I Have Had Kidney Stones
When I was about 10 years old I woke up at a friend's house feeling really really sick. The pain lasted for days, and only after it stopped did the doctor tell me I had probably had a kidney stone, though not a very large one. This seemed odd, since I was very healthy, drank more than enough water, and very young. The doctor thought it was genetics, since my grandmother has had 17 kidney stones. A couple years later I woke up screaming in the middle of the night, writhing in more pain than I thought possible. The pain was on the right side of my back, and like nothing I'd ever experienced before. I tried to take ibuprofen, but I couldn't keep it down long enough for it to work. I couldn't even drink water without throwing up. The next morning, still in excruciating pain, I went to the doctor. I tested negative for kidney disease, so they sent me to a hospital downtown to receive proper care. The hour drive to the hospital was the longest hour I've ever experienced. I was already in so much pain that I didn't even notice the nurses sticking an IV into the back of my hand, pumping pain meds and fluids into me. I sat through many miserable hours of X-rays, ultra sounds, and CT scans. What made it bearable was how incredibly nice the hospital staff were. On one CT scan they finally found the stone, since it did not show up on X-rays. It was 5mm in diameter, making it a very large stone in comparison to average cases. I stayed in the hospital for a week until I was able to go home with a pharmacy's worth of pain meds. I have gotten another kidney stone since then, but nothing like that one. I was the youngest person to check into that hospital with a kidney stone, ever.
