I had one about 8 months ago and it was a 6mm stone the was stuck in my kidney. I found out about it after waking up 2-3 times in pain that was so intense that I was sweating and about to pass out.
I see the urologist and lithotripsy shockwave therapy was not recommended due to the size. So then I'm admitted to the hospital and put me to sleep and go after it with a cystoscopy/laser procedure. This consists of putting a long flexible tube with a laser on the end of it, up your junk all the way into your kidney and they blast it to pieces with the laser and vacuum out the pieces. When you wake up the pain isn't to bad UNTIL they require you to pee before leaving the hospital. DAMN IT, it literally feels like pissing a stream of gas, that's on fire, with sand in it.
If that isn't bad enough, they leave a plastic tube called a stent left in place from your kidney to your bladder. This allows the ureter tube to heal and makes it easier to pass any leftover fragments. The tube is very uncomfortable at first but after a few days I really didn't notice it. There is a string tied to the end of it and it hangs out of your urethra (pee hole) ) and the end of the string is taped to your junk and you leave it in for 4-6 days. Deep breath here.....at the end of the 4-6 days you go back in the office for stent removal. I laid on a table undressed from the waist down and a nurse comes in and on a 1..2..3.. count she pulls the string and out comes a 12-15 inch plastic hose, along with a burning, painful pressure that feels like a hot pencil being pulled through your junk. The good news is I actually had the string removal method. The other method involves using the flexible cystoscopy (that's a little smaller than the diameter of a pencil) that is inserted in covered in a numbing jelly , you guessed it, your junk. It has a claw device on the end of it and they grab the end of the stent and remove the scope and stent as one piece.
I was told that eating a high sodium diet and dehydration led to mine and believe me, I have made some huge changes in my diet to avoid that procedure again. Smaller stones can be crushed with shockwave therapy but you still have some pain if the fragments are larger that 1mm.
I see the urologist and lithotripsy shockwave therapy was not recommended due to the size. So then I'm admitted to the hospital and put me to sleep and go after it with a cystoscopy/laser procedure. This consists of putting a long flexible tube with a laser on the end of it, up your junk all the way into your kidney and they blast it to pieces with the laser and vacuum out the pieces. When you wake up the pain isn't to bad UNTIL they require you to pee before leaving the hospital. DAMN IT, it literally feels like pissing a stream of gas, that's on fire, with sand in it.
If that isn't bad enough, they leave a plastic tube called a stent left in place from your kidney to your bladder. This allows the ureter tube to heal and makes it easier to pass any leftover fragments. The tube is very uncomfortable at first but after a few days I really didn't notice it. There is a string tied to the end of it and it hangs out of your urethra (pee hole) ) and the end of the string is taped to your junk and you leave it in for 4-6 days. Deep breath here.....at the end of the 4-6 days you go back in the office for stent removal. I laid on a table undressed from the waist down and a nurse comes in and on a 1..2..3.. count she pulls the string and out comes a 12-15 inch plastic hose, along with a burning, painful pressure that feels like a hot pencil being pulled through your junk. The good news is I actually had the string removal method. The other method involves using the flexible cystoscopy (that's a little smaller than the diameter of a pencil) that is inserted in covered in a numbing jelly , you guessed it, your junk. It has a claw device on the end of it and they grab the end of the stent and remove the scope and stent as one piece.
I was told that eating a high sodium diet and dehydration led to mine and believe me, I have made some huge changes in my diet to avoid that procedure again. Smaller stones can be crushed with shockwave therapy but you still have some pain if the fragments are larger that 1mm.