Kidney Stones and Goathead Weeds
April 20, 2021 by Kristy
Well, to say I have had a rough week, would be an understatement! I have learned throughout my life that when I need to be laser focused on something – Some unexpected event ALWAYS happens that causes me to Stop, Collaborate and Listen. Thanks Vanilla Ice for the right words and context. Last week that is what happened to me. I know you all thought, I fell off the planet and that was what happened. The gravity is barely holding me here! Tuesday my back started hurting and by dinnertime, the pain was pretty severe. I spent the night huddled in a ball on the floor next to the porcelain throne or pacing back and forth through my house or sitting in my bathtub with the jet pointed directly on my kidney, in as hot of water as a scorched piece of firewood could stand before succumbing to the flames.
I am not a foreigner to this type of pain. I have had other encounters with this “praying to die” type of experience. I just thought that I would never have to experience this again. And to be honest I am pretty pissed that I have to endure through this pain, yet again.
Have you ever stepped on a goathead? The more common name of the weed that produces a goathead is Bindii weed. It is a weed that grows these terrible vines and then out of nowhere a little sharp puncture seedpod that has thorns that pierce through your skin like a jagged piece of glass attack you. It hurts to step on goatheads! It seems like an evil thing and when you step on a goathead you know it is an evil thing, one if its common nicknames is Devil’s Weed, well duh! It is difficult to appreciate the fact that the bindii plant helps to naturally increase testosterone. In that moment you do not care, because it hurts so bad!
A Goathead is what I have growing in my kidney. Not really- but kidney stone pain feels very similar to stepping on a goathead – only worse, way worse! Especially as the stones have to pass from your kidney into the little tubes, called ureters. When I think of stones, I think of nice rounded smooth rocks that I watch my husband skip across the lake on a calm day. Kidney stones are NOT round smooth rocks, they are usually very jagged like the goathead weeds. Sometimes – well most times as the kidney stones pass through the ureters, they catch and poke into your ureter. Sometimes the stones will get jammed sideways, and it is painful.
The next issue is the size of the kidney stone. Most stones are about the size of a small grain of rice. Stones can get bigger, and they can break up into sand size particles. I personally have had 4 stones in my life now. I am not a proud member of this club. About 12 years ago is when I had my first experience with kidney stones. James and I went to Kansas City. As we were driving around the city I was in the backseat of the car “praying to die”. I recall the pain was so intense I legitimately thought I was dying. Then all of the sudden the pain stopped, and I was fine. It was the weirdest thing, and I did not really know what happened. A few weeks after getting back from KC, I began having some other bladder issues that prompted me to go into the doctor. It turned out that I had two kidney stones. My smaller stone, which was 7.5mm was in my bladder. That experience in the backseat of the car that I just described was me passing that 7.5mm stone from my kidney to my bladder. The larger stone was 12 mm, which is about the size of a golf ball. When the urologist and I were looking at the CT Scan of the two kidney stones we could not believe what we were staring at. The big stone was taking up most of my kidney.
I ended up having to have two different surgeries to get those stones removed. First, I had a Ureteroscopy, which is where they use a ureteroscope to go in through your urethra to pull the stone out. Not a fun experience, whatsoever. And then about 5 days later I had Lithotripsy, which is where they put a machine on your back where the kidney is located, and they beat the stone into smaller pieces that are small enough for you to pass. Neither of those surgeries were what I wanted but they were necessary for me to be able function. A few months after these two surgeries I ended up having a small rice size stone that I passed, I think it was a residual stone from the lithotripsy. I thought my days of kidney stones were over.
About 3 years after these three kidney stones, I had a CT Scan for another issue and I had zero kidney stones in the CT Scan images. My urologist was amazed and asked me how I didn’t have any stones. I explained that I became a “VISCO GIRL” and that I carried a stainless-steel water bottle and straw everywhere that I went now. Droughts were now caused entirely by me because I was always drinking water. I have a very low tolerance for caffeine and so I have never been a soda drinker or someone that lives off of energy drinks. It actually kind of makes me mad that I have had kidney stone issues because seriously I drink water and lots of it. It just isn’t fair.
I felt so happy that I had overcome my Kidney Stone problems. Or so I thought – up until last week when I received a CT Scan confirmation that I have a 4.5mm Kidney stone in my right Kidney. My ureter is only 3mm, so to pass this stone – I am going to have to STRETCH. Again, I have passed a stone that was 7.5mm from my kidney to my bladder, so it is entirely possible for me to pass this guy. But when I do it is going to be painful. And one of the worst parts of passing a kidney stone is that it enters the ureter when it wants to. I have no control over when it chooses to get sucked into the drain. The only control I can have – is IF I choose to move forward and have another ureteroscopy. I don’t want to do that, and I don’t want to have to endure through more episodes of pain. So, what do I do? What would you do???
