Constantly Having To Pee Little Drops
If you feel like you constantly have to pee, but can only squeeze out a little bit of urine at a time, it’s possible that a kidney stone is passing through the ureter, Kaufman says. When this happens, the stone irritates your bladder, making you feel like you have to go a lot and ofteneven if you dont. What’s more, if large enough, a stone can completely block the ureter, he says. This symptom warrants a call to the doc, even if you aren’t experiencing any other signs of kidney stones.
Sudden Urge To Urinate
If you find yourself suddenly needing to urinate or needing to urinate more frequently than normal, it may be a sign that a kidney stone has reached the lower portion of your urinary tract. Like cloudy urine, increased urgency is also associated with urinary tract infections, although with kidney stones, urgency can be present even without an infection.
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Who Is At Risk For Kidney Stones
Anyone may develop a kidney stone, but people with certain diseases and conditions or those who are taking certain medications are more susceptible to their development. Urinary tract stones are more common in men than in women. Most urinary stones develop in people 20 to 49 years of age, and those who are prone to multiple attacks of kidney stones usually develop their first stones during the second or third decade of life. People who have already had more than one kidney stone are prone to developing further stones.
In residents of industrialized countries, kidney stones are more common than stones in the bladder. The opposite is true for residents of developing areas of the world, where bladder stones are the most common. This difference is believed to be related to dietary factors. People who live in the southern or southwestern regions of the U.S. have a higher rate of kidney stone formation, possibly due to inadequate water intake leading to dehydration than those living in other areas. Over the last few decades, the percentage of people with kidney stones in the U.S. has been increasing, most likely related to the obesity epidemic.
A family history of kidney stones is also a risk factor for developing kidney stones. Kidney stones are more common in Asians and Caucasians than in Native Americans, Africans, or African Americans.
Uric acid kidney stones are more common in people with chronically elevated uric acid levels in their blood .
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What Does Kidney Pain Feel Like
Your kidneys are fist-sized organs shaped like beans that are located at the back of the middle of your trunk, in the area called your flank. They are under the lower part of your ribcage on the right and left sides of your backbone.
Their main job is to filter waste out of your blood and produce urine to remove that waste along with extra fluid from your body.
When your kidney hurts, it usually means theres something wrong with it. Its important to determine whether your pain is coming from your kidney and or from somewhere else so that you receive the right treatment.
Because there are muscles, bones, and other organs around your kidney, its sometimes hard to tell if its your kidney or something else causing your pain. However, the type and location of the pain and other symptoms you are having can help point to your kidney as the source of your pain.
Treatment Of Kidney Stones
For smaller kidney stones, pain relievers may be the only treatment needed. On average it takes five to seven days to pass a kidney stone, says Dr. Abromowitz. It may pass sooner. And if the stone is very high in the ureter, it can take up to two weeks.
Larger stones that block urine flow or cause infection may require surgery, such as:
- Shock-wave lithotripsy, a noninvasive procedure using high-energy sound waves to break stones into fragments that pass out in the urine
- Ureteroscopy, in which an endoscope is inserted through the ureter to retrieve or break up the stone
- Percutaneous nephrolithotomy or nephrolithotripsy, used for very large or irregularly shaped stones. For both procedures, a small incision is made in the back to provide access for a nephroscope, a miniature fiberoptic camera, and other small instruments. Your doctor then either removes the stone or breaks up and removes the stone .
For ongoingprevention of recurring kidney stones, your doctor may prescribe increasing fluid intake, changing diet, controlling weight, and taking medication.
To learn more about kidney stones, talk to your doctor or health care provider or search for a provider.
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Continue Learning About Kidney Stones
Important: This content reflects information from various individuals and organizations and may offer alternative or opposing points of view. It should not be used for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. As always, you should consult with your healthcare provider about your specific health needs.
Does Kidney Pain Feel Like A Pulled Muscle
As well we know that early treatment is important for any kidney problem before it becomes advanced and more difficult to treat. Kidney pain can be one of common symptoms when something goes awry with your kidneys. Unfortunately its not always easy to identify. Even sometime it may be mistakenly for back pain with minor underlying cause. Does it feel like a pulled muscle? How do we describe it?
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Editorial Sources And Fact
What Are The First Signs Of Kidney Stones
Identifying the early signs of kidney stones is very important. It may be easier to pass the stone, and also in order to prevent complications such as kidney or urinary tract infections and the forming of larger kidney stones that may be harder to pass.
Common kidney stone early symptoms may include:
- Painful urination, often with burning.
- Frequent urination, urgent need to go.
- Sudden, severe waves of pain in the back, lower back, belly, sides, front, lower abdomen pain or general abdominal pain.
- Blood in the urine .
- Nausea and vomiting.
- Cloudy or smelly urine.
- Fever and chills are usually a sign of a urinary tract infection or kidney infection.
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Kidney Stone Causes And Risk Factors
Both men and women can get kidney stones, but menâs chances of getting them are about double that of womenâs.
Itâs often hard to figure out what caused a kidney stone. But they happen when your urine has high levels of certain minerals. These include:
- Calcium
- Oxalate
- Uric acid
If you donât have enough urine in your body to water down the high concentration of minerals, stones can form. Think about stirring up your favorite drink from a powder mix. If you donât add enough liquid â say, water or juice â the powder will clump up and turn into hard, dry chunks.
Things that can raise your risk for kidney stones include:
- What you eat
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What Do Kidney Stone Symptoms Feel Like
You’re probably already aware that passing a kidney stone can be incredibly painful. Perhaps you’ve heard someone compare the pain to childbirth. Or maybe someone mentioned their experience with kidney stones completely recalibrated how they rate pain. Ouch.
But while the most-discussed kidney stone symptom is often the pain where it’s felt and how bad it can get it’s not the only symptom to be aware of.
“Kidney stones are fairly common and often painful, but they’re also treatable and even preventable,” says Dr. Chris Kannady, urologist at Houston Methodist. “If you think you might have a kidney stone, it’s important to see your doctor as soon as possible since delaying care for a kidney stone can lead to serious complications.”
But, when all you’ve heard about kidney stones is how much they hurt, how can you tell if your pain might be kidney stone pain?
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Urology At Tufts Medical Center Community Care
Tufts Medical Center Community Care is pleased to offer coordinated, community-based treatment to patients with kidney stones and other kidney disorders. Our team includes seasoned urologists who work hand-in-hand with primary care physicians and other specialists as necessary to ensure world-class care and support. And, with multiple easily accessible locations throughout north suburban Boston and prompt appointment availability, we make it simple to find relief from kidney stone pain. Contact Tufts Medical Center Community Care today to learn more.
Let Kidney Stones Pass
Stones typically take several weeks to a few months to pass, depending on the number of stones and their size. Over-the-counter pain medications, like ibuprofen , acetaminophen , or naproxen , can help you endure the discomfort until the stones pass. Your doctor also may prescribe an alpha blocker, which relaxes the muscles in your ureter and helps pass stones quicker and with less pain.
If the pain becomes too severe, or if they are too large to pass, they can be surgically removed with a procedure called a ureteroscopy. Here, a small endoscope is passed into the bladder and up the ureter while you are under general anesthesia. A laser breaks up the stones, and then the fragments are removed.
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What Kidney Stone Pain Feels Like And Where Youll Feel It
Not all kidney stone pain is the same. For example, the location of pain can change as the stone moves from the kidney to the bladder, says Lieske. When a stone is moving into the ureter, people may feel pain in their flank, or side, or their back, he says.
Notably, if the stone is stuck where the kidney connects to the ureter, the pain can be severe, says Ralph V. Clayman, MD, a professor in the department of urology at the University of California in Irvine. On a scale of 1 to 10, pain can be a 10, he says. There is no position in which the person is comfortable.
This type of pain has a tendency to come and go in 10- to 30-minute cycles. It can also radiate to the groin area and the front of the thigh, he adds.
Once the stone has moved down to the part of the ureter closer to the bladder, a person tends to have pain in the abdomen or groin, says Lieske. Men sometimes feel pain at the tip of their penis.
As the stone moves down the ureter, it can also mimic the pain of other conditions, says Clayman. For example, if the kidney stone is on the right side of the body, it may feel like appendicitis, or inflammation of the appendix. If the stone is on the left side, people may mistake the pain for diverticulitis, inflammation, or an infection within the small or large intestine, he says.
Fortunately, from this point, the stone can usually pass from the bladder out the urethra, which is typically twice the diameter of the ureter, says Clayman.
Kidney Stone Pain: Firsthand Recollections Of The Experience
Ive never had a kidney stone. I dont know what its like. Thats why I spent hours reading personal experiences to understand kidney stone pain better. Wikipedia told me the basics, and ArsTechnica, StraightDope, and Reddit gave me the personal stories and recollections that created an overall picture of how unpleasant and dreadfully painful kidney stones can be .
Was bad enough that I left the party and went to myoffice and spent a large part of the night rolling backand forth on the floor in my cube debating calling my ex to come get me. Sheended up laughing, then took me to the hospital. I still owe her for helpingme.
It was what I can imagine a knife stuck in my back beingtwisted all around would feel like.
A female nurse told me it’s the worst pain a man canever feel, because a man can’t go through labor. I had mine when I was 25 itlooked like a coffee grain. Before it passed, I literally thought I was goingto die. They gave me a morphine shot right in the vein, and it didn’t do athing. They followed that with Vicodin and I passed out. I woke up a few hourslater feeling just ok.
Someone told me that the pain from a kidney stone isclose to what a woman feels while having a baby. If that is true, I don’t blamethem at all for screaming.
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How Are Kidney Stones Treated
If you are diagnosed with a kidney stone, your treatment plan will vary according to the size of the stone, the stones makeup and what symptoms you are experiencing.
A small kidney stone that causes mild to moderate discomfort may be treated with the following approach:
- Drink plenty of water to help pass the stone by moving it through the urinary tract.
- Use pain-reliving medication such as Advil and Aleve to relieve discomfort.
- Take prescription alpha blocker medication to relax ureter muscles and help the kidney stone pass more comfortably.
Treating Renal Colic And Pain Management
See your doctor if you have symptoms of renal colic or urinary stones. Your doctor can do tests to look for increased levels of substances that form stones in your blood or urine. A CT scan can look for stones in your kidneys and other urinary organs.
If you have a large stone, your doctor can do one of these procedures to remove it and relieve renal colic:
- Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy : This procedure uses shock waves aimed at your kidneys to break up the stones into very small pieces. You then pass the stone fragments in your urine.
- Ureteroscopy: Your doctor inserts a thin, lighted scope up through your urethra and bladder to remove the stone.
- Percutaneous nephrolithotomy: This procedure uses tiny instruments inserted through a small cut in your back to remove a stone. You will be asleep during this procedure.
In the short term, your doctor will give you medicines to relieve the pain of renal colic. Options include:
- nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen
- drugs to prevent muscle spasms
- opioid medicines
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Is Kidney Stone Pain Worse When Lying Down
In some cases, the symptoms may be very subtle and build up slowly. In other cases, they may come on suddenly, with no early warning signs. This pain can be severe and may lead to nausea or vomiting, or both. People often experience sharp, stabbing pain, and common measures such as rest or lying down do not relieve it.
S For Coping With Labor
The good news is that there are a lot of ways to cope with pain during labor. There arent any wrong or right choices, just personal ones. Methods include:
Remember, you learn more pain-fighting techniques during childbirth class than exist for broken bones. Combat fear of pain during labor by taking a childbirth preparation class, so you can learn techniques to use during labor and practice them.
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Symptoms Of Kidney Stones
Small kidney stones may go undetected and be passed out painlessly in the urine. But itâs fairly common for a stone to block part of the urinary system, such as the:
- ureter the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder
- urethra the tube urine passes through on its way out of the body
A blockage can cause severe pain in the abdomen or groin and sometimes causes a urinary tract infection .
Read more about the symptoms of kidney stones.
Whats The Outlook For Kidney Stones
The outlook for kidney stones is very positive, although there is a risk of recurrence . Many kidney stones pass on their own over time without needing treatment. Medications and surgical treatments to remove larger kidney stones are generally very successful and involve little recovery time.
Its possible to get kidney stones multiple times throughout your life. If you keep developing kidney stones, your healthcare provider may work with you to discover why the stones happen. Once the cause is found, you may be able to make dietary changes to prevent future stones.
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Where Is Kidney Stone Pain Located
The sharp pain associated with a kidney stone moves as the stone progresses through your urinary tract. The most common places to feel pain are in your:
- Lower abdomen or groin
- Along one side of your body, below your ribs
- Lower back
However, while pain is certainly the most noticeable symptoms of kidney stones, it’s not always the earliest sign or even the most telling sign, for that matter.
“The pain associated with a kidney stone typically isn’t felt until after its already formed and is passing through your urinary tract,” explains Dr. Kannady. “In addition, due to differences in anatomy, men and women describe kidney stone pain slightly differently. Not to mention that pain itself is relative and everyone has a different threshold for it.”
Plus, the intensity of the pain isn’t necessarily a measure of how problematic the kidney stone might be or become. Smaller stones that are likely to pass on their own can still be very painful. And not every kidney stone that requires medical intervention comes with gut-wrenching pain.
“Any time you’re experiencing pain, it’s important to see your doctor. But if you’re experiencing pain, even if it’s only mind, in combination with the kidney stone symptoms above and, in particular, if you have a fever or severe trouble urinating it’s definitely important to see your doctor,” warns Dr. Kannady.