I am dreading this, again, and hope I don’t end up in the ER again. I never ever want to go through this again.

i just had a stent placed two days ago. The plan is to wait 2 weeks and do lithotripsy on my one 2 cm stone in my left kidney. I am in so much pain that I cannot sit up – only lie on my right side. And this is with pain medication, my question is this: will this get any better? Or will I feel like this for 2 weeks?

My journey began on July 3rd. I had been having lower back pain for 3 days before I finally decided to go to the hospital. I knew it was kidney stones as I have had them before. I figured I would go in, get an x-ray, and get sent home with pain meds and instructions to chug water until I passed my stone.
It was not that easy. I arrived with a high temp of 103. Within minutes I had blood drawn,iv inserted then off for a cat scan. Finally the pain shot that took the pain away. Waiting for results I got another pain shots. Hey, I didn’t mind waiting, my pain was gone and I was a little loopy.
In comes the doc.. You need to go and have a Stent put In as soon as possible, you are sepsis (blood infection). The stone was blocking my urethra and causing my urine to sit and caused the infection. I was booted to the top of the list to get my stent. I was fully awake with shots of fentenal(sp) to keep the pain under control. My Stent came out my back and I now had a pee bag ( I’m sure there is a more technical term, but that’s what it was). I was still able to urinate by myself but also my bag collected urine. Pain was horrible. I couldn’t get comfortable and it was horrific pain. The morphine didn’t do much besides knock me down to a 6/7 on the pain scale.
I spent 4 days in the hospital. I was finally sent home with 2 weeks worth of antibiotics, stool softeners, and percocet. Taking the percocet and some motrin I was able to keep my pain under control. 2 weeks later I had the above surgery.
In recovery I learned that I had more than the 2 stones I had thought(the second wasn’t giving me problem but he was going to remove it anyways) I had a bunch. Doc said it was over 30. I also had my back Stent removed with a new one inserted internally. I had to go to bathroom and my hole leaked urine all over myself. I was literally standing in a puddle of my own pee. But overall I felt pretty good. Still needed the pain pills but it was an improvement. The Stent made me urinate a lot and I felt heavy pressure,but nothing like the back Stent.
Today, a week after surgery I had my stent removed. I was numb and the whole process took about 2 minutes. I was then informed that I had more stones in my other kidney. My options were to keep an eye on them, seeing the doc every two weeks and including x-rays, or do the surgery on my other kidney. With me going sepsis and feeling like I was going to die, I opted for surgery. This whole situation will have had me laid up for 6 weeks total.
What I don’t understand and maybe someone here can answer is why the doc couldn’t remove the stones from my other kidney while he was already there. I am starting to feel like I am a money maker for this doctor.

I had this pain, off and on since march, usually at 2-4 am. Without injection it never was tolerable. So I manage to get injection kid from friends and inject myself when the pain caugh up. This time in july dr suggest me URSL and I am ready for it, done with the procedure. Post surgery I am ok in terms of the pain bt its 5 days since the surgery, I still pass red urine. I also have no idea how long is the stent , and how painful it be when remove. Any comment on my case. Thank you.

I had my first lithotripsy on 5/5 for 3 large stones blocking my kidney. 2 were successfully shattered and I had a stent placed. It wasn’t overly painful afterwards, just took time to get used to the stent (bladder irritation) and the constant need to go to the bathroom. I walked around like a little old lady for the better part of 2wks lol. I took pain meds at bedtime the first couple nights, and an OTC UTI medication for the first 48hrs to help with the irritation. I also used essential oils topically to the kidney area, in addition to the heating pad, which helped a lot with discomfort and reduced my need for pain meds. It took me about 2wks to get used to the stent, be able to go 2hrs between bathroom trips, and feel back to normal. They removed the stent at 2wks 2 days and I passed 5 fragments at 3wks post-lithotripsy.

I just had my second lithotripsy on 6/29 (yes, 2 days ago) for the remaining stone. I wasn’t supposed to have a stent this time but because my ureter tore where it connects to the kidney, they had to place one to help it heal. I was very determined to have a different experience this time. When I got home from the hospital I took a sitz bath with soothing and healing essential oils and also took 2 cranberry capsules. In addition to that I applied some essential oils topically to the kidney area, and made a capsule of various essential oils to take internally, to assist in healing. I took another sitz bath before bedtime and almost felt normal at that point, and could actually walk normally. By the next morning I felt really good. I took another sitz bath and 2 cranberry capsules for good measure, made another essential oil capsule, and applied some more essential oils to my kidney area. I felt good enough to work for 5hrs (usually do 4hrs, but no lifting for 2wks, due to the injury). This is something I couldn’t have done after the last one. I am 2 days post-lithotripsy and already feel like I did at the 2wk point last time!! I haven’t even taken any pain pills or UTI meds, or used the heating pad, at all this time!!! This time, from the first day, I could already go a couple hours between bathroom trips, which is huge for me. They told me I could remove the stent after 3 days but I can’t even tell it’s in there so will probably leave it longer so the ureter can heal. I wish I had done all these things the first time!! If someone had told me I could feel this good this soon after, I would have called them a liar.

To be honest, I have been one of the rare lucky ones. No pain with kidney stone passing. They found one still in the kidney that was 1.2 CM and decided because I am –let’s call it ‘fluffy’- that the laser lithotripsy would be the best. I had that done May 21-2015 and all went smoothly, no pain, and I never had to take the pain pills the Dr. gave me. I could feel the stent but it wasn’t overly problematic–its removal was very swift and easy.

What I am balking at is the ultrasound. Tomorrow I have to go in to get an ultrasound so they can check and make sure the kidney and ureter are not swollen. I’ve about had it with expensive medical procedures, medications and follow up appointments. Like most, it is appointment after appointment before anything gets done and I am just sick of it all at this point. Am hoping this ultrasound is the last of it.

I had ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy on June 5. My entire journey with this, the largest of my 3 kidney stones has been a nightmare from beginning to end. An early ER visit was a bust..only an urinalysis done, and so I had to jump through hoops, see two more doctors, get blood work and xrays, wait for results, for another 5 days to get my first stent placed. My stone is 1.5CM. My pain before the first stent was what I thought was level 9 or 10, and worse at night when I tried to lie down. But, I should have learned to crawl on all fours so the doctors would believe I was suffering. When I was seen…3 times, and in 3 different places my first week, they (except my urologist) were obviously not convinced I was in pain. I was generally loaded with ibuprofen, so I had no pain or low pain on exam. I enjoyed 2 weeks pain free with my first stend while waiting for lithotripsy. I figured after stone pain, that would be a piece of cake. Well, I had level 20 pain after my procedure, which started in recovery room. I got dosed several times with Fentanyl and finally with Torodol, enough so I could get my clothes on and get wheeled out the door. I should have been admitted for pain control. I endured the worst weekend of my life, ever (65 years old). I couldn’t eat, sleep, move, have a BM, and I could barely walk. I had NO pain control at home. The Oxycodone made it harder for me to walk but did not touch my pain. This is barbaric. Anyone who suffers a high level of pain in recovery room should be admitted for pain control, not shipped home. The only reason I did not go back to the hospital is because I would have had to go in an ambulance…I couldn’t have made it to my car in the driveway. And, I would have had to go to the ER, to the chaos, triage, and exposure to more illness, to get pain meds. My doctor could have just said he would directly readmit me. My pain did not decrease until late Sunday, 2 full days after my procedure. I plan to discuss this with my urologist today when he removes this ghastly stent. As a patient safety advocate I will now focus on this issue, and it is an issue. Nobody should have to suffer this kind of pain at home without effective pain medications or professional nursing help. There is a point where a “miminmally invasive ‘routine’ outpatient surgical procedure” becomes a huge difficulty for patients, and that is when they cannot get pain relief. There is no such thing as “routine” surgery.

Does anyone have any advice on alleviating the pain after this surgery? Any tips at all?

I had a 7mm kidney stone that was removed by ureteroscopy. I was just out of surgery and in a recovery room when I went to the bathroom to urinate and had so much pain I almost passed out. I have never felt such pain. I was then told that I would have some pain for the next week or so which made me burst into tears at the thought of going through such torture. That incident was the worst of the pain. However, pain continued all week. Severe cramping and lower back pain. I remember urinating a piece of red tissue, about the size of the very tip of my baby finger. It appeared to have been torn off. Because of the pain, the doctor took the stent out after 8 days. But it didn’t help at all. I made an appointment to see the doctor and he told me that I had a ureter the size of a child’s. Weeks went by and no improvement. Pain meds helped some, but it would not subside for a minute. I had some tests and all showed everything was ok. But the back and spasm pain continued. It’s been over 2 months and I am still recovering. I am fairly positive that my ureter was traumatized from the stent tube being too large. I am not sure if I will ever feel normal again.

Well I am scheduled for the Laser Litho Cysto Ureteroscopy with Stent Placement this coming Friday and, well after having read all this I am apprehensive. I have to have it done though because I am scheduled for a Gastric Bypass on June 9th and if I don’t get rid of this 6 x 7 x 15mm stone which is obstructing my left ureter I wont be able to have my bypass because the stone is causing back to back to back in fections. Please pray my procedures go as planned and I get the lesser of all the stories told here.

I was put on Flowmax at the ER on Saturday night. Had the stone removed this morning ( Thursday) and the only significant pain I have is a massive headache from the Flowmax. The headache is much worse than the kidney stone. I have taken 10mg Norco, and a Motrin. Still pounding. Has anyone else had this problem? For sure, I will not be taking any more Flowmax.

I had hydronephrosis of the right kidney due to a 5mm stone stuck midway down the ureter. Excruciating pain that seemed untouched by my Percocet sent me to the ER. My dr did laser lithotripsy and left a stent. Procedure went very well as I went from a pain level of 8 to almost nothing. This was yesterday and I have had no need for pain medication, not so much as a tylenol. I am sometimes aware of the stent, in my bladder or in my back, but it is just uncomfortable not painful. I do feel the need to urinate more frequently but it is not uncomfortable. Dr will remove the stent with a local anesthetic in a few days.

Yes, I had three stents because I have four ureters…..lucky me! Not all stones preventable as such many of us with the disease MSK. Recently had removed 25 stones and still recovering. Having had every type of stone removal procedure there is, in my battle with hundreds of stones, Ureteroscopy is the most sucessful but I cannot tolerate the lack of appropriate pain management and lack of attention to this important area. Make sure and discuss this prior with your physicians as well as an alternate plan post op other than going to the ER. Also inquire about avoiding stents…one physician ensured the stents were small (in diameter) and short, thus I did not have the same torment as I had suffered prior. One physician listened to me and we took the risk of not placing them and my recovery went great. This time the suffering from my three were unbearable so on the fifth day post op I pulled them.
Try to stay in control of your care and lean on others for support during these times.

I had a 4mm stone blasted in my right kidney. I had severe pain when initially passing the stone after surgery, then worse pain and discomfort caused from the stent and the absolute worst pain of my life after the stent removal continuous for another few days. The doctor did not send me home with any pain medication, I had to go back into hospital twice after surgery due to the pain and was then prescribed strong pain killers, I had to take them every 6 hours otherwise I was in complete agony. If anyone requires this procedure I would definitely ensure you give yourself at least 10 days to recover and definitely take the pain meds, even in the middle of the night. The mornings were the worst for me.

Just had two stones removed on left side with stent insertion. 4 hours after surgery I went home. Then the hell began. Horrible spasms and pain 10 times worse than kidney stone pain. Went to ER and got stronger pain meds. Went back home and pain was back. I pulled out stent myself because it had a string attached. About 6 hours of horrible cramping then the next day pain was 50 percent less. Stay on pain meds.

2/10/15 a 1.3mm stone got stuck in my left ureter. It was the worst pain I had ever had. The stone was pushed back into my kidney and a stent was placed. Yep, the stent is uncomfortable. On 3/13/15 I had holmium laser lithotripsy. The surgeon left multiple fragments and a new stent in place because it took too long to get it all out. I discovered that the gentle loving touch of my husband reduced my pain dramatically (seriously from and 8 to a 2)! I have used NO PAIN MEDICATIONS at all through this process. I am accepting this stent. I missed 3 days of work with the first stent. None with the second. I drink 3 L of water a day and take calcium citrate twice a day to bind the oxalate in my gut so it will pass in feces and not run through my kidneys. Calcium oxalate stones are preventable. I am on a low oxalate diet and I drink 1 lemon worth of lemonade a day. U Penn has a good list of oxalate containing foods. I am keeping the PH of my saliva and urine 6-7. Did your urologist ever tell you this is preventable???

Yesterday, I had an emergency ureteroscopy to remove a 11mm stone causing blockage. This was the worst pain I ever had for all of the stones I have had. I have had lithrotripsy about 5 times for prior stones.
I have no issue with the stent.
All I really wanted to say is that given the options, I would take the lithrotripsy. It was less pain and no stint to remove later. I did not have a choice yesterday. There was no lithro machines available.

I will be having one left-side stent removed one week after yesterday’s procedure. Very painful left kidney urination. No bleeding, though. I am a little more apprehensive about the stent removal since it will be removed through my penis.

I wanted to share my experince with ureteroscopy and lithrotripsy for stones in both kidneys, with stents in both kidneys. I was quite apprehensive after reading some of these posts but wanted to educate myself and be prepared for the worst going into the procedure. I had an 11 mm and 6 mm stones with multiple smaller stones in my right kidney, and an 11 mm stone with multiple smaller stones in my left kidney. I never had any kidney stone problem prior and they were only discovered when I had an xray on my back for low back pain. I had a CT scan which confiremd the stones and showed that I have medullary sponge kidney as well as a left kidney which is split in two pieces. My doctor recommended removing the stones so as not to cause future problems. This was done on 2/6/15. The procedure itself was done under general anesthesia. I woke up with a terrible headache from the anesthesia which lasted for 24 hours. I also woke up with a terrible urge to uriniate which never left for the entire week that I had the stents in. The stents were the worst part of my experience. I never passed any stones as the doctor was able to remove all of them during the procedure. And while the stents themselves were not what I would call extremely painful, they were very uncomfortable and it was difficult to sit or walk without feeling them. I had them in for a week and by the end of the week, I was at the point were I was reluctant to go to the bathroom as it caused pain to shoot up into my left kidney when urinating. My right kidney never bothered me the entrie week post procedure, but my left one did. I had a lot of discomfort in my left side. I used Percocet for the first few days, then OTC meds for the rest of the week since I had to go back to work. I had very bright red urine for 5 days afterwards, and then lighter red urine until 1 day after the stents were removed. They were removed after one week in the doctor’s office with no pain meds. It didn’t hurt at all when they were removed – all I felt was an enormous sense of relief to have them out and my symptoms of pain and discomfort cleared almost immediately. I was still a little sore and had some blood in my urine for about one more day, but then it cleared up and I have been fine since. So. my expereince probably wasn’t as bad as many of those shared on here, but I certainly don’t want to ever have to go through it again. Especially the stents part, which I have to classify as “miserable.”