So, You've Had Kidney Stones Too...

Like the Kennedy assassination, the landing on the moon, the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, or the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, everyone who has had a kidney stone remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when they experienced the agony of that first stone. If you are at all like me, it was a life-altering event.

Maybe that first stone was the only one you have had; however, it is much more likely that you have experienced that excruciating pain and terror on multiple occasions and you live in constant fear that it will occur again. In the immortal words of our 42^nd President, “I feel your pain.”

It is virtually impossible to fully describe the process of managing and passing a kidney stone to someone who has not had this experience. Every adjective available has been used, but none quite fit the bill. To say that having a kidney stone is similar to the pain of labor and delivery for a pregnant woman does both the pregnant woman and the kidney sufferer a disservice as each is quite different and unique in its own right.

Kidney stone sufferers learn to redefine their own concept of pain. Over the past 15-20 years, physicians and hospital emergency rooms have attempted to standardize the concept of pain through the use of the 10-point “smiley face” pain scale. Since there is nothing beyond “10”, most kidney sufferers understand a “10” to be the pain they experience during the roughest parts of the kidney stone process. Consequently, while we may suffer significant pain from other conditions, illnesses, or accidents, rarely can we describe that pain much higher than a “5” or “6” on the pain scale. In other words, the pain of say, a broken leg for a non-kidney stone sufferer may rate a “10” for them; but it is highly unlikely that anyone having experienced a kidney stone will rate that same pain much higher than “6” when comparing this pain to that experienced during a kidney stone episode.

This blog is the companion to my forthcoming book "Knock Out Kidney Stones...Forever: The Stone Sufferers Guide to Eliminating Stones and Stone Pain." Check back with us regularly for up-to-the-minute research, information on clinical trials, information on kidney stones in general and "stuff" just for fun.

I would like to encourage your to join our blog and post your comments and or questions. I will do my best to respond to as many posts as I can. Maybe you have new information that would be of help to all of us; maybe you'd like to share a personal experience. Like it or not, we are all a member of an exclusive club that people who haven't had a stone just can't quite understand. When we speak with another stone sufferer, we know exactly what language they are speaking - because we've been there. So join, share your thoughts, and share the blog with others you know. I'd like you to think of this as your blog, and I look forward to making new friends and learning new things.

You can also follow us on twitter and Facebook. Please take a moment to participate in our latest poll. This week we are trying to get an idea of how old our readers were when they experienced their first kidney stone. Your participation is appreciated.

Until next time...Cheers!